How to Train a Deaf Dog?

How to Train a Deaf Dog? (Expert Guide)

Deafness is a disease seen as very common in dogs. Some dogs are born deaf and most of them lose their hearing ability with old age. Like humans, dogs also rely on their senses to interact with their surroundings and environments. 

Any dog or human that loses its hearing becomes dependent on other senses to interact with the surroundings. Dogs in this regard are very smart and use their other senses to adapt to the environment. According to statistics provided by veterinarians, almost 5 to 10% of dogs presented at their clinic face deafness. 

There is nothing that can be done to get the hearing back but we can train them to live happily without hearing. Dogs that lose their hearing ability can be trained by mutual understanding to live life perfectly. 

A deaf dog has more learning abilities and can live by learning all the life skills to spend his life. Training a deaf dog is very challenging and requires a lot of patience from the Owner. 

However, training a deaf dog is similar to Training any other dog, it just requires consistency mutual understanding, and positive reinforcement. A deaf dog might not hear you, and your sudden touching of them may cause startling. 

5 Steps to Train a Deaf Dog

Training a deaf dog is challenging and needs creativity. However, they can be trained like any other normal dog. Following the steps below you can easily train your deaf dog.

1. Do not Startle your dog.

Startle is an instinct response to any sudden activity. Deaf dogs cannot hear anyone coming near them and any sudden touch or interaction with them with result in startling your dog. To solve this, make your dog desensitized to any unexpected touch because it is really difficult to alert a deaf dog that you are about to touch them.

There are a few steps by which you can activate desensitization in your dog so that your dog can accept unexpected touches.

• Make sure your dog is relaxed and is not facing you.
• Gently touch the shoulder of your dog.
• As soon as your dog turns its attention towards you, give it a treat.
• Keep repeating it severally times and do not forget to give treats to your dog.
• Keep repeating it until your dog is no longer frightened by unexpected touches.
• Keep practicing it and the results will be great.

2. Gaining Deaf dog attention.

Getting a deaf dog's attention while it's away is very challenging and requires a lot of creativity. You need your dog's attention mostly when you are visiting a dog park or you are outside and your dog runs away from you. You can do the following steps to get your dog's attention.

• Get in front of your dog's eyesight.
• Stomping feet on the ground to produce vibrations.
• Turn on and off the light at them.
• Throw a ball at them.

3. Stay on track with your dog

The only way of communication between you and your dog is through vision. If you are moving outside your house without informing your dog, then the sudden realization by the dog that you are missing will disturb and terrify him. 

Always make sure to tell your dog that you are going outside. The duration is short for some time and after some time you can prolong the duration of your outdoor stay. Train your dog to be comfortable even when you are not nearby.

4. Signature signal for a treat 

Giving a treat is the best way to develop communication with your deaf dog. Use signals specifically for treatment. This will train your dog to anticipate each time you give it a treat. You can use the following signals

• Wave a hand 
• Thumbs up
• Make a face 

You can train your dog to do any specific work after they come to know that your signature signal is specific for the work.

5. Teach Cues with Luring

Luring is using the treat to get your desired result from the dog. Luring is best known for training dogs for sitting or lying down. Dogs are great followers and follow every instruction carefully. Perfect use of treats to lure them to sit down will train your dog to follow your instructions.

Let's take an example that we are Luring our dog to sit down, you can do that in the following steps.

• Get your dog's attention first.
• Show them a treat.
• Bring the treat close to their nose.
• Uplift the treat and make sure they are following.
• Uplift in such a way that your dog gets to sit down.
• At this point give it a thumbs up, followed by a treat.
• By luring you can train your dog to respond to your cues.

Some Basic Signals to Teach Your Deaf Dog

1. GOOD DOG

• Keep an on your dog.
• Whenever your dog does something positive, grab its attention.
• Give it a thumbs-up sign.
• Give it a treat.
• Your dog will think that it is doing something positive and rewarding which will encourage it to do it again.

2. Watch Me

• Make sure your dog is relaxed. 
• Use a treat to grab its attention. 
• Grab the treat with your thumb and middle finger.
• Your index finger should point towards you.
• Naturally, your dog's focus will be on treats.
• Wait for the moment your dog moves its attention from the treat and looks at you.
• At that time, give it a good dog sign.
• And give it a treat.

Keep repeating it again and again until your dog understands that whenever you sign towards yourself, it means that you want it to watch you.

3. Sit 

• Make sure your dog is relaxed.
• Lure with a treat.
• Grab your dog's attention.
• Bring the treat close to the nose.
• Uplift the treat at an angle that your dog sits down.
• Give your dog a good boy signal.
• Then give them a treat.

4. Down

• Make sure your dog is in a sitting position.
• Grab a treat in your hand.
• Take the treat down closer to the ground.
• Your dog will eventually go with the treat.
• The moment it lays down, give it a thumbs-up sign.
• Then give it a treat.

5. Stay

• Make sure your dog is sitting.
• Extend your arm straight with an open palm in the direction of your dog.
• Now move one step backward and say Stay loud to your dog.
• If your dog moves too, do it again until your dog does not move with you.
• The moment your dog does not move after you take one step backward. 
• Give it a good dog sign, followed by a treat.

Training a deaf dog might sound challenging but it's very interactive. People who keep deaf dogs have more closeness with their dogs’ concerning others because of the amount of time they spend on them. If you think that training a deaf dog is difficult, you can ask a veterinarian or any professional assistance.