Deaf Dog Care

Whether you’re welcoming a deaf puppy into your life or have just discovered that your older doggo has become hard of hearing, it’s natural to have some questions about how to adapt to living with a deaf dog.

Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place to find all the answers you need.

We have loads of information about how to care for a deaf dog and deaf dog training, as well as a great range of deaf dog accessories available to make caring for your pooch much easier.

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Deafness is a frequently recurrent problem especially among elderly dogs and could also affect puppies in the form of a congenital problem. However, determining whether your dog is deaf or just ignoring you could pose quite a problem; this stems from the fact while some dogs have restricted hearing only over few frequencies, some others are just plainly fond of ignoring calls made by their owners.

In order to determine whether your dog is actually deaf or just ignoring you, you have got to recognize the symptoms and signs of hearing loss in dogs. Some of these signs include the following

Unnecessary Barking

Basically, animals tone the loudness of their voices with the use of their sense of hearing. A loss of this therefore results in an inability of these animals to determine how loud they are sounding. Also, some dogs make the assumption that not hearing you implies that you cannot hear them, this leads to unnecessary barking.

Raised Levels of Startle Reflex

In cases of deafness, dogs learn to depend on their order senses. When this occurs, dogs become a lot more sensitive. For instance, the dog’s sense of touch could become heightened such that it reacts to actions like breeze blowing or an unexpected touch with a sudden startle. Therefore, a dog who begins to get startled easily could most likely be experiencing hearing loss.

Reduced Activity

When you begin to notice that a once active dog is beginning to avoid interaction, this could be a sign of hearing loss. Usually, dogs cope best in the early stages of deafness by withdrawing into themselves. After confirming that your dog is not sick but is exhibiting this symptom, the next reason you have got to consider is deafness.

Disobeying Commands

When your dog suddenly starts to disobey commands or requires a lot more action to draw its attention, this could be a symptom of deafness or may just be a form of behavioral change. However, if your dog is one that responds to commands very readily and has never exhibited this trait before, hearing loss could be the reason for this behavior.

Conducting a dog deafness test is the most appropriate way of determining the issues your dog has, this test would help you either confirm or eliminate your deafness suspicions. Here are some steps how to test if your dog is deaf or just ignoring you.

Step 1

Make sure that your dog’s ears are clean. You can do this making use of cotton ball moistened with warm water, dog soap and hydrogen peroxide or some dog ear cleaner. After using this to remove the dirt in your dog’s ear, there is a possibility of improved hearing.

Step 2

This step involves home testing of your dog’s hearing. You could get behind your dog and clap loudly to evaluate her reaction. You could also employ sounds from jingling keys and even vacuum cleaners which are bound to draw responses under normal circumstances. Also, you could call out your dog’s name and note the response or lack of it.

Step 3

This step involves professional testing. Making use of Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER) testing helps you determine whether your dog is completely or partially deaf. This test is carried out based on the average hearing of a dog within normal human range. It lasts for just 10 to 15 minutes and is the most definitive hearing test for dogs.

Carrying out this test effectively helps you determine the next step to take in the event that your dog is actually deaf and measures to put in place if she is just ignoring you.