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Training a deaf dog

I've recently come to own a deaf puppy. How do I train him?

The deaf dog is not that different to train. You really have to teach the dog to focus on the trainer.

I would teach it to come to me 1st using a leash or lite checkcord. Just gentle tugs until it starts to you and then a food treat for reward. Once it understands that the tug on the leash means to come you can start using a sign to mean come and the food treat, just be consistant with the sign that you use.

To train the sit command have the dog close to you and at the sametime that you pull up on the leash push his rump down with the other hand and give a treat after a few times he will get the idea what you want and will start to sit without you having to push down on his rump. When he is that far along you will start using the sign of your choice. When you pull up on the leash as the pup starts into the sit position give the sign when his rump hits the floor treat and praise.

Start as early as possible using a dogtra e-collar with the pager, once you teach the dog to look at you with the pager mode on the collar you can teach it anything using the signs that you choose.

I train all of my dogs to be steady on birds to wing and shot with out any voice commands it works great and the dogs look really good because you are not breaking their concentration by giving a command. The main thing is to keep control of the deaf dog at all times while training and become the center of attention for that dog. Everthing is feel touch smell and visual with the deaf dogs, they are not hard to train just different. I use american sign language with my dogs because it is my language. From observing dogs in training over the years they learn more from our body language and facial experssion than they do from verbal commands.

I am glad that you are taking on this pup, I'm sure you will do a wonderful job with him. I hope I can be of help to you. This should get you started let me know how it goes and we will continue with some other training. Let me know what you want to teach him.

Maurice Lindley
Lindley Kennels
803-243-4979 (Home)
803-243-3583 (Kennel)
SouthernGunDog@aol.com


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