Adult Blind, Deaf or blind-deaf dog meets a new puppy at home
Introducing an adult (ordinary, blind or deaf) dog to a new puppy?
Puppies and babies aren’t born with an “Owner’s Manual” that includes instruction of how to introduce them to siblings and adults of their own and other species. For puppies needing to meet and live with ordinary, blind and deaf dogs, we collect from many sources here a little insight and suggestions. Introducing an adult dog to a puppy will not normally involve any sort of aggression, although confusion and social errors are commonplace [see Nonlineardogs web <www.nonlineardogs.com> and Alexandra Semyonova’s book which is reviewed on Weebly]
Even dog-mothers have to do their best to learn as quickly as they can. There are NO known useful reports of research of how to best raise puppies and introduce them to other dogs (and humans) when they are old enough. There are apparently not even reliable descriptions available of what puppies of various breeds and genetic lines are capable doing, beginning with the first seconds after their births (see end-note re Coppingers, 2001).
So we collected insights from personally observing 15 puppies, five each from three litters raised in our own home, mostly under our kitchen table. The mother was the same for all litters but each litter had a different father. We researched the dog-books, and archives of several dog-lists (deaf, blind, and deaf-blind) on the Web. Also we obtained videos[i] from other people of their experiences. From that we summarized what seemed to us to be the few consistent patterns of successful raising and introducing puppies to adult dogs other than the mother, visiting dogs, and unfamiliar humans.
Where significant things can be said with some confidence for deaf or blind dogs, we offer thoughts about what happens from our own and the experience of others and how introducing adults to puppies (and the reverse) can be done safely.
Specific technical differences between the sensory suites[ii] of ordinary dogs, deaf dogs, blind dogs and blind dogs were indentified from our “hands-on” research plus Web interviews and research reports. Thus:
1) “Deaf” dogs who inherit inner hearing deficits at human voice frequencies can detect vibrations (sound) over the whole range of pitches by means of eight or nine low accuracy auxiliary sense-mechanisms (also owned but unused by virtually all humans!) – Ref Strain, 2004 and 2011 and Coren, 2004, et al. Deaf dogs usually retain eye-sight and smell senses.
Typically humans and deaf-dogs can quickly learn sign language and achieve a completely ordinary doggish quality of life. Deafness does not (according to extensive research) involve any changes in the mental or personality functions as compared to ordinary dogs of its breed with comparable experience.
2) Blind dogs who lose use of their eyes for vision because of glaucoma, SARDS, PRA or accidents usually retain their full suite of other senses such as hearing, whisker-contacts, tactile sensing with their feet of floor and ground textures and smells. The other senses are less precise in determining their location, and the size and shapes of objects such as furniture, stairs, people, and other animals – lower accuracy leads many dogs to accept bumping into things as a very effective way to anyways dash about at high speeds among clutter. Conclusive reports of blind dogs learning to use sounds (self-generated chirps and barks or ambient sounds) to create a three dimensional bat-like SONAR image of their ‘world’ as do also a few humans report. “Whirling” by blind dogs and barking at walls are among typical tactics blind dogs use to create their personal SONAR images. A blind dog who hasn’t whiskers, or fails in excitement to use them as ‘white-canes’ might accidentally unintentionally mouthing or nipping puppies or the hands of humans if the situation is exciting and confusing.
Onset of blindness is often accompanied by severe pain, which is confusing and depressing to the dog, until medical treatment alleviates the pain and the dog can once again believe that life can be worth living with its loving and caring people – examples are too numerous to catalogue here. Other than symptoms of misery and confusion caused by pain and drugs of medical treatments, there are few if any personality changes biologically automatic to blindness. Adapting to loss of visual cues for social interaction with other dogs can lead to temporary social misunderstandings and conflicts with other dogs, who for example get offended because the blind dog bumps them, or because the blind dog seems to be “staring at them” (actually trying to get every decibel of sound with its ears!) Excellent quality of life with blindness is typical with caring people.
3) Blind-deaf dogs who are deaf at human inner ear hearing frequencies nonetheless are likely to retain the sense of smell and the other sense modes of detecting and understanding vibrations (sound) via their whiskers, etc. We lack high quality scientific observations from many such dogs, but it seems that they also can have a good quality of life with their caring people. Our understanding was that they usually somehow learn or create a way of touches or the dog learns well enough to understand vibrations of the floors, air etc (sound) to make sense of what is going on and get about satiafctorily.
Conclusively, every puppy and adult dog is different, with unique talents and reactions; and with potentially great differences of experience and expectations from one home to another and from one human to another. Adult dogs and puppies are very capable of suddenly doing unexpected things to and with each other and to and with their humans – so be aware of possibilities and what to do if the unexpected and unusual happens. Go slowly. Keep them separated until they can learn and verify to each other that they all understand the proper dog-social rules, and know the differences between adult dogs, puppies, human adults and kids and any other pet-animals involved. Rushing the “greeting” of unfamiliar adult dogs and puppies is a sure recipe for uproar, confusion and sadness all-round. – Please consider what your own emotions and reactions were if you were dropped off at the front door of Kindergarten to be greeted by even more odd sounding odd smelling big strangers, and told “Have fun, Dear!”
Here we summarize our observations of over 30 puppies meeting stranger adult dog plus an experienced dog-mother introducing her puppies to another adult dog, and visiting humans. The puppies were under our observation whenever the puppies were awake, for eight weeks. We observed her with three litters. The observations described here are primarily those from the 3d litter, when the mother had improved her methods from experience.
1. At first their mother protected the puppies from the slightest approach of another adult dog (and some strange human!). By voice and a show of teeth she encouraged the ‘intruders’ to retreat to a distance of about 20 feet or entirely out of her sight. That was done regardless of the mother’s familiarity with or relationship to the ‘intruder’ dog.
WHY the mother dog was protecting her puppies so fiercely: A puppy won’t usually look, act or smell recognizably like an ordinary domestic familiar adult trained and socialized dog. The puppy won’t know and behave with the proper adult-like social get-acquainted signals, and likewise smells different from anybody who belongs with the humans of the family. A puppy might act insultingly by trying to nurse, which tends to upset dry-females and males. Puppies usually have ‘puppy breath’ for several months and don’t smell like adult male or female dogs until later.
IF an adult or juvenile dog suddenly meets a new puppy alone by itself or with a human in very close proximity, it has to make a quick choice among several possible reactions at least one of which might be lethal. The particular reaction depends on the instincts of the breed and the personal experience of the dog. Depending on the breed and the situation details, an adult making a mistake is most likely to assume at first that:
a) the pup is a strange new toy to be played with tossed in the air, crunched, dissected, etc.
b) a pup is mistaken for a strange possibly dangerous animal that might be there to attack the people, and it must be killed promptly to protect the everybody.
