Bringing home a new dog can be met with many expected and unexpected challenges. Working through these challenges with your new bestie can be fun and rewarding.
One unexpected challenge arose for Lola’s paw-rents, who found out she was deaf not long after bringing her home. We’ve asked them how they adjusted their communication style and learnt to communicate with Lola.
Tell us a little bit about Lola
Lola absolutely loves to sleep and snuggle! Her favourite thing to do is to lay on top or as close as possible to her brother! She would prioritise pats from humans over anything and is a competitive tug-o-war player.
When/How did you find out Lola was deaf?
We found out Lola was deaf 4 hours after bringing her home. We noticed that she wasn’t responsive to any verbal noises and when she was sleeping we tested banging two saucepans near her head to see if she would react. She slept through!
How do you communicate with her?
We communicate via hand signals!
How have you trained her, what techniques have you used?
We needed to find a way to communicate with Lola and build a trusting relationship so that we could provide her a life where she could be free to explore safely and confidently including off lead. We started by teaching her to constantly look for and at us. It helps that she is food motivated!
Once we had established eye connection we started to introduce hand signals, rewarding her for every time she followed an instruction correctly! She knows how to sit, lay down, turn around, high five, roll over, stay, come, drop an object and understands when we find her behaviour good or less than favourable through commands.
Other things we did….
We tried training Lola using a vibrating collar but found that once she got used to the vibration she was confident to ignore us haha.
We sought additional support from a dog trainer to build Lolas confidence around other dogs approaching her!
What has been the biggest learning curve?
It’s Lolas world and we just live in it.
Dog parks are overwhelming for Lola and we learnt that this was actually causing her anxiety. We also learnt that Lola was having a difficult time being away from human company and needed a companion. We adopted her brother 6 months later and he changed her life for the best!
Do you have any tips for others who may have or be looking to adopt a deaf dog?
Be Patient! Deaf dogs are wonderful in so many ways; Lola is quiet and isn’t easily startled by loud noises. She doesn’t bark except when playing and is excited!
Be prepared to put in the work to build a form of communication that works for both you and your dog - there is no right or wrong way!
