Bonding, Startle-Reflexs and Training
Expertise Learned from Experience
by E. Grewal (Liz Grewal) of Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia.
First off I wish to make it very clear that everything I am going to put on these pages is for training NOT only a DEAF dog, but a hearing dog also.
Deaf dog mantra --- 1) it is a dog 2) breed & that breeds traits 3) it own personality & way way way way last DEAF or ears that are ornaments.
Bonding – is paying attention to your dog, cuddling, playing, feeding & taking to the toilet.
-Playing – this can be chasing, running, tugging, wriggling toys, but doing this WITH your puppy.
-Cuddling – this is time spent snuggled together, patting, just sleeping together.
-Feeding – hand feeding & bowl feeding are both important to a puppy. Hand feeding, because it is reinforcing that EVERY good thing comes from your hands & bowl feeding to promote some independence, of being able to eat on its own.
-Toileting – a new puppy need to be taken outside to toilet after --- eating, drinking, playing, sleeping & approx every ½ - ¾ hour otherwise when awake. As your puppy gets older, it can be left longer between toilet stops. The rule of thumb for night toileting is 1hour per month of age & 1hr for LUCK e.g. 8 weeks or 2 month old puppy 2hr + 1hr = 3hrs, but please remember there are exceptions of every rule.
Startle Reflex – this is when you wake a dog up & it jumps up in surprise and SHOCK
With deaf dogs, we suggest you gently rub your puppy on its side to wake it up to a very pleasant feeling & have a big smile on your face & a treat to feed to make the experience of being woken up GOOD & enjoyable. You can also put your hand in front of the puppies nose, so it comes awake to your smell. BUT we do suggest over time, that you wake the little darling up a bit ‘rougher’ e.g. like as if a 2yr old child would do it, so the pup as it grows up can experience coming awake gently, but also not so gently. I have rolled a ball into my dogs, even lobbed a ball gently at them to wake them up & if you do this over time, they will get used to being woken up in all different situations, BUT always have a SMILE on the face, to show you are happy with them coming awake & you will then always have a happy to wake up dog
A dog that comes to you later in life, you need to start carefully with waking them up. I would always stand BEHIND the dog & rub their shoulder, still a huge SMILE on the face & a very smelly treat to feed. Now I suggested BEHIND & SHOULDER RUB, for one very good reason, this is the HARDEST place for a dog to be able to ‘grab’ you with their mouth, if they do not come awake happy, due to not being treated correctly before coming to you. IF this is the case then you will need to proceed with caution & continue to deliberately wake this dog & have that very HAPPY SMILEY face & good food for treats to help this darling learn that being woken us is not a bad thing to happen to them & to get them used to this happening to them.
Velcroing – this is something that is known to be super common with deaf dogs.
We do call them ‘velcro dogs’ & it is because they want to be our ‘shadow’ 24/7 if given the chance, they want to be with us experiencing EVERYTHING we do in our lives, that also includes going to toilet, showering, cooking etc. We also make sure we wake our dogs if they go to sleep while we are in a room & we decide to leave that room, so they can decide to stay put & sleep or follow us, as this saves any anxiety from not knowing where we are at any given time
Training
Sit – my hand signal for sit is the Obedience Hand signal – palm of hand facing the sky & the fingers out flat & the whole hand moved upwards.
To start with I take a treat between my 1st finger & thumb with the other three finger are out flat & I put the treat in front of the dogs nose & slowly move my hand upwards, so the dogs nose follows the hand & goes up & at the same time the dogs rear end will move towards the ground & when the ground & rear end meet, feed that treat very quickly & a few more treats for good measure & to emphasise the dog has done the correct behaviour. At this time I would also add a ‘good dog’ signal, which can be one (1) or two (2) thumbs up, clapping, 1st finger and thumb meeting in an “O”.
Clicker training – this can be done with a deaf dog & we suggest using 1 thumb up or a small LED flash light NEVER EVER a laser light, as you do not want to accidentally hurt your dog by flashing it in their eye & also some deaf dogs have an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) tendency & laser lights make this worse. We suggest the 1 thumb up, as you ALWAYS have a thumb on you & not always an LED flash light.
Drop/Down – I am using the Obedience signal of the palm of the hand facing the ground & finger out flat & the whole hand moved downwards.