IF you are very lucky, a dog well socialized with people and with other small dogs might guess that the thing is another dog and try to exchange dog-greetings. Very likely the puppy will not respond properly as an adult does and if it suddenly jumps up with paws in the adult’s face, or growls and attacks, the result is likely to be a noisy uproar, hurt feelings, maybe puncture wounds on the puppy and unhappy humans. The so-called fighting breeds such as Ridgebacks and PB are most likely to instantly attempt to kill an unfamiliar puppy or juvenile in or near the home or people.
So the foundation rule of introducing a puppy to an unfamiliar adult or juvenile is simply to keep them for at least several days physically separated so that nobody gets hurt, while letting them get acquainted by sniffing each other through a small mesh barrier ‘play-pen’ or close-set “gate.”
Placing a towel from the blind or deaf dog’s crate with the puppy in its crate or bed, and the reverse of a puppy towel with the adult dog’s crate will help to get them used to each other. In addition use of a faint perfume on the owner’s hands when petting or playing with each of them will help them to accept that they are all parts of the same ‘family’ now. Aromas work across screens or nets or gates separating them from each other, and bypass any difficulties with blindness or deafness by any of the participants.
Depending on the breed of the adult/juvenile and the history-experience of the adult, it can be hazardous for an adult or child human to hold a puppy while it is suddenly presented to an adult/juvenile that has never seen the puppy before.
During the first week, be sure that the resident adult is often reassured that he or she isn’t going to be replaced by the cuddly little stranger and cast out alone into the crazy world of cars, kids and “rescues” or shelters.
Giving attention by petting, cuddling and treat bits first to the resident dog and then to the puppy, back and forth, can help familiarize the adult and the puppy that everybody gets a share of whatever is on offer. Exact equality doesn’t matter so long as everybody gets a share.
Everybody learns they’re safe and secure together, and likewise each learns that the other won’t steal toys or food from someone who has them in possession. Sometimes the family humans need to ‘explain’ those rules to anyone who gets excessively exuberant, or who tries to engage in “resource guarding” – which is NOT the same as trying to be ‘dominant.’ A puppy trying to resource-guard will usually sprawl across the food dish and fall fast asleep, while the other dogs nibble kibbles from under its paws.
Puppies and adults from rescues or shelters often need to be re-taught the dog-social rules of taking turns and sharing (there is enough for everybody), but leaving alone what some else has in its possession.
To reduce jealousy and confusion, a puppy and the adult should each have their own food and water bowls. They should be physically well apart from each other so that neither one can get the child-like notion that the other one is getting the best kibbles and dive into the other dog’s chow without warning or permission.
If the adult has excellent soft-bite (inhibited-bite) such a puppy raid on the adult’s chow will earn an older puppy a painful nip and a fierce growl with a display of the adult’s dental work (and distinctive adult dog- breath). An adult who dives into the pup’s chow, is likely to do that with a fierce growl and a nip to drive the puppy away. Some pup’s will try to defend their bowl at a surprisingly young age, which can begin to train a puppy to be fear-aggressive. [We saw that happen.]
2. After about a week of getting acquainted by sniffing and mutual observation of doggish body language (if the adult was ordinary or deaf) or sounds (–if blind: our puppies ‘sang’ a continuing chorus among themselves whenever awake, with even the deaf puppy joining in the ‘singing’). While an adult human was nearby it was possible to let the adult dog ‘inspect’ a puppy at somewhat closer range, such as a yard or meter distance. But well beyond where the adult dog could physically try to grip or touch the puppy. ..
Our mother dog during the second week permitted a family adult [deaf] dog to come closer and closer to her puppies, while the mother was watching intently very nearby. She admonished the other adult with growls and a lifted lip whenever the other adult got too close - close enough to grab a puppy! By the end of the second week the visitor clearly understood that any unexpected or inappropriate motion toward a puppy would result in dog-mother scolding and possibly a nip- for a careless visitor.
The adult dogs need a refuge from a pest puppy - - a place to escape the puppy if needed. Use also treat parties where the adult gets great stuff while near the puppy. Please be sure that the puppy also gets treats when the adult is nearby BUT doesn’t compete or things can get worse. The adults still needs “me” personal time with her people AND also nice things happen when the puppy is present – that adjusts both points of view of things!
3. In the third week the visitor adult dog was let by the mother to carefully place a single paw next to a puppy, to lean over the puppy, and to delicately sniff it and possibly observe it moving about. Any move by the visitor that upset a puppy and caused it to cry-out in surprise or distress was immediately responded to by the mother urging with fierce growls the visitor out of sight of the puppy or puppies.
About that time, when the mother was absent from the room holding the puppies’ nest, a visitor dog would occasionally from curiosity sneak into the room and carefully watch and inspect the puppies, with an occasional unwise sticking in of a big paw to touch or flip over a puppy just for curiosity.
Contrary to myths, properly cared for puppies do Not automatically roll onto their backs and pee on themselves when a stranger adult dog shows up and messes with them. Instead, they are very likely to try to play exuberantly and unexpectedly with the adult. If the adult grabs the pup and holds onto it as do a few fighting breeds, the puppy “screams” for MOTHER!-HELP!: depending in part on the adult’s breed, experience in shelters or rescue, and how well it has been trained and socialized. At that point a wise visitor flees at full speed because Mother is going to be there, possibly with teeth displayed near the visitor’s throat, to correct whatever needs ‘fixing.’
Unfortunately some breeds react instinctively to a puppy’s terror-scream by holding on to it solidly, pulling, and trying to silence the puppy by killing it, even if that means tearing it out of the arms of a human who tried to save the puppy. [Our experience!]
Visitor humans need to keep in mind what can happen if the human messes with a puppy without its mother’s permission and the puppy get upset, worried and anxious! If a puppy cries for HELP, a really worried anxious mother dog arriving to protect her puppy or puppies is a ‘force of nature’ to be reckoned with-- preferably at a distance.
We did not see any instances when it seemed that their behaviors were different whether the adult dog was blind or deaf. A blind dog would be relying mostly on the smells of the puppy and sounds it made to keep track of it. A deaf dog would mostly be watching its antics.
