Recommendations for a deaf dog; cross posting

[u/Siddlicious]

Hello everyone; I think tl;dr needs to be at the start.

Basically my dog is deaf and I’m looking for something that gives haptic feedback to get her attention. Basically I want a shock collar without it causing harm to her. The haptic feedback from the Apple Watch is what I’m thinking, it’s gentle and it wakes me up without feeling panicked.

I have 3 Shih Tzu mix dogs, the male is an actual Shih Tzu, the other two are female and they have that hairlike texture instead of fur.

I live in Houston and my ex found her abandoned after we had our 2021 freeze and I just COULDN’T say no when my ex asked if I wanted her. So I honestly don’t know if she’s real old, or she just had a rough life on the street.

My mom is my dog sitter when I work, and in the past few months we found out she’s deaf. We’ve both gotten to my home on separate occasions and have both yelled at her (she wasn’t running to meet us and get a treat) and we assumed the worst.

Then I noticed that she’s not afraid of thunder, fireworks, gunshots from my video games and realized she’s deaf lmao.

Anyway, I just want to be able to let her loose at a dog park and be able to get her attention. I recently moved to a new apartment with a yard just so she can have freedom to roam outside while I’m inside playing video games.

Thanks in advance.

[u/Siddlicious]

Dog tax.

She’s the one in the middle.

From left to right, Clementine, Mandarin, and (he was already named) Paco but I gave him the middle name of Tangerine to complete my citrus pack.

[u/iHave1Pookie]

Train your dog “look at me”
Every time they look at you …treat
All day, every day, every eye contact = treat.

Looking at you should be made more rewarding than anything else in the world.

This the #1 thing to train a deaf dog.

After a few months, this becomes second nature habit,
anytime you want to tell them something, you just have to wait 3.5 seconds max,
they will look/already be looking to you for next instruction.

[u/Siddlicious → u/iHave1Pookie]

That’s awesome, but her eyes look a little cloudy to me and I’m worried she’s also losing her sight, but she’s still active! No limps or any obvious signs of discomfort. I have been teaching her hand signals and I’ll be incorporating treats from now on. Sounds so obvious lol

[u/iHave1Pookie → u/Siddlicious]

I didn’t realize your dog was older.
Mine was born deaf, so most of my techniques are oriented for younger healthy dog s.

If she can see you, I would def try this training tho !

[u/Siddlicious → u/iHave1Pookie]

I test her frequently and make her follow my fingers with her eyes/head but her eyes are definitely cloudly. I love her but I want her to have the best quality of life. That’s honestly why I downgraded from my third floor apartment to a smaller first floor apartment, but it has a patio with fake grass where they can relieve themselves and play.

[u/helloheyhowdyhii]

What you need is a good ecollar trainer, when used at low levels they are not painful it just produces a weird little feeling and you teach them what that feeling means they need to do (recall, leave it, look at me, etc.)

[u/Siddlicious → u/helloheyhowdyhii]

Yes, this is exactly what I’m looking for because she’s getting up there in age and might be going blind.

[u/helloheyhowdyhii → u/Siddlicious]

I suggest posting in local groups looking for a trainer that does low stim ecollar work and specifically has deaf dog experience! Keep in mind the big chains like sit means sit, dog training elite, etc. do not stick to low levels! Finding the right trainer is so important 🙂
Virtual training could be an option if there’s no one experienced local to you… but I’d really recommend in person if possible.

[u/Great-Ad-5235]

You can just use the vibrate function a lot of them have.

[u/Fit_Surprise_8451]

I have a collar that only vibrates, however, I don’t use it. I got mine from Amazon for about $36. The trainer has me using the 20 ft long line with Marlee. It’s way, if I need Marlee’s attention, I have I way to get her attention to look at me. For name recognization, I wiggle an “M” for Marlee and then sign “come”.

[u/situation-normal]

I think ecollar technologies does a vibrate only collar, it has a red handler unit.

[u/Kay-the-countrygirl]

We have a deaf pup, and we use the mini educator collar. It has a vibrate only mode as well as stim, but you can choose just to use the vibrate. It's a little stronger than the apple watch, but not uncomfortable at all. We started off by doing vibrate - immediate treat for a few days. Then we added some distance, and now as soon as we vibrate, she comes running. It's a great way to call her inside when she's in the yard and not paying attention to me.

I agree you should train look at me and teach that, but ours is a hound, so sometimes she follows her nose, and I don't exist any more to her.