To start with have your dog in a sitting position & take the treat between the thumb & 1st finger or even put it between the first 2 fingers & slowly move this downwards & when you get to the ground move it a bit towards you to give the dog room to go down & put its paws out in front of it & when in this position feed the treat & again a few more for good luck & emphasis that the dog is where you want it to be & I would also add a ‘good dog’ signal at this stage also
IF your dog keeps its rear end in the air, then I would just ‘hover’ my hand over the rear end, so if the rear end touches the hand & the dog gets a little surprise & should then take the rear end down, sit it is in a proper down/drop position. DO NOT ever push, the dog’s rear end down, we want the dog to want to do this on its OWN.
Stay – Stand with the dog in a sit on your LEFT side & the STAY signal is the hand with thumb & all fingers together positioned sidewards with the side of the little finger towards the ground & the points of your fingers pointing out past the dogs nose & your bring this hand (right hand) in towards the dogs nose.
To train this have your dog in a sit on your left side (obedience style) & give the dog the signal, then pivot on your RIGHT food to stand in front of the dog – nearly dogs nose to your knees – then five (5) seconds later pivot back to beside the dog & then feed a treat. Over time you stay longer in front of the dog & also slowly move further away from the dog, but every time you take a step further away from the dog, you go back & start with the 5 seconds & slowly build up the time you stand in front of the dog.
Heel – is the sweep of the hand out from the dog, to signal to walk nicely beside their owner. With Heel, you step off on your LEFT food & this in the end becomes the dogs ‘heel signal’. To get this you first need to ‘lure’ your dog to where you want them to be & that is by putting your hand with food in it, down the side of your leg, where you want the dogs nose to be & slowly over time you can move your hand up your leg, until if you want to do competition obedience you are holding your hand on the front of your hip bone.
Please remember, all of these signals are BASIC obedience signals for use at the higher levels of obedience, BUT these signals are often changed for other signals, that each person prefers to use.
Please also remember that deaf dogs can be trained with ONE handed signals that can be MADE UP, or one handed deaf sign language or obedience signals. I say ONE handed signals, but also suggest you use both the LEFT & RIGHT hands to signal, so that anyone can communicate with your dog & the dog UNDERSTANDs what it is being asked. I have also said ONE handed signals, so you can hold a lead, treats, shopping, a phone etc with the other hand & still communicate with your dog.
When training a hearing puppy, these hand signals are best used at first to train the puppy and later added to the VERBAL command you want to go with the hand signal & keep the signals up all their life, because IF your dog goes deaf with age, then the transition is not as hard on them, because you can still communicate in a way they know & are comfortable with.
For questions I am contactable on email --- [email protected]
First off I wish to make it very clear that everything I am going to put on these pages is for training NOT only a DEAF dog, but a hearing dog also.
Deaf dog mantra --- 1) it is a dog 2) breed & that breeds traits 3) it own personality & way way way way last DEAF or ears that are ornaments.
Bonding – is paying attention to your dog, cuddling, playing, feeding & taking to the toilet.
-Playing – this can be chasing, running, tugging, wriggling toys, but doing this WITH your puppy.
-Cuddling – this is time spent snuggled together, patting, just sleeping together.
-Feeding – hand feeding & bowl feeding are both important to a puppy. Hand feeding, because it is reinforcing that EVERY good thing comes from your hands & bowl feeding to promote some independence, of being able to eat on its own.
-Toileting – a new puppy need to be taken outside to toilet after --- eating, drinking, playing, sleeping & approx every ½ - ¾ hour otherwise when awake. As your puppy gets older, it can be left longer between toilet stops. The rule of thumb for night toileting is 1hour per month of age & 1hr for LUCK e.g. 8 weeks or 2 month old puppy 2hr + 1hr = 3hrs, but please remember there are exceptions of every rule.
Startle Reflex – this is when you wake a dog up & it jumps up in surprise and SHOCK
With deaf dogs, we suggest you gently rub your puppy on its side to wake it up to a very pleasant feeling & have a big smile on your face & a treat to feed to make the experience of being woken up GOOD & enjoyable. You can also put your hand in front of the puppies nose, so it comes awake to your smell. BUT we do suggest over time, that you wake the little darling up a bit ‘rougher’ e.g. like as if a 2yr old child would do it, so the pup as it grows up can experience coming awake gently, but also not so gently. I have rolled a ball into my dogs, even lobbed a ball gently at them to wake them up & if you do this over time, they will get used to being woken up in all different situations, BUT always have a SMILE on the face, to show you are happy with them coming awake & you will then always have a happy to wake up dog
A dog that comes to you later in life, you need to start carefully with waking them up. I would always stand BEHIND the dog & rub their shoulder, still a huge SMILE on the face & a very smelly treat to feed. Now I suggested BEHIND & SHOULDER RUB, for one very good reason, this is the HARDEST place for a dog to be able to ‘grab’ you with their mouth, if they do not come awake happy, due to not being treated correctly before coming to you. IF this is the case then you will need to proceed with caution & continue to deliberately wake this dog & have that very HAPPY SMILEY face & good food for treats to help this darling learn that being woken us is not a bad thing to happen to them & to get them used to this happening to them.