4. During the 4th week, if all has gone well, an adult dog regarded a puppy as an odd behaving small dog who have special protection by the mother and their humans, and who are learning “how to be dogs” with proper dog-social behavior such as never pawing an adult’s face, do play-bows to invite games, wagging tail as signals. {Contrary to myths, puppies can wag their tails within a few hours after being born, usually in response to tasting dog-milk or excitement.}
[The humans of an adult blind dog and a new puppy will need to emphasize “bonding” sharing of treats and cuddling so that the blind dog understands that the little new dog is permitted to do odd and unexpected things and doesn’t mean any offense by its actions and mistakes. The emphasis on human aided social bonding is needed because an blind adult dog can hear and smell a puppy’s “social signals”, but can’t see and understand a puppy’s instinctive gesture get-acquainted “I’m a puppy” communications. Without experience with a particular puppy, a blind adult might find startling and unwelcome the natural antics of puppies such as pawing in his-her grown-up’s face and deliberate, careless collisions with the adult while zooming about and chasing toys the blind adult can’t see but might hear. Extra attention and voice praise for a blind adult are highly desirable to balance the distractions of dealing with an exuberant puppy.]
[A deaf adult dog would be more likely to promptly understand a puppy’s attempts at dog-social “I’m nice” get- acquainted communications, because puppies and adults usually don’t much use their verbal comments to confirm that they’re both peaceful and hope to play happily together and with their people.]
At about that time some difficulties and confusion can happen between another dog, the mother and-or adult humans or kids. Quite often another dog will get the notion that he or she can share or mess with the puppies’ food or toys, BUT the mother is likely to verbally object and show teeth to a visitor sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong. Visitor dogs were seen intruding for fun or curiosity even after the visitor has already eaten all it could manage from its own bowl. The puppies don’t care as long as they each get enough and ours would happily share a bowl without conflict if the bowl or plate is big enough that everyone can get a nose into the food.
An experienced mother was often instinctively unable to eat until her puppies were satisfied, because of her instinct to ensure that they all get enough to eat from a bowl of food while even a single puppy was still nibbling. An adult visitor dog intruding on the puppy food bowl contrary to human or the mother’s warnings and the mother’s powerful protective instincts, was very likely to get a vigorous physical and noisy lesson in discretion and self –control around puppies. Commonly during a severe scolding the mother’s teeth might be touching the side of the other dog’s throat, while she growled for several minutes (which a blind dog would feel and hear, and a deaf dog would certainly feel), and the other dog contemplated the sky or an indoor ceiling.
Our mother dog even when one of her puppies was four years old would still watch her offspring eating until her “puppy” was satisfied, before she would approach the bowl to eat the scraps remained. There was no magic “turn-off” biological switch that caused the mother to abruptly cease to care about, protect and educate her own puppies. Male dogs who took over a task of raising and socializing a younger dog also continued the responsibility for months to years.
Even adult females spayed as early as six months of age often recognize clumsy puppies or juveniles lacking in proper dog-manners and attempt to socialize them, if given a chance and permission from their humans to try. Adult male dogs of some breeds were observed to defer to the resident adult female concerning education of puppies and juveniles. Many were willing to attempt to educate poorly socialized rude obnoxious juveniles.
Unlike a juvenile, an older unsocialized adult dog may react poorly to advice and counseling on proper dog-dog and dog-human behaviors by a “dog-matriarch”. An exchange of nips and growls among such adults is harmless although perhaps dismaying to humans unaccustomed to the sight and sounds of dogs engaged in mutual exchanges of opinions about proper behaviors. If the ill-behaving adult attempts to do real injury, the owners should separate them permanently, and perhaps seek help from a reputable professional trainer (see web site Nonlineardogs.)
So far as we know, well trained and socialized adult dogs were never observed to try socializing human children. Herding breeds were seen trying to “corral” toddlers and keep the kids out of the streets and any areas forbidden to the dogs.
5. 5th week – puppies should be safely able to play with the adult dogs that they know well by that time. If they aren’t well bonded and fond and trusting each other after a month of getting acquainted, the puppy should be re-homed for its own safety.
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Background: Contrary to some of the information in the book “DOGS” by Coppingers, 2001, pages 217-221, it isn’t true that all puppies are the same, furthermore each litter of puppies is different from other litters even if the mother and father were the same for each litter. Also Coppingers, page zxz, mistakenly alleged that biological genetic “switches” turn on and later turn off specific mothering behaviors precisely at certain times following births of puppies. Actually, the so-called switches function at somewhat different times for each dog during its life, and vary from one breed to another. To paraphrase a comment by Adam Miklosi, 2007: it is absurd to write or claim to speak some universal ‘truth’ about “DOGS” as though every dog were produced on an industrial machinery line and programmed with the identical software (fixed action patterns –FAP) that control their actions from the instant of each one’s conception. However admirable the Coppingers’ peer reviewed published research might be on other aspects of dog and human behaviors, their book of 2001 poorly dealt with puppies younger than the age six months, depending on the specific dog and its breed. Ineptness or flaws in accurately observing and describing behaviors of puppies and adult dogs from birth cast for me a shadow of doubt over their other alleged descriptions of the behaviors of various dogs in varied circumstances.
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[i] A remarkable video captured events of an 8-weeks puppy meeting a “pack” of five adults of ages ranging from one year to about ten. The youngest of the pack had become acquainted in about one hour at the pup’s original home, and they rode together to the new home. When they arrived at the yard of their new home, the other dogs gathered around to welcome their people and companion home, and inspect any new toys or treats for them. The pup at that point smelled like their peole and their companion who had traveled together. After a few moments of chaos and “happy dances”, one of the other adults brought a soccer ball to the people and a second adult joined in – while the other three adults hustled-herded the puppy away. During the following half hour continually two adult dogs took turns diverting and entertaining their humans while on video the others were seen one at a time inspecting the new puppy. Butt sniffing, gender checking, teeth displays, mumbling-throat rumbles, pawing and tail wagging were used differently by each of the adults as each met, inspected and “tested” the puppy. The puppy was appeared to be amazed at the “dog-circus” but neither afraid nor anxious. The last two adults who inspected him pushed him down by placing a paw solidly between his shoulders, and then flipped him on his back where he stayed until he was let up. Afterward the crowd engaged in a kind of ‘adult’s free-play’ with the people while the puppy wandered around the yard inspecting the shrubbery and tasting the plants. // Weeks later one of the adults had learned from the puppy to sleep in the sun on the round top of a lawn table, and a year later he was announced as the happy father of six puppies. Evidently well trained and socialized adults of some breeds can quickly adopt a new puppy who is also very well trained and socialized beforehand.
