#DEAF DOGS HAND SIGNAL FOR COME FULL#

As our incredibly wise ODH director Judith Piper pointed out, this positive training “gives her confidence and lets her do something right like she was told the opposite before.” It not only built her confidence, but also the bond between us she knew that my hands would mean treats and belly rubs, not punishment. Quite “handy” when I needed to call her and her hearing foster siblings in the house.Įven more than that, it made her so very happy to do the right thing. Within a couple days, I could go to the other side of the room and do the wrist roll, and she would come to me! Soon after, it would work all the way across the back yard. After a couple times, I’d increase the distance. As she stepped forward for the treat, I’d give it along with big smiles and enthusiastic pets – cheers too, but it’s hard to train us silly humans to not be verbal. I used this concept to first teach Lizzy “come.” With a treat in my left hand I would let her smell it, step a foot or so away from her, bend forward slightly then roll my right wrist in a circle with my hand flat. Thankfully we’d worked on that and he stayed where he was.

Fortunately there was no traffic, but he was 100 yards away by the time he realized he’d gotten that far from mom and I needed him to stop where he was until I got to him.

#DEAF DOGS HAND SIGNAL FOR COME FULL#

I experienced that first hand once when my own young dog was lured away at full speed by a bunny. If she can see you, you can give a sit/stay hand signal that, if trained well enough, could keep the dog safely in place until you could get to her. Imagine if the dog somehow got loose and was across a busy street. So how about hand signals? I remembered reading years ago, early in my dog training experience, that even while they are hearing-able puppies, we should teach our dogs hand cues to go along with the verbal ones, so that if the pup should lose the ability in old age, he can still respond.

Wanting to give her some positive experiences, as well as assurance that she would come to me if needed, I decided to try some positive reinforcement training.īut what do you do when the dog can’t hear the word? Well, dogs don’t speak English anyway, and are good at judging our body language (think how they get excited when you’re putting on your shoes and heading toward the leash holder). It seemed as though this sweet, gentle, 40 pound girl had been handled roughly in her former life.

My first Final Refuge foster, Lizzy, came to me deaf, tail tucked, and fearful of sudden moves toward her, even trying to scramble to the back door if gently directed by her collar to a different place. Our guest blogger this week, Old Dog Haven foster mom Tonya Kniest, shares her thoughts about teaching a deaf old dog new tricks. Communicating With a Deaf Dog Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

Deaf dogs hand signal for come