Velcroing – this is something that is known to be super common with deaf dogs.
We do call them ‘velcro dogs’ & it is because they want to be our ‘shadow’ 24/7 if given the chance, they want to be with us experiencing EVERYTHING we do in our lives, that also includes going to toilet, showering, cooking etc. We also make sure we wake our dogs if they go to sleep while we are in a room & we decide to leave that room, so they can decide to stay put & sleep or follow us, as this saves any anxiety from not knowing where we are at any given time
Training
Sit – my hand signal for sit is the Obedience Hand signal – palm of hand facing the sky & the fingers out flat & the whole hand moved upwards.
To start with I take a treat between my 1st finger & thumb with the other three finger are out flat & I put the treat in front of the dogs nose & slowly move my hand upwards, so the dogs nose follows the hand & goes up & at the same time the dogs rear end will move towards the ground & when the ground & rear end meet, feed that treat very quickly & a few more treats for good measure & to emphasise the dog has done the correct behaviour. At this time I would also add a ‘good dog’ signal, which can be one (1) or two (2) thumbs up, clapping, 1st finger and thumb meeting in an “O”.
Clicker training – this can be done with a deaf dog & we suggest using 1 thumb up or a small LED flash light NEVER EVER a laser light, as you do not want to accidentally hurt your dog by flashing it in their eye & also some deaf dogs have an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) tendency & laser lights make this worse. We suggest the 1 thumb up, as you ALWAYS have a thumb on you & not always an LED flash light.
Drop/Down – I am using the Obedience signal of the palm of the hand facing the ground & finger out flat & the whole hand moved downwards.
To start with have your dog in a sitting position & take the treat between the thumb & 1st finger or even put it between the first 2 fingers & slowly move this downwards & when you get to the ground move it a bit towards you to give the dog room to go down & put its paws out in front of it & when in this position feed the treat & again a few more for good luck & emphasis that the dog is where you want it to be & I would also add a ‘good dog’ signal at this stage also
IF your dog keeps its rear end in the air, then I would just ‘hover’ my hand over the rear end, so if the rear end touches the hand & the dog gets a little surprise & should then take the rear end down, sit it is in a proper down/drop position. DO NOT ever push, the dog’s rear end down, we want the dog to want to do this on its OWN.
Stay – Stand with the dog in a sit on your LEFT side & the STAY signal is the hand with thumb & all fingers together positioned sidewards with the side of the little finger towards the ground & the points of your fingers pointing out past the dogs nose & your bring this hand (right hand) in towards the dogs nose.
To train this have your dog in a sit on your left side (obedience style) & give the dog the signal, then pivot on your RIGHT food to stand in front of the dog – nearly dogs nose to your knees – then five (5) seconds later pivot back to beside the dog & then feed a treat. Over time you stay longer in front of the dog & also slowly move further away from the dog, but every time you take a step further away from the dog, you go back & start with the 5 seconds & slowly build up the time you stand in front of the dog.
Heel – is the sweep of the hand out from the dog, to signal to walk nicely beside their owner. With Heel, you step off on your LEFT food & this in the end becomes the dogs ‘heel signal’. To get this you first need to ‘lure’ your dog to where you want them to be & that is by putting your hand with food in it, down the side of your leg, where you want the dogs nose to be & slowly over time you can move your hand up your leg, until if you want to do competition obedience you are holding your hand on the front of your hip bone.
Please remember, all of these signals are BASIC obedience signals for use at the higher levels of obedience, BUT these signals are often changed for other signals, that each person prefers to use.
Please also remember that deaf dogs can be trained with ONE handed signals that can be MADE UP, or one handed deaf sign language or obedience signals. I say ONE handed signals, but also suggest you use both the LEFT & RIGHT hands to signal, so that anyone can communicate with your dog & the dog UNDERSTANDs what it is being asked. I have also said ONE handed signals, so you can hold a lead, treats, shopping, a phone etc with the other hand & still communicate with your dog.
When training a hearing puppy, these hand signals are best used at first to train the puppy and later added to the VERBAL command you want to go with the hand signal & keep the signals up all their life, because IF your dog goes deaf with age, then the transition is not as hard on them, because you can still communicate in a way they know & are comfortable with.
For questions I am contactable on email --- [email protected]
Notes: ........