Deaf dogs

Clodagh

Clodagh

Playing chess with pigeons
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Any success stories? A friend has got a working bred JRT, beautiful little bitch, and she is stone deaf. She can't hear a whistle or anything. She was intended to work but obviously can't do that now, question is is she rehomeable as a pet or would she be better off PTS?
 
my grandmother had a deaf dalmation. He was quite a high energy dog but really no problems with him being deaf. He used to come out riding with me and was very obedient - we just trained him in a different way.
 
My friend has a deaf blue merle collie. They are perfectly trainable with hand signals, the knack is having them watch you the whole time so they see the signals, and you can signal them out of danger. No reason to put them down if you find a good trainer, and they can work as well as the next if the right training is put in place. Did they let the breeder know in case of a genetic link?
 
Perfectly trainable. Look up the Deaf Dog Network on Facebook or the internet for advice and lots of examples of deaf dogs competing in all sorts of activities.
 
Most the dogs you have listed though,are collies, a different ball game to a working JRT? I don't know if they would consider keeping her, they have all working dogs and of course she will never work, but possibly she could become a pet. Whether her instincts would be conducive to that I don't know.
She already has trouble with the other dogs as she doesn't register what they are saying, so is forever getting stamped on once they have finished growling at her, and she of course takes no notice of warnings.
 
Clodagh said:
Most the dogs you have listed though,are collies, a different ball game to a working JRT? I don't know if they would consider keeping her, they have all working dogs and of course she will never work, but possibly she could become a pet. Whether her instincts would be conducive to that I don't know.
She already has trouble with the other dogs as she doesn't register what they are saying, so is forever getting stamped on once they have finished growling at her, and she of course takes no notice of warnings.
Click to expand...

a ratting dog?

I don't know many that come to call anway they do their job and come back-a deaf working jack russell would not be a worry for me
 
Personally, in general, I don't have a problem with people (/breeders) who choose to euthanise deaf puppies. But I also don't have a problem with if people choose to keep them, as long as the dog get a good quality of life.

I presume that one of the first hurdles to get over, is to teach the JRT puppy to watch her owners a lot of the time. And keep their fingers crossed for that the puppy begins to get better at interacting with their other dogs.

Have your friend looked at sites like this http://www.therealjackrussell.com/advice/deaf.php ?

Or looked at videos like the following
[youtube]COgf46_tJQk#t=15[/youtube] ?


Not much to do with training a JRT intended to be used for hunting foxes, but maybe it can help your friend decide if she could be suitable as a pet dog. Even though, if she does develop a big work drive, maybe that can cause problems if she's kept as a pet.
 
My 3 year old jrt is deaf.
He's my pet. He's also a yard dog and so good he just follows me around and is brill round the horses. Occasionally he'll be sniffing something when walking to a feild and not realise I've carried on walking and I'll have to wave my arms around to get his attention.
He's far better behaved than my previous too terriers that had good hearing but chose not to listen to me!!!
On another good note fireworks are mental this evening and he's not even stirred from his sleep!!
 
Thank you all. Zoelouisem that is really positive.
FL - will send those links, thank you.
Twiggy - as you probably know, in an ideal world the terrier doesn't engage the fox underground, but you do need to be able to call them out if necessary.
 
I have a deafie, very worky boy and came with a lot of issues due to a rough previous life. He is an absolute delight to work with, once you teach them that they need to be responsible for checking in (not difficult, just needs a bit of time and consistency) then there is very little they can't do because of the deafness - they are still individuals though! Please do come and join the Deaf Dog Network on fb, I am an admin there, we have many pet owners but also a fair few working dog owners, including things like herding, gundogs etc - off the top of my head I can't think of any working JRT but there are a lot of active pets. It aybe would be advisable to send a deafie down a hole, but if rehomed into an active pet home I'm sure he could adapt to something like agility or trick training.
As an aside, mine is mostly retired due to joint problems, but he has done obedience, agility, HTM, ridiculous amounts of clicker trained tricks, and has a vocabulary of around 60 signs and who knows how many gestures. If it was a few years later I would have been very interested in taking on a deaf working JRT.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thedeafdognetwork/
 
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