Fortunately, today there are wonderful pet owners that do not euthanize a puppy just because they are deaf.  In past times when a puppy was born deaf the dog did not stand a chance on making it.  The question that always arises is, “if the dog can’t hear, How can you teach it obedience?”  With today’s technology, training a deaf dog can be achieved.

When we think of training obedience we instantly think of verbal commands, which for the most part is the method most commonly used.  So how do we train a deaf dog commands if they can’t hear?  We do it by way of hand commands and the use of an electronic collar.

Of course the e-collar has had a bad reputation for many years do to the misuse of them.  In the past couple of years they have been making a come back with positive results.  When training a deaf dog, the e-collar can make a pet owner’s life much easier and much more safe for a dog.  When training a deaf dog the method of an e-collar paired with hand commands is the preferred method to use. 

We train the dog to “sit”, “down”, “stay”, and even “place” with hand gestures, but then use the e-collar to teach the dog to recall or even get the dogs attention.  Most good brand name e-collars come with a pager button.  Instead of using the stimulation button, we can use the pager button which makes the collar vibrate without the stimulation.  Then through training we can teach the dog to either come or give his attention when it feels the vibration.

If you are the owner of a deaf dog, hopefully this will give you some hope that your dog can be trained to do obedience.  If this training method is something you might be interested in please feel free to call or e-mail, so we can set up a free evaluation and get your dog started on the right track.