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[ii] Seeing by Hearing-mapping and Navigation
I. Of about 10 or 11 dog-senses useable for detecting vibrations and using the data, S. Coren, 2004 indicated at least eight or nine, of which four were a kind of “touch”:
1) Detection of gross motions by solid-body contact, i.e. “velcroing”: In the community of deaf and blind dogs-people, the tendency is well known especially of newly adopted dogs to attempt to keep very close physical contact (velcroing) with their people. They can keep a paw or their chin on their person’s foot, or in contact with a person’s chair. With experience, a blind or deaf dog can “graduate” to lying across a doorway, or some other strategy to keep track of their people. Home walls and floors of wood were often used as “velcro” surfaces that the dogs relied on to vibrate (sound waves) in ways that indicated what their people were doing. Vibration of wooden structures because of high winds, and storms were sometimes upsetting to velcroed dogs, because the unusual vibrations were strange, might make clutter over and conceal customary vibrations, and might be frightening if the dogs could no longer keep track of their people. Concrete floors, common in single story homes, tend to be weak carriers of vibration. A dog living there might tend to mostly stay in contact with the walls and furniture, or their persons.
2) Detection by whiskers: These are explicitly sensitive to air-motion vibration forces and contact with surfaces. Whiskers have a considerable assembly of dedicated nerves that go direct to the brain. Whiskers of blind and deaf dogs ought to be protected from trimming, regardless of the breed; S. Coren, p.96-98.
3) Detection of air-motion induced forces on external ear parts: The external parts of dogs’ ears naturally vibrate in response to sound waves, acting as “antennas” and by their shapes are often amplifiers. Cropping or mutilating their ears reduces their ability to detect and analyze air-vibrations. [We saw mother dogs grip puppies' ears while scold-growling.]
4) Detection by skin-surfaces nerves of the pressure waves and motion of vibrations in air, water or solids: This is usually thought of as “touch” and is very sensitive on a dog’s parts where there is little or no body hair, S. Coren, p. 94.
5) Detection by drag-forces on body hair: Coren, p.94, movement of air across hairs creates forces on the hairs, bending them in the direction the sound wave moves and making them vibrate sidewise to the direction the sound wave moves. Short fine hairs resonate better with high pitch sounds. Length of the dog’s hair varies from place to place, (as well as from one breed to another), so effectiveness of this can be an important difference among individual dogs and breeds.
6) Detection of compression of body organ-nerves: As S. Coren, p. 94, pointed out, mammals have pressure detection nerves within their muscles and other parts of their body. Those nerves are also going to detect compression-extension vibrations (sound) that penetrate their bodies. So-called Thunder-shirts that compress the body reduce the sensitivity to low-pitch noises. Fireworks explosions and very sharp loud dog barks can activate such internal nerves [People who were close to such events have experienced such detection of sounds.]
7) Detection by body-cavity and respiratory channels: Slow pressure change-vibrations are detected by some dogs. Detection is a documented capability of rodents such as gerbils. Humans who experienced discomfort because of pressure changes during aircraft flights as the plane went up to cruise height, or while landing, experienced the process. Our dogs routinely detect and report to us about passing weather low pressure zones, and remote thunder storms.
8) Detection through dog-feet contacting solids (Vestibular acceleration detection [Strain, 2011 and Coren, 2004] and seismic detection, et al): The details of how dogs detect very slow vibrations of floors such as those of earthquakes and passing trucks and buses were poorly documented, but their existence was documented. (S. Coren p.95, 115-117)
9) “Imaging-by-sound: sonar”- some dogs learn to mentally create three-dimensional “images” of the size and locations of objects in rooms that they are in. Textures (sound absorption and reflection) of their surrounding surfaces can become understood by the dog’s brain as a rough equivalent of colors. For example, a ‘surface’ such as the sky that ordinarily accepted all sounds without any reflection would seem to be “black” (which is likewise the color seen by humans of pure black velvet and other very light-absorbing surfaces.) Similarly, a continuous source of sound might be understood as the equivalent of a continuous source of light. Just as with ordinary optical vision, “sight” based on sound waves might be confused by reflections from nearby surfaces, which interfere with exactly understanding what is being “seen” (S. Coren p. 281). The physics processes were understood scientifically as “time difference of arrival (TDOA)” and relative loudness, and widely used for radar and sonar.
10) Vocal cord acoustic resonance – Observed by us; (not mentioned by Coren or Strain). Our mother dog repeatedly placed her partly open mouth on the side of the throat of her son or daughter while rumble-growl scolding one of them at a time for misbehavior. Her daughter is officially totally deaf at human hearing loudness and pitches, BUT learned to detect vibrations very well by the mechanisms listed, plus the vocal-cords resonance used on her by her mother. Helen Keller allegedly learned to speak intelligibly by detecting with her fingers the voice-box vibrations (sounds) of other people speaking, and imitating that. - - Humans technically could use the same mechanisms but almost nobody has to do that, and thus never learn to do it on purpose or well.
4. Temperature Based Navigation: Detection of temperature - anyone who has seen dogs seek places indoors where direct sunlight through a window is available has seen dogs using detection of infrared, temperatures and temperature differences for navigation. Dogs with long hair on most of their bodies were observed to use their faces as their main “sensors” to locate the warmest places for lying down, or places to be avoided (overheating is uncomfortable for most dogs.) Research on the quality and possible dog-uses of thermal detection were sparse, S. Coren p. 94.
We observed that individuals of a litter of five puppies moved together and cuddled if their nest temperature dropped below 73 degrees F, and conversely they spread apart from each other when the temperature rose above 73 F. Because they were responding to a temperature (thermal) condition, they by temperature-heat-seeking located each other at least partly by comparing the temperature of the environment to the temperature of their siblings. When an adult dog learned to use “whole-body” detection of infrared and temperature differences for navigation, the dog probably often also appeared to have a learned mental “time of day” map of what their temperature expectations were in each locality.
II. Training for Adaptive Development of Useful hearing and Navigation
Reality-existence of adaptive improvements of hearing and navigation has been demonstrated and reported. Use of the information in training is however proceeding slowly, probably because most people were mistakenly cautioned by authorities such as Ms Becker (reference 3) to have no hope that their deaf (or blind) dog could in any way improve its useful hearing and navigation after being diagnosed. Recently discussions of adaptive training were posted in other places; see S. Coren, 2004, p.207. Experience of many people who adopted deaf, and blind, dogs can be summarized in five crucial recommendations:
1. Develop bonding and mutual trust because the startle-reflex is the Key to activating and expediting their adapting.
2. Use gradual consistent continuing mutual education - exposure and habituation to different kinds of vibration (sound) and electromagnetic (light- thermal) stimulation
3. Use of positive applause and rewards is vital
4. Provide physical exercise and mental learning, for lifetime
5. Consider teaching the dog to deliberately paw-gesture to humans to signal its needs and wants (see reference 6, Sean Senechal)
Introducing an adult (ordinary, blind or deaf) dog to a new puppy?
