08-02-2024, 05:39 AM
(08-01-2024, 02:34 PM)Chiefsmom Wrote: Sorry to hear he is going through this.
He sounds a lot like my dog. Very emotional.
What about clapping?
For some reason I clap when mine does something right. While mine can hear, he also looks for it now (my hands) and he struts around.
Unless you use clapping for something else on the farm?
Or maybe "jazz Hands"? LOL might work.
He used to react to clapping...instantly. He would go nuts if I grabbed my car/truck keys, even from all the way across the house (and even when I tried to keep them from jingling so I could try to sneak out...he LOVES car rides!). Now not even keys jingling right behind him will make him stir. If he sees them, he'll perk up and be ready to go, but it doesn't seem he can hear them. He doesn't seem to hear a clap at all. But if I stomp my foot (lightly), he'll perk right up...this is kind of how I discovered the vibration reaction. If a sound is loud enough to cause a vibration in the floor he will 'hear' (sense) it, but sound alone will not faze him at all.
One weird thing I noticed yesterday was I closed one of our garage doors. He came running from across the house. Historically the garage door movement means someone is going for one of the cars (thus a ride for him maybe). The garage doors are almost silent and don't have a lot of vibration that I can sense, so I don't know what got his attention. Possibly a vibration I can't sense, but I don't know.
Overall, this issue hasn't been too much of a problem as we live way out in the country. When he goes out, it's always with his 'brother' so he just kind of queues off of what his brother is doing. So, when we call his brother, he comes too as if we'd called him. I've read this is very common, that one dog will serve as the ears (or eyes) for another dog if they live together.
The only problem we've run into so far is when he thinks he 'hears' something. I think it's all in his head, like a phantom sound, but when it happens he'll jump up and start barking (very loudly, and ACD's have an ear shattering bark) just out of the blue. It'll startle the bejeezus out of you when he does it because he'll just be laying there one moment, and then suddenly leap up barking at ear-splitting volume. Unfortunately, he's doing that more frequently now, so we'll just have to learn to live with it, but maybe he'll get over it after he gets used to the fact he can no longer hear.
We haven't looked into dog hearing aids. I'm not sure, but I doubt it would help him, but we're definitely planning on getting his hearing checked medically by the vet.
Lastly, and rather funnily, he does actually respond to the silly referee 'field goal!" arms up gesture! LOL! If I do that, he'll start wiggling and furiously wagging his stubby tail, and he'll come running over to me all happy. He seems to be really happy we understand he can't hear; this seems to have been a big relief to him. I really think he felt we would be mad at him for not being able to hear, and this is far from the case.
