Maybe she can't hear. (sorry long)

[Parka]

Happy new year to everyone!

We have recently adopted sweet little Lilly girl who has now been with us for 3 weeks and has had a very difficult start in life. She is now about 2 years old. At first we assumed she'd need some time to respond to commands that came from us and to her name (which was supposedly her name already before we got her) but after 2 weeks we realised she made no progress in even looking at us when we called her.

We've tried whistles, loud noises, clanging food bowls and calling her in every tone of voice imaginable. She doesn't react. At all. When she sleeps, she sleeps hard. We can not get her attention unless she can see our other dog react or she has an eye contact, which she seems to

We are starting to think it's sensible to assume she is deaf, which is fine. In our eyes she is the perfect addition to our family. I would, however, appreciate if anyone would know how we could be absolutely sure without testing her as there are no testing facilities nearby where we live.

We have also been wondering how to deal with the two together. They have had their differences in opinion and Pepi is frequently trying to show who's the boss. Should we allow this kind of behavior or tell him off for showing signs of dominance? Sometimes it seems that she is not doing herself any favours by growling at Peps as soon as he comes near.

Sorry to rant this long but we are a little confused about the situation. Any advice would be most welcome.

-Saana

 

[gmacleod]

BAER testing is the only way to be absolutely certain that the dog cannot hear. The homemade alternative (which is not absolutely certain, but a good indicator) is to take 2 people and the dog. One person observes the dog whilst the second goes out of the dog's sight (next room or round the corner, etc) and makes a loud noise that doesn't involve vibration - so banging two pots together would count, dropping something on the floor would not. If the dog can hear the sound, she should react in some manner. If she doesn't react, it's a good sign that she cannot hear. Bear in mind that a dog deaf in one ear only should still react - they'll still hear the noise - but may not be able to locate the direction.

If you do come to the conclusion that she's deaf, here's a site that may help you out quite a bit: www.deafdogs.org A deaf dog really is not a handicapped dog - since dogs don't understand English, it's no different teaching them that a hand signal means 'sit' as it is to teach them that a particular sound we make means that. The only issue you have is that you've already noted - getting the dog's attention isn't just a matter of calling his name.

 

[Parka]

Thanks for the reply. We did try the pan banging trick quite a few times but remain still inconclusive. After a few tries she seemed to listen with one of her ears and once she looked around as if to see what the sound was. Other times she just happily snored away. I wouldn't exactly call it a result as Lilly has a habit of being startled by pretty much anything that goes around her. Although couple of times she did shed an ear at almost the exact moment the pans went off..

Maybe it's time to stop wondering why she doesn't respond to our calls or how much she can hear and start reading about training a deaf dog. Whatever the truth is she is just perfect.

 

[liamsmom]

we have 2 deaf boxers

Hi. Just had to pipe in on this one!
we have three boxers......a fawn who can hear perfectly and two whites that are both deaf.
both of our deaf dogs are absolutely wonderful dogs. our younger deaf dog (and our fawn boy) are training in Novice right now. he responds beautifully to hand signals and is just the life of the party all the time. everyone at our training center swears he can hear "just a little" but we know he cannot.
kudos to you for accepting your boxer just the way they are. you will be rewarded every single day that you spend together.

 

[Parka]

Thanks for the encouraging words. We have started training Lilly with hand signals and she is learning incredibly fast. All those frustrating weeks of trying to get her to respond to our voices have been forgotten and we've come to the conclusion that hand signals are the way to go whether she was deaf or just hard of hearing. It seems that she's quite keen to learn and take an eye contact even with the tiniest trigger like stomping your foot. She's also following our other boxer very closely, which makes a recall really quite easy.
All I can say, is what incredible dogs we have.

-Saana

 

[liamsmom]

Great!

so glad to hear you are making wonderful progress!!!!
keep us updated! i love to hear about other deaf Boxers and how much they can learn if we just find the right way to communicate with them.