Puppies and babies aren’t born with an “Owner’s Manual” that includes instruction of how to introduce them to siblings and adults of their own and other species. For puppies needing to meet and live with ordinary, blind and deaf dogs, we collect from many sources here a little insight and suggestions. Introducing an adult dog to a puppy will not normally involve any sort of aggression, although confusion and social errors are commonplace [see Nonlineardogs web <www.nonlineardogs.com> and Alexandra Semyonova’s book which is reviewed on Weebly]
Even dog-mothers have to do their best to learn as quickly as they can. There are NO known useful reports of research of how to best raise puppies and introduce them to other dogs (and humans) when they are old enough. There are apparently not even reliable descriptions available of what puppies of various breeds and genetic lines are capable doing, beginning with the first seconds after their births (see end-note re Coppingers, 2001).
So we collected insights from personally observing 15 puppies, five each from three litters raised in our own home, mostly under our kitchen table. The mother was the same for all litters but each litter had a different father. We researched the dog-books, and archives of several dog-lists (deaf, blind, and deaf-blind) on the Web. Also we obtained videos[i] from other people of their experiences. From that we summarized what seemed to us to be the few consistent patterns of successful raising and introducing puppies to adult dogs other than the mother, visiting dogs, and unfamiliar humans.
Where significant things can be said with some confidence for deaf or blind dogs, we offer thoughts about what happens from our own and the experience of others and how introducing adults to puppies (and the reverse) can be done safely.
Specific technical differences between the sensory suites[ii] of ordinary dogs, deaf dogs, blind dogs and blind dogs were indentified from our “hands-on” research plus Web interviews and research reports. Thus:
1) “Deaf” dogs who inherit inner hearing deficits at human voice frequencies can detect vibrations (sound) over the whole range of pitches by means of eight or nine low accuracy auxiliary sense-mechanisms (also owned but unused by virtually all humans!) – Ref Strain, 2004 and 2011 and Coren, 2004, et al. Deaf dogs usually retain eye-sight and smell senses.
Typically humans and deaf-dogs can quickly learn sign language and achieve a completely ordinary doggish quality of life. Deafness does not (according to extensive research) involve any changes in the mental or personality functions as compared to ordinary dogs of its breed with comparable experience.
2) Blind dogs who lose use of their eyes for vision because of glaucoma, SARDS, PRA or accidents usually retain their full suite of other senses such as hearing, whisker-contacts, tactile sensing with their feet of floor and ground textures and smells. The other senses are less precise in determining their location, and the size and shapes of objects such as furniture, stairs, people, and other animals – lower accuracy leads many dogs to accept bumping into things as a very effective way to anyways dash about at high speeds among clutter. Conclusive reports of blind dogs learning to use sounds (self-generated chirps and barks or ambient sounds) to create a three dimensional bat-like SONAR image of their ‘world’ as do also a few humans report. “Whirling” by blind dogs and barking at walls are among typical tactics blind dogs use to create their personal SONAR images. A blind dog who hasn’t whiskers, or fails in excitement to use them as ‘white-canes’ might accidentally unintentionally mouthing or nipping puppies or the hands of humans if the situation is exciting and confusing.
Onset of blindness is often accompanied by severe pain, which is confusing and depressing to the dog, until medical treatment alleviates the pain and the dog can once again believe that life can be worth living with its loving and caring people – examples are too numerous to catalogue here. Other than symptoms of misery and confusion caused by pain and drugs of medical treatments, there are few if any personality changes biologically automatic to blindness. Adapting to loss of visual cues for social interaction with other dogs can lead to temporary social misunderstandings and conflicts with other dogs, who for example get offended because the blind dog bumps them, or because the blind dog seems to be “staring at them” (actually trying to get every decibel of sound with its ears!) Excellent quality of life with blindness is typical with caring people.
3) Blind-deaf dogs who are deaf at human inner ear hearing frequencies nonetheless are likely to retain the sense of smell and the other sense modes of detecting and understanding vibrations (sound) via their whiskers, etc. We lack high quality scientific observations from many such dogs, but it seems that they also can have a good quality of life with their caring people. Our understanding was that they usually somehow learn or create a way of touches or the dog learns well enough to understand vibrations of the floors, air etc (sound) to make sense of what is going on and get about satiafctorily.
Conclusively, every puppy and adult dog is different, with unique talents and reactions; and with potentially great differences of experience and expectations from one home to another and from one human to another. Adult dogs and puppies are very capable of suddenly doing unexpected things to and with each other and to and with their humans – so be aware of possibilities and what to do if the unexpected and unusual happens. Go slowly. Keep them separated until they can learn and verify to each other that they all understand the proper dog-social rules, and know the differences between adult dogs, puppies, human adults and kids and any other pet-animals involved. Rushing the “greeting” of unfamiliar adult dogs and puppies is a sure recipe for uproar, confusion and sadness all-round. – Please consider what your own emotions and reactions were if you were dropped off at the front door of Kindergarten to be greeted by even more odd sounding odd smelling big strangers, and told “Have fun, Dear!”
Here we summarize our observations of over 30 puppies meeting stranger adult dog plus an experienced dog-mother introducing her puppies to another adult dog, and visiting humans. The puppies were under our observation whenever the puppies were awake, for eight weeks. We observed her with three litters. The observations described here are primarily those from the 3d litter, when the mother had improved her methods from experience.
1. At first their mother protected the puppies from the slightest approach of another adult dog (and some strange human!). By voice and a show of teeth she encouraged the ‘intruders’ to retreat to a distance of about 20 feet or entirely out of her sight. That was done regardless of the mother’s familiarity with or relationship to the ‘intruder’ dog.
WHY the mother dog was protecting her puppies so fiercely: A puppy won’t usually look, act or smell recognizably like an ordinary domestic familiar adult trained and socialized dog. The puppy won’t know and behave with the proper adult-like social get-acquainted signals, and likewise smells different from anybody who belongs with the humans of the family. A puppy might act insultingly by trying to nurse, which tends to upset dry-females and males. Puppies usually have ‘puppy breath’ for several months and don’t smell like adult male or female dogs until later.
IF an adult or juvenile dog suddenly meets a new puppy alone by itself or with a human in very close proximity, it has to make a quick choice among several possible reactions at least one of which might be lethal. The particular reaction depends on the instincts of the breed and the personal experience of the dog. Depending on the breed and the situation details, an adult making a mistake is most likely to assume at first that:
a) the pup is a strange new toy to be played with tossed in the air, crunched, dissected, etc.
b) a pup is mistaken for a strange possibly dangerous animal that might be there to attack the people, and it must be killed promptly to protect the everybody.
