It’s National Deaf Dog Awareness Week, September 22-27. Hearing loss in dogs can occur for several reasons. The most common reason is due to old age. As a pet parent, it is very important to educate yourself on ways to care and how to communicate with your deaf dog. You want your dog to continue to live comfortable and be safe.
On Sugar’s last vet visit, it was confirmed the she is losing her hearing. For the past months, I’ve noticed a change in her obedience behavior. Sugar ignored many of my verbal commands. She was unresponsive to common house sounds like the house door alarm. Also, Sugar suddenly became sensitive to barometric pressure.
What Causes Hearing Loss in Dogs?
Many factors affect hearing loss in dogs. One of the factors that affected Sugar’s hearing is her chronic ear infections. Beside failure to respond when being called, here are
4 Simple Tests to Determine Your Dog’s Hearing Loss
1) When your dog is asleep, make some noises like clapping your hands. Did your dog wake-up?
2) Snap Fingers next to your dog’s ear. Did your dog react?
3) Play with your dog’s squeaky toys. Does your dog show interest to the sound?
4) Ear Check- Have your vet thoroughly check your dog’s ear.
The BAER (Brainstream Auditory Evoked Response) method is a more reliable test. It is costly but it can determine the degree of deafness in your dog.
Handling Hearing Loss in Dogs
The best way to communicate with a deaf dog is through hand signal commands.
Sugar is very fortunate to have learned many basic hand signals at a young age. The basic hand signals such as sit, stay and come are very useful. The watch me hand signal is crucial as it helps her to pay attention. Playing eye contact games are another method I’ve been using in handling Sugar’s hearing loss. I will share more about Sugar’s hearing loss on a future post.
Do you have a senior dog? Is Your Senior Dog Going Deaf?
Hearing loss should not diminish your dog’s quality of life.
Lately, I have been pretty convinced Shiner is going deaf too. Just earlier today, she was sleeping hard on the couch so I put a treat in front of her nose to see what she would do. She just kept on sleeping lol… my mom started calling “Shineeeerrr” louder and louder and finally she woke up and got her treat 🙂 I remember doing some of these tests on dogs at the vet hospital. Good info!
Oh those pesky ear infections!! Booth has had many of them also and I FINALLY figured out why! He goes to the groomer every 3 months. When he’s getting his bath the water getting in his ears is causing the infections. They get very costly along with the discomfort that Booth has to suffer. When I had the thought that it was the water causing the infections I asked his groomer to PLEASE be sure to put cotton in his ears to keep them dry! IT WORKED 🙂 no infections this year!!
Oh no…. but I agree with you, hand signs are an option… and we will work that I will learn the basics. It’s good to be prepared for that case. Many thanks for a great and very important post, Sugar.
My sister’s dog was 20 and he went deaf and blind over the last two years of his life. She found foot tapping near him very useful – just to let him know she was there and close by (he could feel the vibrations)
Sugar, I’m sorry to hear that your hearing isn’t as good as it used to be. Life is STILL wonderful, even if you can’t hear anything! 🙂 Keep giving everyone that Golden smile, and you’ll be just fine! The hand signals are a great option- at least you learned them early so that it is a smooth transition into hearing loss. 🙂
Happy Friday!
Sadie 🙂
My previous dog Carter was almost completely deaf by the end. Hand signals were great and he responded very well to them, proof that you can teach and old dog new tricks.
My 3 oldest pack mates (ages 16, and two at 14) are all deaf. Or mostly deaf. Sometimes they hear clapping but not always. One of them even sleeps through the chaos of getting ready for feeding time. Mommy has to wake her up to eat. But life is good regardless of being deaf. I’m losing my sight due to PRA but I’m still living a good life too. Just don’t move the furniture, Mom!
Hap-Pee Fry-Day!
Mity is going deaf and I think his eye sight is also starting to fail him.
We are sorry to hear about this with sugar. Our vet toles mom that not only is my eyesight just about gone, but he suspects I have hearing loss from the mill where I cames from 4 years ago. We think that your sugar is just beautiful!
stella rose
Great post, Sugar. Phantom has lost almost all of his hearing. He too does know a number of hand signals, but first Mom has to get his attention. Usually a gentle rapping on his crate or a loud clap if he is at a distance will be enough to get his attention. But if he doesn’t know that one of us or a human is near him, he startles very easily. Mom as all the little bipeds trained to never approach him from behind and to always be sure he knows they are there before they touch him. He never goes outside alone either. Tough getting old.
