Archive for the ‘Deaf dog’ Tag
There are a lot of resources out there that go into more detail as to why the white dog is deaf, so if you want an in-depth explanation of why the white dog is deaf, I urge you to look at some of these sites. Google will also help you to find information on the genetics of deaf dogs. I’m going to give a simplified explanation here for the layman, just so that it’s recorded in this blog for people reading through. The same genetics can be used to explain deafness in cats, as well as blindness in both cats and dogs.
With dogs, there are a couple of genes that can be responsible for deafness. There are the merle gene and the piebald gene. The merle gene is seen in collies, Harlequin great danes (like Castiel!), old English sheep dogs and other breeds. The piebald gene is seen in dalmatians, Samoyeds and greyhounds, among others. Basically, some of these animals have two copies of these genes and they don’t develop enough pigment (the substance that makes the black spots on Castiel’s face and tail or the spots on a dalmatian–basically, pigment is colour) in their inner ears or, in some cases, their eyes while the ears and eyes are developing long before the animal is even born.
There’s some debate on what happens and why, but the most common reason I’ve found for what happens is that there is something about the lack of pigment that makes the veins and arteries to the inner ear and/or the eyes that makes them smaller and therefore not put as much blood through to the inner ear and/or the eyes. After the animal is born, before its ears and eyes open, the nerves in the inner ear and, in some cases, the eyes, die off from lack of oxygen, rendering the baby blind or deaf or, in some cases, both.
The result? A cat or a dog who is beautiful and white, but who is also either blind or deaf. Blindness is a rarer result of the double merle/double piebald, but it does happen. We’re fortunate in that Castiel is already motoring around with his belly off the ground like other puppies do when their eyes are freshly open, so he’s very unlikely to be blind. Even if he was, we would still take him and love him. He’s a beautiful animal and we can’t wait for him to come home in February.
There are a lot of things to consider when taking on a deaf dog or even considering it. You need to consider training and trainers, boarding accommodations, training equipment as well as all the normal dog things like a crate, what food you want to feed, vets, what kind of collar you want to use and how to puppy-proof your home. Getting a deaf dog is a bit like adopting a deaf child. You need to have some idea of what the future holds and not just in temperament, preferably before making a final decision. This goes doubly for an animal that will likely outweigh its owner by the time it is fully grown, though even a tiny little chihuahua needs to have these considerations.
Perhaps the first and most important consideration is contacting trainers in your area. Dog training is never the easiest thing on the planet. If you’re not used to talking about virtually everything with your hands, you need to get help from a trainer to get started with your training and probably for support throughout your dog’s life. There are dozens of guides out there for picking a trainer who works for you, but there are a couple of questions you need to ask a potential trainer in addition to the ones listed on other blogs and sites. Two of the most important are “Do you allow deaf puppies in your puppy socialization classes?” and “Have you ever trained a deaf dog before?” You want to make sure that your puppy is going to be properly socialized, just like any other puppy. You want to know that your animal’s particular challenges are something that the trainer is aware of.
After determining that the trainer has trained a deaf dog before, you should ask how many deaf dogs he or she has trained, what kind of techniques they recommend and why. Another good question is if they have trained a deaf dog of your breed/breeds. There are a wide variety of techniques for training dogs and not all dogs respond to all techniques, just like not all children learn in the same ways. You’re looking for a trainer who can explain the whys of his or her philosophy, who is willing to be flexible and who espouses ideals that you are comfortable with. We’re very lucky, our breeder is putting us in contact with a trainer friend of hers who has deaf danes, but we had already started the process of narrowing the field of trainers in Toronto from the day that we saw pictures of Castiel and were so sure he was to be ours, even before we got the call saying he was.
An addendum to this is that, once you have found your trainer, you need to discuss any specialized training equipment that you may need. There are items such as vibration collars that may be useful. You might use a flashlight in ‘clicker’ training. You need to be aware of the added expense of these items.
Another consideration, one that didn’t occur to us until today, is finding boarding. We need to talk to our breeder about this, as some breeders offer boarding to their puppies and, obviously, that’s the best option in most cases. Otherwise, you need to call boarding kennels and find someone willing to board your animal. There are tonnes of guides on picking a good boarding kennel for your dog out there (most importantly, ask your trainer and your breeder/rescue who they might recommend) but there are, as always, extra considerations with a deaf animal.
You need to interview them and make sure that they are willing to board a deaf animal and, additionally, if they are a good match for your particular animal. This isn’t something you can wait to do until you’re going on vacation.
Imagine, if you will, someone in your family falls ill or has an accident. They are hospitalized. You are spending 24 hours a day at the hospital with your family member in the ICU. Or, even worse, you’re a single parent to your deaf dog and you are hospitalized. Who is going to look after your dog? A deaf dog differs from a hearing dog in the views of others as much as anything else. You need to have someone, somewhere, who you trust 100% to look after your dog in the event of an emergency, from the moment your dog comes home. An emergency might never arise, but wouldn’t you rather know that you’re prepared? Wouldn’t you rather know that your animal has the security of people who will know his commands?
It isn’t as simple as just anyone because your dog is deaf. Most dogs have a couple of standard commands. Sit. Stay. Down. No. Those are virtually universal, but with a deaf dog, they are useless. Waving your hands aimlessly is only going to excite the animal. Signs need to be directed and the same each time. Any dog walkers or kennels you employ need to know them.
One last consideration has to do with your vet. Most vets will work on any animal, regardless of hearing impairment, but you must find one who, along with their vet techs, is willing to learn your animal’s signs. Were there an issue that required the animal to stay overnight, your vet needs to know these things.
