Recently I’ve gotten a rash of questions on Reddit and on this blog regarding deaf/blind dogs and their training. If you’re not a follower, (hello!) I have two dogs with sensory disabilities relating to their double merle coat pattern: a 2 year old deaf border collie named Pinkie (left) and a completely deafblind (sees and hears literally nothing) 13 month old Aussie puppy named Bitsy (right).
Dog training is my hobby, so I’d like to bust a few common myths regarding deaf/blind/deafblind dogs.
Dogs with sensory impairments are not trainable/are less trainable.
This is absolutely, unequivocally false, and for some reason seems to be the most pervasive deaf/blind dog myth. My border collie does agility, dock diving, tricks, and therapy work, and my Aussie does basic obedience and tracking. After a lot of focused training, I am able to have both dogs off leash. We do not use any assistive devices such as bumper harnesses or vibrating collars. I train Pinkie (BC) with hand signals and Bitsy (Aussie) with touch cues, but I train them exactly the same as I have trained every sighted/hearing dog I’ve ever worked with: short, consistent, and frequent positive reinforcement training sessions.
Here’s a collection of deaf dogs who are killing it in nosework, flyball, agility, rally, therapy and service work, CGC testing, and more!
Dogs with sensory impairments are more likely to be aggressive or startle.
Also patently untrue. Dog trainer and behaviorist Dr. Valeri Farmer-Dougan of Illinois State University found that dogs with sensory impairments were actually *less* likely to bite or startle than their hearing counterparts.
Deaf dogs don’t bark.
My deaf dogs are straight-up the loudest animals on the planet. Loud and frequent barking does actually seem to be a trait of deaf and hearing impaired dogs.
Dogs with sensory impairments are more likely to have other health problems.
This is a very common misconception, particularly in regards to double merles dogs or dogs with sensory disabilities relating to high-white coat patterns. These dogs are sometimes called “lethal whites”, but that is a misnomer borrowed from the horse world. Some foals are born all white due to a similar recessive pigment-related syndrome (called Overo Lethal White Syndrome, if you’re interested) but that impacts their guts and is incompatible with life. There is no scientific evidence that double merle/dapple/harlequin genetics impact anything but sight and hearing in dogs. These dogs are frequently born as the result of irresponsible breeding, so, just like in any other dog whose parents aren’t health tested and purpose bred, they *can* be more likely to develop issues like luxating patellas, hip dysplasia, cancer, etc. but this is unrelated to their sensory disabilities.
My deaf/blind dog can’t do stairs/go to the dog park/compete in dog sports/___________
This one really irritates me. People are baffled that my deafblind dog does stairs without issue, navigates her house and yard without any sort of assistance or equipment, camps, canoes, gets on and off the furniture, plays fetch, etc., and they asked me how I taught her to do these things. The reality is that I didn’t, I just **didn’t teach her that she couldn’t**. I had to teach her how to do stairs, yes, but anything she’s wanted to do we’ve figured out how she can do it on her own. I have stairs in my house and I knew that when she was an adult I may not be able to carry her every time we encounter a staircase, so we started practicing on the porch stairs, laid down carpet strips at the top and bottom of the staircase so she would know where she was, and developed a touch cue to warn her that stairs were coming and to get ready. Now she has the skills and confidence to tackle any stairs she wants, which makes my life easier because I don’t have to carry her around, and it makes her life easier because she can be more independent and doesn’t live in fear of her environment.
Deaf/blind/deafblind dogs are more work than a hearing/sighted dog.
So the paragraph above makes it seem like having a disabled dog would be a ton of extra work, but again, I firmly disagree. They are not *more* work, they are *different* work. I had to teach Bitsy to go down stairs, true. But my mom has rescued several hearing/sighted dogs that, for whatever reason, couldn’t or wouldn’t do stairs and she had to work with them to overcome that issue. I had to work incredibly hard to get a solid hand sign recall on my deaf border collie, but probably not harder than my friend whose hound mix gets fixated on a scent and just up and leaves. If you adopt a deaf or blind dog he or she *may* be reactive, but then you’ll be exactly where I am with my hearing/sighted pointer mix. Every dog on the planet comes with their own quirks and baggage, and if you’re not willing to put in the time and effort to figure out how YOUR dog works you shouldn’t have a dog period, regardless of the dog’s ability.
Sorry for the rant; as you can see, this is a topic about which I am deeply passionate. :) If anyone has any questions about deaf or blind dogs, please don’t hesitate to contact me!
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