dearest members, I have two issues. my Disel is now 7 months and has lost his hearing. Previously wonderfully obedient and mommy attached he is now completely deaf. I understand that he is going through adolescence and my question is..we deal with this with positive reinforcement, he has escaped once or twice from our garden chasing a bitch in heat (learnt through a neighbour whose dog was also chasing) and despite everything that has worked before did not come to me. In addition when we go out for a wee he does not respond to my "come". I have clicker trained him and suspect that I might not have faded out rewards efficiently enough but in all honesty he is driving me insane (he is still cuddly and loving and all that) but he is not responding unless its convenient it seems. When he comes though I award him. In addition I have fostered an older, 7 years, neutered lab/boxer mix for about a year now who seems to be taking this whole hormone thing with the pup very seriously and is now attacking other dogs and acting like he is 2 years old and unneutered. He has become quite agressive, and never was before. Please help!!
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent Sorry Gudny, I don't have enough experience to really be able to help here. My guess would be to go back a step or two, and do some recall training, and maybe a training line (for a while?) Do you have Pippa's book Total Recall? That may be of help in working through the stages including the fading of rewards. Not quite sure about the absconding issue - not something easily curbed, although if persistent then I suppose castration must be considered - though early days for that. The adolescent years are not easy and are highly associated with that selective deafness issue. I hope someone with more experience can come and pad this out for you a bit. jac
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent I have a friend whose dog is blind and does very well. I think you will have to change the way you train, make it very visual, crouch down for recall, for example. Use a very smelly tasty treat ! Maybe something with garlic in ? Sorry Im not at all an expert. Puppys can be so difficult and hard work, along with all the lovely bits. Maybe go back to basics, get your pup making eye contact, and teach visual commands. You will have the advantage that he is a little older and so will have a longer concentration span. Get hold of some training books or you tube clips with clear hand signals, and keep it all consistant. Hope Ive been of some help, Maggie x
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent Thank you soo much jac and maggie68 for your thoughtful responses, you are right perhaps I should just move back a step or two re. recall. I have been dilligent in letting him off the lead whenever possible and he is wonderful when "off campus" so to speak but completely deaf in our normal surroundings. Maybe this will pass but how do I best handle it? Neutering at this point is not what I want to do since we are showing him. As for our older foster pupchild..we think that maybe we need to find him a new home as he is just increasing in the agression dept. It´s hard but maybe the only way with one castrated male and one in tact.
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent Sorry i got a bit confused there, think I might have misunderstood, thought you meant you had a dog without any hearing at all, a deaf dog . Jacs advice is therefore more appropriate. Pippas books are excellent , and Im sure you will find them helpful. Maggie x
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent Maggie, I see it now as i read through your post. My Disel is not deaf, just appears to be in his hormone fever. Im sorry for not being more clear. But your suggestions might work for a selectively deaf dog as well ;D
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent Selective deafness - reminds me of my teenage children He's just an adolescent - as Jac said, go back a stage or two and all will be well. Disappearing in search of the love of his life - that too will stop, just remove his ability to run away when you know a bitch in heat is within sniffing distance. Our dog learned to just stand in the garden ruefully sniffing the air. As for the aggressive one - I struggled with that problem with only partial success - with a rescue dog that had previously been a 'guard dog' (guard dog being a euphimism for being chained up in a scrap yard all day) although I suspect in your case it has more to do with the raging teenager in the house. For me it was back to basics on socialisation and it took a very long time but I never could trust him off the lead when outside. We cured the agreesiveness towards people but not (to the same extent) with small creatures. One for someone with more experience in this problem. Don't give up though - there will be an answer.
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent I have teenage cildren as well so perhaps I should put it in perspective Thank you Gordon, I am terribly worried about our rescue although he was never a guard dog or chained to my knowledge, and i am quite sure it has to do with the teenager with the testosterone. I feel that I can´t trust him and it is killing me..He is terribly aggressive and not attacking people but fiercly attacking other dogs. Perhaps he would be better off in a new homel
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent Me posting to you on this subject will probably not be that helpful as I've only had the one dog....the one I have now.I do remember reading though that you can feel your training has broken down around the age Disel is now.This is because you have got so far and are seeing success so consciously or not you can back off a bit thinking you've cracked it... I used Total Recall and if you are having recall failures the advice is always to analyze why? Eg was the environment too distracting ?this may be the case if you have a bitch in do season close by....if Dexter has been failing recalls at home I'd have gone back to practising in an easy environment with high value treats and worked forward again from then...... Now Disel is after the ladies the only advice I can give is to echo Jacqui...you'll have to secure your property against escape...it will be the only way,the pull of nature will win everytime om afraid and I've experienced it's force! ;D I can't help with your foster dog....such a shame though ,I really feel your anxiety about that Good luck,let is know how you do
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent Very good advice about the recall problems - I'll just comment on the older dog scenario. i think your foster dog may be feeling protective about your pup. My old dogs were two years apart in age. The older was a very laid-back, sweet-natured dog; but once we had the puppy - and ESPECIALLY once the pup got to the age where he started getting into scrapes and trouble - Billy became very protective. This carried on until Bones was big enough to protect himself, maybe until he was around 18 months old. I noticed the same behaviour with Bones when he was an old dog himself and we got Poppy - he became very protective of 'his' puppy. My guess is this situation will calm down of its own accord with time.
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent Molly is the "older woman" by just four days being born on 20/9/13, so I know just what you are talking about. I have taken her right back to basics, Sit, Wait, Paw etc. I don't know if it is the right thing to do, but I find it less frustrating and it gives us something to do. Having had survived 3 teenagers I know this is nothing compared to human teenagers and it doesn't last anything like as long.
Re: lost his hearing and chasing scent This forum is awesome I will go back and train easier recalls with him and thankfully my yard is doggie proof. Until someone figures out how to jump over the fence that is!! Back to basics for us. I think you are absolutely right Karen with the protective behavior of the older dog, he seems to have changed personalities and very likely protecting the little one. I will try to keep them both out of trouble until this situation calms. I feel much better now. Thank you again.
