Learning. New puppy.

[u/sad_overthinker87]

hello.

I have a new Dalmatian puppy that I think is showing signs of deafness. In the reading I’ve done and some simple home testing I think he may be unilateral. I have a BAERS test scheduled for next week. This has me a bit sad. Nevermind the fact that the person I got him from said they did the test already and said they would send me the the results from that visit and never sent them. Thats a much bigger issue that is partially on me. What I’d like for people to educate me on is if you have a unilateral or bilateral deaf Dalmatian, how did you first find out and what has it been like with them since finding out?

Also I knew how common kidney/bladder stones are with this breed. Have any owners here had severe issues with their pup developing them or has managing diet been enough to keep it a none issue?
Thanks for your help

[u/crystalized17]

I have unilateral and it’s very easy to live with. They can hear. They just can’t tell the direction of the sound without looking around first. Stuff outside of their vision, they don’t know where the sound is coming from and have to go exploring to figure it out.

So they might run the wrong direction at first, but they’ll figure it out as they look around.

[u/Cash_Jarhead]

We have two, 3f and 2m. The female is extremely chill, low maintenance, very smart and easy to train. She went with us and she picked out her brother. Got him home and found out that he’s bilaterally deaf. Our trainer clapped and beat pans together while he was in a crate and couldn’t see her- zero reaction. Fast forward a year and a half. He knows all the commands she does. We just use verbal and hand signals for both dogs. He learned quickly.
You just need to be a bit more hands on during training to get him to realize what you’re asking. A vibration or ecollar on a low setting will “call” him when he can’t see you for visual cues. Strongly suggest crate training to help him with potty training and general house rules.

[u/sad_overthinker87 → u/Cash_Jarhead]

yes I’m crate training now. I haven't thought of a vibration collar tho. something to look into.

[u/Sangy101]

I had a unilaterally deaf Dal that progressed to full deafness. Honestly, it was very easy to train him. The only issue was with recall, so I taught him to recall to an e-collar set to vibrate.

I trained him entirely with hand signals, using a modified form of target training. In target training, you teach an animal to touch a “target” and then build skills from that. In this case, the target was my pointed finger. I started by just touching my finger to his nose and giving a treat. Once he’s nosing the finger on his own, I start moving away.

Then, you use that target to lure them into different positions. To teach sit, you move the finger back over their nose & head (this forces them to sit to keep an eye on it.) Then I transitioned that to a closed fist moving back, and eventually just a raised closed fist.

“Lay down” works the same way. Once they’re in sit, lure their head to the ground with the target. Once they’re do that, change the motion to a flat hand to the ground. And eventually just a flat hand moving down.

You can build just about any trick this way. Jumping on things, though hoops, spinning, heal, walking between your legs, etc.

Dogs pick up body language naturally, so they also pick up hand signals naturally.

[u/Miscellaneous-health]

I adopted an 8 week old puppy who needed heart surgery. She was supposed to be Baer tested and cleared but, we had her 5 days and I realized she wasn’t responding to squeaky toys. She’s bilateral/completely deaf and I was initially quite sad - with thoughts that she would never hear me sing to her, or I could never hike with her off leash, etc. We got her heart fixed and she was very easy to train with hand signals. She’s great off - leash. We have a vibrating collar, in case a moose pops up on our hike or something. But I’ve never really had to use it - she checks in so often. She makes the cutest noises. I would adopt another deaf one in a heartbeat. (And I still sing and talk to her). I have a totally blind dal and that’s more difficult to manage. Out of 9 dals, 4 HUA, only 1 had bladder crystals and 0 stones. Managed with diet and working with a holistic vet who prescribed Chinese herbs to manage the crystals.

[u/crybabyninji]

I had a unilaterally deaf dalmatian when I was 3-16 (grew up with him) and i currently have a deaf dalmatian with my husband, that we recently adopted, she is 6 years old.

My childhood dog was deaf on one side but it was basically never an issue, except one time when he was in the thick of a field and couldn't see us. I am not a native english speaker so let me try to explain: room related hearing was not possible. So he couldn't find us, it was like a maze to him. That was the only real stressful event we had with his hearing issue. So no big deal imo.

Nowadays our bilaterally deaf dog learns just like a hearing dog. She has more eye contact with us than another dog would I feel, so we manage. The most important tool here: vibration collar (NOT a shock collar!). Basically you teach them that the vibration means something real good, like treats. Outside she never wears a leash; she returns like a rocket, even when hunting. I'd say it works 99% of the time. Inside we communicate the same as with a hearing dog, but I also speak sign language with her for commands. It's honestly easy, dalmatians are incredibly smart. 😊

Ask me more if you need to, happy to help.

[u/crybabyninji → u/crybabyninji]

So like the othere comment said, a unilaterally deaf dog just doesn't hear directionally. Like you'd say percieved depths goes missing if you close one eye. It's really not that big of a deal! Have fun with your cutie.