IF you are very lucky, a dog well socialized with people and with other small dogs might guess that the thing is another dog and try to exchange dog-greetings. Very likely the puppy will not respond properly as an adult does and if it suddenly jumps up with paws in the adult’s face, or growls and attacks, the result is likely to be a noisy uproar, hurt feelings, maybe puncture wounds on the puppy and unhappy humans. The so-called fighting breeds such as Ridgebacks and PB are most likely to instantly attempt to kill an unfamiliar puppy or juvenile in or near the home or people.
So the foundation rule of introducing a puppy to an unfamiliar adult or juvenile is simply to keep them for at least several days physically separated so that nobody gets hurt, while letting them get acquainted by sniffing each other through a small mesh barrier ‘play-pen’ or close-set “gate.”
Placing a towel from the blind or deaf dog’s crate with the puppy in its crate or bed, and the reverse of a puppy towel with the adult dog’s crate will help to get them used to each other. In addition use of a faint perfume on the owner’s hands when petting or playing with each of them will help them to accept that they are all parts of the same ‘family’ now. Aromas work across screens or nets or gates separating them from each other, and bypass any difficulties with blindness or deafness by any of the participants.
Depending on the breed of the adult/juvenile and the history-experience of the adult, it can be hazardous for an adult or child human to hold a puppy while it is suddenly presented to an adult/juvenile that has never seen the puppy before.
During the first week, be sure that the resident adult is often reassured that he or she isn’t going to be replaced by the cuddly little stranger and cast out alone into the crazy world of cars, kids and “rescues” or shelters.
Giving attention by petting, cuddling and treat bits first to the resident dog and then to the puppy, back and forth, can help familiarize the adult and the puppy that everybody gets a share of whatever is on offer. Exact equality doesn’t matter so long as everybody gets a share.
Everybody learns they’re safe and secure together, and likewise each learns that the other won’t steal toys or food from someone who has them in possession. Sometimes the family humans need to ‘explain’ those rules to anyone who gets excessively exuberant, or who tries to engage in “resource guarding” – which is NOT the same as trying to be ‘dominant.’ A puppy trying to resource-guard will usually sprawl across the food dish and fall fast asleep, while the other dogs nibble kibbles from under its paws.
Puppies and adults from rescues or shelters often need to be re-taught the dog-social rules of taking turns and sharing (there is enough for everybody), but leaving alone what some else has in its possession.
To reduce jealousy and confusion, a puppy and the adult should each have their own food and water bowls. They should be physically well apart from each other so that neither one can get the child-like notion that the other one is getting the best kibbles and dive into the other dog’s chow without warning or permission.
If the adult has excellent soft-bite (inhibited-bite) such a puppy raid on the adult’s chow will earn an older puppy a painful nip and a fierce growl with a display of the adult’s dental work (and distinctive adult dog- breath). An adult who dives into the pup’s chow, is likely to do that with a fierce growl and a nip to drive the puppy away. Some pup’s will try to defend their bowl at a surprisingly young age, which can begin to train a puppy to be fear-aggressive. [We saw that happen.]
2. After about a week of getting acquainted by sniffing and mutual observation of doggish body language (if the adult was ordinary or deaf) or sounds (–if blind: our puppies ‘sang’ a continuing chorus among themselves whenever awake, with even the deaf puppy joining in the ‘singing’). While an adult human was nearby it was possible to let the adult dog ‘inspect’ a puppy at somewhat closer range, such as a yard or meter distance. But well beyond where the adult dog could physically try to grip or touch the puppy. ..
Our mother dog during the second week permitted a family adult [deaf] dog to come closer and closer to her puppies, while the mother was watching intently very nearby. She admonished the other adult with growls and a lifted lip whenever the other adult got too close - close enough to grab a puppy! By the end of the second week the visitor clearly understood that any unexpected or inappropriate motion toward a puppy would result in dog-mother scolding and possibly a nip- for a careless visitor.
The adult dogs need a refuge from a pest puppy - - a place to escape the puppy if needed. Use also treat parties where the adult gets great stuff while near the puppy. Please be sure that the puppy also gets treats when the adult is nearby BUT doesn’t compete or things can get worse. The adults still needs “me” personal time with her people AND also nice things happen when the puppy is present – that adjusts both points of view of things!
3. In the third week the visitor adult dog was let by the mother to carefully place a single paw next to a puppy, to lean over the puppy, and to delicately sniff it and possibly observe it moving about. Any move by the visitor that upset a puppy and caused it to cry-out in surprise or distress was immediately responded to by the mother urging with fierce growls the visitor out of sight of the puppy or puppies.
About that time, when the mother was absent from the room holding the puppies’ nest, a visitor dog would occasionally from curiosity sneak into the room and carefully watch and inspect the puppies, with an occasional unwise sticking in of a big paw to touch or flip over a puppy just for curiosity.
Contrary to myths, properly cared for puppies do Not automatically roll onto their backs and pee on themselves when a stranger adult dog shows up and messes with them. Instead, they are very likely to try to play exuberantly and unexpectedly with the adult. If the adult grabs the pup and holds onto it as do a few fighting breeds, the puppy “screams” for MOTHER!-HELP!: depending in part on the adult’s breed, experience in shelters or rescue, and how well it has been trained and socialized. At that point a wise visitor flees at full speed because Mother is going to be there, possibly with teeth displayed near the visitor’s throat, to correct whatever needs ‘fixing.’
Unfortunately some breeds react instinctively to a puppy’s terror-scream by holding on to it solidly, pulling, and trying to silence the puppy by killing it, even if that means tearing it out of the arms of a human who tried to save the puppy. [Our experience!]
Visitor humans need to keep in mind what can happen if the human messes with a puppy without its mother’s permission and the puppy get upset, worried and anxious! If a puppy cries for HELP, a really worried anxious mother dog arriving to protect her puppy or puppies is a ‘force of nature’ to be reckoned with-- preferably at a distance.
We did not see any instances when it seemed that their behaviors were different whether the adult dog was blind or deaf. A blind dog would be relying mostly on the smells of the puppy and sounds it made to keep track of it. A deaf dog would mostly be watching its antics.
