Deaf Dog Hope Learns a New Sign

Deaf Dog Hope
Photo by Tracey R. Simmons July 2016

When Deaf Dog Hope was first adopted, she was really quiet when she went outside to do her business. This lasted three weeks. Then, one winter day, the neighbors’ dog was on our property, just outside the dogs’ fence. When Hope went outside, this dog startled her by just being there, so after that she would go out and bark like crazy.

I spoke with the trainers we were working with to understand this situation. They said because Hope was deaf, she was barking in this wild, aggressive manner to compensating for her deafness, or trying to cover it up by letting any predators (or other dogs) know that she was big and bad and not to mess with her. In other words, it was a protective defense.

The problem for me was the loudness of Hope’s barks. She barked like a banshee. It was earsplitting for me. She had no volume control, because she couldn’t hear herself. And despite living in the country, there are neighbors close by.

For a long time, Hope would do her barking thing, then stop - maybe realizing that there were no predators around. More recently, she’s decided to continue this barking, so I had to figure out how I was going to teach her to stop barking or to be quiet.

The cool thing about Hope is that she’s really smart. I think it’s the Border collie part of her that helps her learn and puzzle through things when we work on training and a new sign, and this helps her figure things out quickly. Many times, it’s harder for me to work through how I am going to teach something new and the new sign in a way for Hope to understand what I want.

Hope pouncing on her spikey ball - her favorite toy.
(Because she is so fast, it is difficult not to having blurring
in a photo when she is playing.)
Photo by Tracey R. Simmons July 2016

Another thing about deaf dogs, is that they learn to "read" their human(s), as far as mood. Hope figures out when I am playing around and when I am being serious. (Hearing dogs can get the tone of a human to know when they are mad, but they don't always pick it up just by looking at a human.)

A few weeks ago, Hope went out first thing in the early morning, along with the other dogs. She immediately started her banshee barking. I quickly opened the door. Hope stopped barking as I gave her a stern look (because I was frustrated) and put my index finger to my mouth - the way we humans tell another human to be quiet. Because she’d stopped barking, I quickly gave her the “thumbs-up” sign. This is her equivalent to a click when clicker training a hearing dog – letting the dog know they did something right.

Hope's all white left side - albino white.
Photo by Tracey R. Simmons July 2016

Hope understood the “I mean business” look. She swiftly figured out this new sign and what she needs to do. Now I don’t have to give the stern look. I just use the sign. Overly barking problem – solved!

How many signs does Hope know? She knows sit, down (as in lay down), sit back up, come, watch/look at me, wait/stay, release, target hand or object, go to mat/crate, no, shake, high-five, thumbs-up; and I can point a direction I want her to go and she’ll walk in that direction. She also knows the sign to stand between my legs and to do a clockwise circle – although we haven’t done these for a while. The latter two were things I wanted to do, along with adding more tricks & signs, because there are dogs that dance with their humans.

Hope's right side with some color.
Photo by Tracey R. Simmons July 2016