[asia316]

Hi
I just registered on this forum. You guys have an a nice community of pet owners here.
Well, I was curious about my dog. He is a 13 month old westie. I suspect that he is deaf, because he doesn't respond to me or anybody else. He doesn't respond to dogs barking at him either. My conclusion is that there are 2 possibilities: he is deaf, or he is just ignoring everybody.
How do I know which it is? and if he is deaf, is there anything i can do?

 

[JohnnyBandit]

Hi
I just registered on this forum. You guys have an a nice community of pet owners here.
Well, I was curious about my dog. He is a 13 month old westie. I suspect that he is deaf, because he doesn't respond to me or anybody else. He doesn't respond to dogs barking at him either. My conclusion is that there are 2 possibilities: he is deaf, or he is just ignoring everybody.
How do I know which it is? and if he is deaf, is there anything i can do?

If your dog was deaf you would know it....

Walk up behind him and make a loud noise.

Whistle. Make a funny noise.... You will eventually get a reaction.

There is a test called BAER that con be done to test a dogs hearing. Only a few vets do it because the equipment is expensive.

 

[Amaryllis]

Does he respond to any noises at all? Loud thumps, knocks at the door, sirens?

How long have you had him? If only a short period of time, that's pretty normal. It took a few months before my dog would regularly respond to me, and a couple of weeks to get him to respond at all.

And not all dogs respond to barking dogs. I think Kabota finds it rude or something, because he tends to ignore dogs barking wildly at him.

 

[a7dk]

How long have you had him? He may just be ignoring you if you havent' had him long or haven't spent much time training him to pay attention to you. My dog also ignores any dogs barking at him. Just walks on by, doesn't even look in their direction. But he can definitely hear.

 

[Trzcina]

If your dog was deaf you would know it....

Walk up behind him and make a loud noise.

Whistle. Make a funny noise.... You will eventually get a reaction.

There is a test called BAER that con be done to test a dogs hearing. Only a few vets do it because the equipment is expensive.

There are sometimes clinics that offer BAER testing, though--I know I've seen them at UKC dog shows. That was a few years ago, but I'd suspect things haven't changed that much.

Another thing I'd say is--does he respond to crinkling bags? What about kibble being shaked (provided you feed him kibble)?

What does he do when you try to train him? I'd work on teaching him hand signals in the meantime anyway, as they can be useful (and fun) even if your dog can hear.

 

[hanksimon]

If you walk up behind a dog and clang two pans together, you will get a reaction from a hearing dog. If you think the dog has only partial hearing, you might want to borrow a dog whistle.

If the dog is deaf, you can search these Forums to locate info about training deaf dogs, and obtaining a vibrating collar.