4. During the 4th week, if all has gone well, an adult dog regarded a puppy as an odd behaving small dog who have special protection by the mother and their humans, and who are learning “how to be dogs” with proper dog-social behavior such as never pawing an adult’s face, do play-bows to invite games, wagging tail as signals. {Contrary to myths, puppies can wag their tails within a few hours after being born, usually in response to tasting dog-milk or excitement.}
[The humans of an adult blind dog and a new puppy will need to emphasize “bonding” sharing of treats and cuddling so that the blind dog understands that the little new dog is permitted to do odd and unexpected things and doesn’t mean any offense by its actions and mistakes. The emphasis on human aided social bonding is needed because an blind adult dog can hear and smell a puppy’s “social signals”, but can’t see and understand a puppy’s instinctive gesture get-acquainted “I’m a puppy” communications. Without experience with a particular puppy, a blind adult might find startling and unwelcome the natural antics of puppies such as pawing in his-her grown-up’s face and deliberate, careless collisions with the adult while zooming about and chasing toys the blind adult can’t see but might hear. Extra attention and voice praise for a blind adult are highly desirable to balance the distractions of dealing with an exuberant puppy.]
[A deaf adult dog would be more likely to promptly understand a puppy’s attempts at dog-social “I’m nice” get- acquainted communications, because puppies and adults usually don’t much use their verbal comments to confirm that they’re both peaceful and hope to play happily together and with their people.]
At about that time some difficulties and confusion can happen between another dog, the mother and-or adult humans or kids. Quite often another dog will get the notion that he or she can share or mess with the puppies’ food or toys, BUT the mother is likely to verbally object and show teeth to a visitor sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong. Visitor dogs were seen intruding for fun or curiosity even after the visitor has already eaten all it could manage from its own bowl. The puppies don’t care as long as they each get enough and ours would happily share a bowl without conflict if the bowl or plate is big enough that everyone can get a nose into the food.
An experienced mother was often instinctively unable to eat until her puppies were satisfied, because of her instinct to ensure that they all get enough to eat from a bowl of food while even a single puppy was still nibbling. An adult visitor dog intruding on the puppy food bowl contrary to human or the mother’s warnings and the mother’s powerful protective instincts, was very likely to get a vigorous physical and noisy lesson in discretion and self –control around puppies. Commonly during a severe scolding the mother’s teeth might be touching the side of the other dog’s throat, while she growled for several minutes (which a blind dog would feel and hear, and a deaf dog would certainly feel), and the other dog contemplated the sky or an indoor ceiling.
Our mother dog even when one of her puppies was four years old would still watch her offspring eating until her “puppy” was satisfied, before she would approach the bowl to eat the scraps remained. There was no magic “turn-off” biological switch that caused the mother to abruptly cease to care about, protect and educate her own puppies. Male dogs who took over a task of raising and socializing a younger dog also continued the responsibility for months to years.
Even adult females spayed as early as six months of age often recognize clumsy puppies or juveniles lacking in proper dog-manners and attempt to socialize them, if given a chance and permission from their humans to try. Adult male dogs of some breeds were observed to defer to the resident adult female concerning education of puppies and juveniles. Many were willing to attempt to educate poorly socialized rude obnoxious juveniles.
Unlike a juvenile, an older unsocialized adult dog may react poorly to advice and counseling on proper dog-dog and dog-human behaviors by a “dog-matriarch”. An exchange of nips and growls among such adults is harmless although perhaps dismaying to humans unaccustomed to the sight and sounds of dogs engaged in mutual exchanges of opinions about proper behaviors. If the ill-behaving adult attempts to do real injury, the owners should separate them permanently, and perhaps seek help from a reputable professional trainer (see web site Nonlineardogs.)
So far as we know, well trained and socialized adult dogs were never observed to try socializing human children. Herding breeds were seen trying to “corral” toddlers and keep the kids out of the streets and any areas forbidden to the dogs.
5. 5th week – puppies should be safely able to play with the adult dogs that they know well by that time. If they aren’t well bonded and fond and trusting each other after a month of getting acquainted, the puppy should be re-homed for its own safety.
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Background: Contrary to some of the information in the book “DOGS” by Coppingers, 2001, pages 217-221, it isn’t true that all puppies are the same, furthermore each litter of puppies is different from other litters even if the mother and father were the same for each litter. Also Coppingers, page zxz, mistakenly alleged that biological genetic “switches” turn on and later turn off specific mothering behaviors precisely at certain times following births of puppies. Actually, the so-called switches function at somewhat different times for each dog during its life, and vary from one breed to another. To paraphrase a comment by Adam Miklosi, 2007: it is absurd to write or claim to speak some universal ‘truth’ about “DOGS” as though every dog were produced on an industrial machinery line and programmed with the identical software (fixed action patterns –FAP) that control their actions from the instant of each one’s conception. However admirable the Coppingers’ peer reviewed published research might be on other aspects of dog and human behaviors, their book of 2001 poorly dealt with puppies younger than the age six months, depending on the specific dog and its breed. Ineptness or flaws in accurately observing and describing behaviors of puppies and adult dogs from birth cast for me a shadow of doubt over their other alleged descriptions of the behaviors of various dogs in varied circumstances.
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[i] A remarkable video captured events of an 8-weeks puppy meeting a “pack” of five adults of ages ranging from one year to about ten. The youngest of the pack had become acquainted in about one hour at the pup’s original home, and they rode together to the new home. When they arrived at the yard of their new home, the other dogs gathered around to welcome their people and companion home, and inspect any new toys or treats for them. The pup at that point smelled like their peole and their companion who had traveled together. After a few moments of chaos and “happy dances”, one of the other adults brought a soccer ball to the people and a second adult joined in – while the other three adults hustled-herded the puppy away. During the following half hour continually two adult dogs took turns diverting and entertaining their humans while on video the others were seen one at a time inspecting the new puppy. Butt sniffing, gender checking, teeth displays, mumbling-throat rumbles, pawing and tail wagging were used differently by each of the adults as each met, inspected and “tested” the puppy. The puppy was appeared to be amazed at the “dog-circus” but neither afraid nor anxious. The last two adults who inspected him pushed him down by placing a paw solidly between his shoulders, and then flipped him on his back where he stayed until he was let up. Afterward the crowd engaged in a kind of ‘adult’s free-play’ with the people while the puppy wandered around the yard inspecting the shrubbery and tasting the plants. // Weeks later one of the adults had learned from the puppy to sleep in the sun on the round top of a lawn table, and a year later he was announced as the happy father of six puppies. Evidently well trained and socialized adults of some breeds can quickly adopt a new puppy who is also very well trained and socialized beforehand.