I’d like to take this post to go a little more in detail about the serendipitous events that occurred that told us that Castiel was indeed the correct dog for us. Sometimes it’s the little things that tell you that yes, this is in your cards.
We knew that we were going to name a male dog Castiel before we ever even found a puppy. Castiel is the angel of Thursday and a character from the television show Supernatural. The character is an angel who sided with man in the face of the oncoming apocalypse. His great crime that lost him his powers was thinking for himself and not following the party line.
It thus seemed very, very appropriate when Castiel was born on Christmas day. And most of his black spots are on his head. A white animal with dark spots on his head named for an angel who thought for himself? Seemed like serendipity.
Then there was the day of the phonecall saying that he was ours. I most commonly am called Tay. We went out to the Costco to see if it would help us save money on puppy supplies. We’d never been to the Costco before. It was a bit of a trek to get there and we found it on the Queensway and Taymall Road. Taymall. Nothing ever has my name in it, really. So I jokingly said “It’s an omen!”
Little did we know that it really was.
While we were in there, examining dog food (incidentally, the Kirkland’s dog food is surprisingly good quality!), we missed a phonecall. When we listened to the message, it was our breeder calling to let us know that Castiel was really ours.
We called her back as soon as we got home and we said we were interested in the puppy with the white back, who was then called Alpine. She paused for a moment, then said ‘that’s perfect.’ The reason was that the other white puppy, who she was calling Trent, had someone that was expressing interest. The person who was expressing interest had a special needs Irish Wolfhound and lived on the Trent river, so that seemed like serendipity, too.
So overall, we know that Castiel is the perfect dog for us because of all the little things that showed us that he is meant to be ours. The fates aligned.
There is a silent killer of puppies all over the world. Puppies who are born healthy and beautiful. The puppies come from many breeds–shelties, great Danes, collies, Australian shepherds, bulldogs and many more. Their conformation can be very good as they usually come from very good parentage. But all too often, they die shortly after birth.
Why do these beautiful babies die before they can be given a good home?
They’re white, or very lightly marked. Breeders often ‘cull’ the little animals, putting white or light pups to sleep or just not pulling them out of the sacks that they’re born in. These puppies are then thrown out like so much trash, their brief lives never acknowledged to anyone, forgotten by the entire world, other than their breeder.
The issue, if you’re wondering, is that the lack of pigment in certain breeds of dog leads to deafness. Almost all white dane puppies born to Harlequin parents are born deaf. Breeders who don’t ‘cull’ the whites often find themselves ostracized from the breeding community.
When my partner and I first decided that we would like a great dane, almost a year ago, we looked at rescues first. One rescue had a question on their application “Would you take a deaf dane?” We looked at each other and shrugged. Why would it matter if the dog were deaf or not? A dog is a dog. It should be noted that my partner is an ASL interpreter student, but either way, it never occurred to us that a deaf animal would be any kind of problem.
We weren’t yet ready to take on a dog. My partner was out of work and we simply couldn’t afford it. Especially not a giant breed dog, not yet. We kept an eye on craigslist and kijiji, just on a lark. One day, on kijiji, we found an advertisement for a little girl named Frost. My partner had just found a new job and Frost was the most adorable little dane puppy! She was also, the ad said, deaf. We immediately called up the breeder who had her and asked about her.
Frost had found a home already. We were too late. She went to a teacher of the deaf who wanted to train her as a therapy dog at a school for the deaf. We were sad, but we obviously could never hope to compete with the quality of that home for this little girl.
The breeder is a breeder of Harlequin danes. She had a litter due any day and she fully expected to have at least one deaf baby. Would we, she asked, be interested in a different deaf baby? Would we be willing to sit on a waiting list to see if one of her newest litter were born white? She refused to cull her whites. They were good puppies and they deserved homes. Good homes. Homes that wouldn’t treat them like they were disabled or in need of pity. A deaf puppy will never know it is deaf.
How could we say no? There we were, faced with the prospect of a beautiful puppy from good, healthy stock. We said yes and we started refreshing her website every five minutes.
On December 25th or 26th, her front page changed. There, on the front page, was mama dog and seven beautiful puppies. 1 mantle (black with a white collar and chest), 4 little Harlequins, 2 beautiful whites. We jumped up and down with excitement.
A couple days later, her nursery page updated. There were two little white boys who she was calling Alpine and Trent. Oh, we wanted Alpine. His back was pure white. He had little black spots on his cheeks. We didn’t know it, but he also had adorable black spots on his tail. He was almost pure white and almost certainly deaf. We started researching like mad.
I had previously known a deaf dog, but I had never had one of my own. I knew they were trainable. I knew they were friendly. But, faced with the reality of actually having a deaf puppy, were we really up to the task? There were so few resources out there for raising a deaf dog. What was out there was limited, didn’t really document how they were trained and what day-to-day life was like with a deaf baby. We consulted a few trainers and were gratified to find that many of the trainers in our area were willing to work with us. This was different from the attitudes I had run into online, some of which stated that deaf animals were untrainable and vicious.
Yesterday, January 7, 2011, we heard back from the breeder. Alpine and Trent were almost certainly deaf and were we still interested? Our answer was an absolute yes. We told her we were more interested in Alpine, with his little white back (Trent had some spots above his tail) and she said that was good because she thought she had a home for Trent. We jumped up and down and squealed. Alpine’s name was changed to Castiel and we embarked on our mission.
We are going to document the life and training of Castiel, our beautiful puppy so that others, going forward, will know that it’s okay to fall in love with a deaf dog and that they are perfectly trainable.
This is Castiel, named for an angel and this is his life, with us. Over the next few weeks, we’ll document our preparations for his homecoming and then the real fun will start.
Deaf Dog Blog 