Woos – Phantom, Ciara, and Lightning
I have always dreaded the hearing lose in my old dogs. We live on a farm. It is heart breaking to need to be a especially careful driving any piece of equipment in the dooryard and need to watch more carefully for the dog than the kids. We’ve been luck so far with our 14yr old Rhottie. His hearing is extraordinary. And as we know longer farm, but still live in the country, I have a fenced yard. With four Big dogs it is very necessary. We live on a four corners near a Rock quarry. Every one of them bark when they go by!
We start hand signals along with voice commands from day 1. My hope is to make it easier for the fluffies if hearing ever becomes an issue. Sugar is so lucky to have such a wonderful family.
Sugar I have not had an ear infection but mom has and she knows how much they can hurt.
Hugs madi your bfff
I am sorry about Sugar, but you are doing all of the right things to accommodate the deficit in her hearing. Great article too.
Aria (a Pit Bull Mix Rescue), my oldest at 13 years old, has some hearing loss and cataracts that affect her sight somewhat. She is slower getting around then she used to be, but she is still doing very well and enjoys laying out in the sun and on the couch. She isn’t into the roughhousing that the younger Goldens are into, but she still has a good quality of life and that is how I base everything for them and for me. Quality of life is far more important than quantity…at least in my opinion (and experience). She is the last dog I brought from Baltimore. The others have since crossed the Rainbow Bridge.
She still get plenty of loves and eats and drinks well and sort of does her own thing and if that makes her happy, then I am totally fine with it. I just keep an eye on her (as I do all of them) to make sure that she is doing ok.
Hand signs are great for younger dogs but it quite hard for the elderly. Ancient Pip was losing both her hearing and eye sight but we managed with patience and paying close attention and helping her out. Sorry Sugar to hear your hearing is going.
Best wishes Molly
Many Frenchies are deaf too. Bringing awareness to deaf pups sure is a good thing
Lily & Edward
Mom suspects Katie is having some hearing loss as well, but we forgot to ask the vet about it. When she is sleeping it is real hard to wake her up without going close and calling her, she has also gotten really sensitive to certain sounds especially text messages on Mom’s cell. They make her all nervous. Next time we are at the vet we will be asking. We usually land there every couple months for something. Interesting post, thank you. I think we will try that clapping by her ears or using a squeaker to see what happens. She is good about hand signals, so we will be okay if it is the case. I think her needing readers for her eyes will be a bigger issue, but we have convinced her to skip reading for now.
Bilbo has been losing his hearing also. Luckily, when we taught basic commands to the dogs, we used hand commands along with the verbal.
Of course, Bilbo still only follows commands he “thinks” are convenient to him 😉
Nellie has selective hearing loss. Thanks for the awareness. See ya in 10 days. Going hunting and no internet.
One of the hazards of growing old in all living creatures. My eye doctor told me that my eyes were getting old! Haha! The hand signals are a great idea and i will begin working on them with Bentley. His hearing is excellent, but he is only 6 years old. XXOO ♥
wow, interesting post! And Happy National Dog week!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
I used to petsit for a dog named Suki who was a 14 year old deaf lab. She lost her hearing at an older age. Whenever I visited the house to take her for a walk, I always tried to make my presence well known so that I wouldn’t scare her.
When my Cassie started losing her hearing, I realized she could still understand commands because I had inadvertently also used hand signals when I taught them. Now I am very contentious about using different hand signals when teaching my dogs. Even though Maya and Pierson can hear just fine, we sometimes practice following commands without using verbal cues.
My dog is 15 years old and lost his hearing about two years ago. He does fine and we make sure he doesn’t get startled especially from dogs and people who like to sneak up on him from the back. We noticed one day when we came home and he had his back toward us and didn’t realize we were home.. usually he would know by hearing our footsteps or hearing the keys turn. But nothing really has changed – he’s still the little lovable cocker 🙂
We suspect our four year old retired greyhound is deaf in one ear. He is white with a blue patch over one side of his face and it is the white ear he seems not to hear in. We are getting tests done soon to confirm. It mostly means we have to be aware of what side of him we are working on during obedience training, but with it being on one side only he’s doing pretty well.
We’ve had to cope with hearing issues with Kronos because he’s half deaf. We’ll probably have to keep this important thing in mind as Bella ages too. It’s wonderful that Sugar knows visual signals though