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[ii] Seeing by Hearing-mapping and Navigation
I. Of about 10 or 11 dog-senses useable for detecting vibrations and using the data, S. Coren, 2004 indicated at least eight or nine, of which four were a kind of “touch”:
1) Detection of gross motions by solid-body contact, i.e. “velcroing”: In the community of deaf and blind dogs-people, the tendency is well known especially of newly adopted dogs to attempt to keep very close physical contact (velcroing) with their people. They can keep a paw or their chin on their person’s foot, or in contact with a person’s chair. With experience, a blind or deaf dog can “graduate” to lying across a doorway, or some other strategy to keep track of their people. Home walls and floors of wood were often used as “velcro” surfaces that the dogs relied on to vibrate (sound waves) in ways that indicated what their people were doing. Vibration of wooden structures because of high winds, and storms were sometimes upsetting to velcroed dogs, because the unusual vibrations were strange, might make clutter over and conceal customary vibrations, and might be frightening if the dogs could no longer keep track of their people. Concrete floors, common in single story homes, tend to be weak carriers of vibration. A dog living there might tend to mostly stay in contact with the walls and furniture, or their persons.
2) Detection by whiskers: These are explicitly sensitive to air-motion vibration forces and contact with surfaces. Whiskers have a considerable assembly of dedicated nerves that go direct to the brain. Whiskers of blind and deaf dogs ought to be protected from trimming, regardless of the breed; S. Coren, p.96-98.
3) Detection of air-motion induced forces on external ear parts: The external parts of dogs’ ears naturally vibrate in response to sound waves, acting as “antennas” and by their shapes are often amplifiers. Cropping or mutilating their ears reduces their ability to detect and analyze air-vibrations. [We saw mother dogs grip puppies' ears while scold-growling.]
4) Detection by skin-surfaces nerves of the pressure waves and motion of vibrations in air, water or solids: This is usually thought of as “touch” and is very sensitive on a dog’s parts where there is little or no body hair, S. Coren, p. 94.
5) Detection by drag-forces on body hair: Coren, p.94, movement of air across hairs creates forces on the hairs, bending them in the direction the sound wave moves and making them vibrate sidewise to the direction the sound wave moves. Short fine hairs resonate better with high pitch sounds. Length of the dog’s hair varies from place to place, (as well as from one breed to another), so effectiveness of this can be an important difference among individual dogs and breeds.
6) Detection of compression of body organ-nerves: As S. Coren, p. 94, pointed out, mammals have pressure detection nerves within their muscles and other parts of their body. Those nerves are also going to detect compression-extension vibrations (sound) that penetrate their bodies. So-called Thunder-shirts that compress the body reduce the sensitivity to low-pitch noises. Fireworks explosions and very sharp loud dog barks can activate such internal nerves [People who were close to such events have experienced such detection of sounds.]
7) Detection by body-cavity and respiratory channels: Slow pressure change-vibrations are detected by some dogs. Detection is a documented capability of rodents such as gerbils. Humans who experienced discomfort because of pressure changes during aircraft flights as the plane went up to cruise height, or while landing, experienced the process. Our dogs routinely detect and report to us about passing weather low pressure zones, and remote thunder storms.
8) Detection through dog-feet contacting solids (Vestibular acceleration detection [Strain, 2011 and Coren, 2004] and seismic detection, et al): The details of how dogs detect very slow vibrations of floors such as those of earthquakes and passing trucks and buses were poorly documented, but their existence was documented. (S. Coren p.95, 115-117)
9) “Imaging-by-sound: sonar”- some dogs learn to mentally create three-dimensional “images” of the size and locations of objects in rooms that they are in. Textures (sound absorption and reflection) of their surrounding surfaces can become understood by the dog’s brain as a rough equivalent of colors. For example, a ‘surface’ such as the sky that ordinarily accepted all sounds without any reflection would seem to be “black” (which is likewise the color seen by humans of pure black velvet and other very light-absorbing surfaces.) Similarly, a continuous source of sound might be understood as the equivalent of a continuous source of light. Just as with ordinary optical vision, “sight” based on sound waves might be confused by reflections from nearby surfaces, which interfere with exactly understanding what is being “seen” (S. Coren p. 281). The physics processes were understood scientifically as “time difference of arrival (TDOA)” and relative loudness, and widely used for radar and sonar.
10) Vocal cord acoustic resonance – Observed by us; (not mentioned by Coren or Strain). Our mother dog repeatedly placed her partly open mouth on the side of the throat of her son or daughter while rumble-growl scolding one of them at a time for misbehavior. Her daughter is officially totally deaf at human hearing loudness and pitches, BUT learned to detect vibrations very well by the mechanisms listed, plus the vocal-cords resonance used on her by her mother. Helen Keller allegedly learned to speak intelligibly by detecting with her fingers the voice-box vibrations (sounds) of other people speaking, and imitating that. - - Humans technically could use the same mechanisms but almost nobody has to do that, and thus never learn to do it on purpose or well.
4. Temperature Based Navigation: Detection of temperature - anyone who has seen dogs seek places indoors where direct sunlight through a window is available has seen dogs using detection of infrared, temperatures and temperature differences for navigation. Dogs with long hair on most of their bodies were observed to use their faces as their main “sensors” to locate the warmest places for lying down, or places to be avoided (overheating is uncomfortable for most dogs.) Research on the quality and possible dog-uses of thermal detection were sparse, S. Coren p. 94.
We observed that individuals of a litter of five puppies moved together and cuddled if their nest temperature dropped below 73 degrees F, and conversely they spread apart from each other when the temperature rose above 73 F. Because they were responding to a temperature (thermal) condition, they by temperature-heat-seeking located each other at least partly by comparing the temperature of the environment to the temperature of their siblings. When an adult dog learned to use “whole-body” detection of infrared and temperature differences for navigation, the dog probably often also appeared to have a learned mental “time of day” map of what their temperature expectations were in each locality.
II. Training for Adaptive Development of Useful hearing and Navigation
Reality-existence of adaptive improvements of hearing and navigation has been demonstrated and reported. Use of the information in training is however proceeding slowly, probably because most people were mistakenly cautioned by authorities such as Ms Becker (reference 3) to have no hope that their deaf (or blind) dog could in any way improve its useful hearing and navigation after being diagnosed. Recently discussions of adaptive training were posted in other places; see S. Coren, 2004, p.207. Experience of many people who adopted deaf, and blind, dogs can be summarized in five crucial recommendations:
1. Develop bonding and mutual trust because the startle-reflex is the Key to activating and expediting their adapting.
2. Use gradual consistent continuing mutual education - exposure and habituation to different kinds of vibration (sound) and electromagnetic (light- thermal) stimulation
3. Use of positive applause and rewards is vital
4. Provide physical exercise and mental learning, for lifetime
5. Consider teaching the dog to deliberately paw-gesture to humans to signal its needs and wants (see reference 6, Sean Senechal)