I had a Shepherd/Lab mix who was well trained as a puppy with hand and voice commands who got cataracts and suffered apparent hearing loss...or so we thought. I cannot be certain of the hearing loss because one day when she was not responding to a voice command, I gave her a hand signal and she immediately looked away as if to say she didn't 'see' that...and repeated the 'head turning away when given a hand signal' bit a second time. After that, I wondered if she was ignornig me because she didn't want to execute the command, ir because she didn't hear me give it.
I also had a dog go completely blind and I retrained him so I could guide him by voice...Go Left, Go Right, Step Up, Step Down, Go Forward, Go Back, etc.
Train them like you would train any dog...reward 'only' the behavior you want them to do when you signal and ignore all the rest...and be very understanding, loving, and patient.
- Cat |