Ask Me Help Desk - Deaf Dog?

I am not possitive but think my puppy has hearing problems. He is five months old. We have only had him 3 weeks but he doesn't respond to his name, kissy sounds, claps or anything. Only thing that he seems to hear and is scared of is the vacuum cleaner. How can I find out if he has problems hearing or is it normal for puppies to do that?

Has your vet seen him yet? Might be a good time to introduce them.

Yes the vet has seen him and looked in his ears to check for redness or irratation and was none. However, I just noticed this behavior over the past few days. He follows me everywhere with out commands so now I am just trying to figure it all out. Maybe I am paranoid!

A tennis ball is ideal, but other balls would work. Most puppies love balls. Work at bouncing on the floor in front of him and then throwing it for him. Once he has had a chance to learn the sound of the ball hitting the floor, go around behind him and try it. If he likes the ball, but doesn't respond to the plunk of the ball hitting the floor, then he has a hearing problem.

If he does, this will be difficult. Dogs can be trained to respond to hand signals. What I have seen of this is hearing impaired people communicating with their service dogs. You would follow much the same procedure in teaching obedience except rather than a spoken command, using a hand signal.

It certainly reduces the usefulness of ''Good dog!''. I have a 14 year old Lab that can't hear very well. I find it hard to put enough volume in my voice and retain the tone you need. I had a time of it out at the river yesterday. While I was preoccupied stealing limestone for a flagstone walk, she wondered off a couple of times. I just had to go find her.

For all my preaching about safe, sturdy toys, I let my dogs have tennis balls. I am amazed at how well they they hold up. They do eventually crack and have to be discarded. I never leave the dogs have them when I am not around. The ones from the sporting goods section seem to be better balls than the ones from the dog supplies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHEFAMJOHNSON

I am not possitive but think my puppy has hearing problems. He is five months old. We have only had him 3 weeks but he doesn't respond to his name, kissy sounds, claps or anything. Only thing that he seems to hear and is scared of is the vaccum cleaner. How can I find out if he has problems hearing or is it normal for puppies to do that?

My dog is also deaf. This is something that we didn't realize when we got her either. It took about a week to notice.

She has all the same "symptoms" you say your dog does. She does not wake up for loud noises, is not afraid of the vacuum or my hair dryer (unless I blow it at her!). She also does not respond to any noises that drive my other dog crazy!

I talked to my vet about this and he said there is nothing they can do, he recommend testing it by finding a time I knew she was asleep and banging pots and pans to see if they woke her, or to get a dog whistle. The dog did not respond to any of that.

She was very very difficult to train when we got her (she was about a year, and had been a stray) because of this problem. We used a shock collar. It may seem mean, but my husband tested it on himself first! Haha.

We found the lowest setting that she could feel and would shock her when she did something wrong. She usually tried to do it one more time to make sure that's what she was getting in trouble for, and now she is relatively well behaved. I don't use the collar at all anymore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHEFAMJOHNSON

I am not possitive but think my puppy has hearing problems. He is five months old. We have only had him 3 weeks but he doesn't respond to his name, kissy sounds, claps or anything. Only thing that he seems to hear and is scared of is the vaccum cleaner. How can I find out if he has problems hearing or is it normal for puppies to do that?

I don't know if you already know this but there is a hearing test that can be done on dogs, it is called a Bear test. Not a lot of vets do them and they are pretty expensive but it is another option for you. Also if your puppy is deaf then it's not hearing the vacume it is feeling the vibratuon's. A deaf dog has outstanding vibration senses. I also have a deaf dog two to be exact and my vet told me not to even try to use a dog whistle to tell if they truly are deaf because they will feel the vibration's of that as well. I haven't had the bear testing done on my puppies but I am sure that they are deaf. Different things that I have tried is banging pans behind them and shaking key. Everything that I have tried I always make sure that they ar e not looking first. They respond to nothing. Also no its not normal for puppies to not respond to noises because they are like kids curious as to what thing are including noises. I hope this helps you at least some!!