I was 10 years old when I decided I wanted to train Pepsi. She was a collie mix of some sort, and probably about 10 years old. Sweet and docile with a willingness to please, she also had a couple of limitations. She was in fact, blind and deaf. She was not born that way, but age had taken it’s toll on her. If I had started when I was older I might have been daunted by the thought of trying to train a 10 year old blind and deaf dog. But being 10 years old, I didn’t understand anything about that. I just knew that I loved to train dogs.
When we were done, she was trained by touch. I accomplished alot with that old girl, but not only did I accomplish a lot with her, she TAUGHT me a lot. Even in dogs, limitations only occur if we place them on ourselves.
Since that time, I’ve worked with several deaf/blind or both dogs. There is also wonderful new technology that can help. For instance, the electronically controlled collar with a vibrate function on it. These collars can make it much easier to communicate with a dog that cannot hear. For instance, we can teach the dog to respond to the vibrate collar. For a deaf only dog, he can be taught to find his owner when the vibration occurs. Once he finds or turns towards the owner, hand signals can be given.
One thing to remember when working with a deaf dog, is that they need signals for every word. I teach them a hand signal for “good”, “No”, and a release cue. Sometimes it’s hard to remember to give the actual visual cue for these “side commands” because we’re so used to just telling our dogs they’re good. But even a deaf dog needs to be praised, and a visual cue can do this. (I use a thumbs up sign for “good boy”).
Whenever we’re dealing with any dog who is physically challenged, it’s important to remember that they can in fact adapt quite well and will usually use their other senses. A blind dog for instance can still use their nose. So it might be a good idea to put a drop of scented oil on the baseboard corners of walls or large pieces of furniture to help the dog smell where he is going.
Again, they’re only as limited as we make them! As with so many other things, we have a lot of lessons to learn from dogs!
Having them expect “touch” commands can help in later years, should they lose their hearing with age.
Presently, I am training a dog who is going blind. I am going to use different scents to indicate various things to her. The canine nose is amazing. At times I want to use scent commands for non-physically challenged dogs
It is easier to train older dogs who are used to one method of commands to switch over to another should they start to lose their eyesight or hearing. The challenge is to work with those who “see” the world differently than we do from the get go.