GeekWitch (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} geekwitch) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} allthingsdog,@ 2008-03-22 06:12:00 |
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On Deaf Dogs
While I had a bit of an idea of what it would be like fostering a deaf dog, there have been a number of differences in what I expected versus what it is really like.
First and foremost - she's a dog. She reacts, behaves and learns just like any other dog. She is affectionate, obsessive, playful, stubborn, graceless and graceful, as any other dog would be. The only difference I have noticed is her inability to hear me calling her. I don't see any of the neurotic issues you read about - endless searching for owners when they are not there, OCD like fascination with light reflections.
She's a dog. A good dog.
Yesterday a fellow PAWS volunteer and a customer of ours took her out to "The Lakes" (FDR park) for a long line run, a look at a pond or two (she was scared) and a few geese (she avoided them like the plague). I was so jealous that I couldn't share this experience but thrilled that someone could do it. Her reactions were those of a dog, not a "deaf dog", not a "disabled dog" but just plain dog.
She's sleeping in her crate right now, two rooms away (she lives at the shop for household harmonic concerns) totally blissed out in her dreams. She didn't hear the alarm when I came in 10 minutes ago, she doesn't hear me typing. When I walk in the room she'll be sprawled as best as she can in the crate, maybe upside down because she sleeps like a puppy, completely relaxed and at ease. She gets rest that I'm sure many of our dogs wish they could, on a regular basis. No strange people waking by the house, no sounds of the city buzzing and disturbing that peaceful, blissful, infant-like sleep.
Infant-like in a 70+ pound body, yeah, right.
She's a big baby, and never more than when she puts her paws on my shoulders and looks me in the eye and licks my face like I've never washed before. She happens to be deaf, but she doesn't know it.
Learn more about my foster dog, and check out some videos!
While I had a bit of an idea of what it would be like fostering a deaf dog, there have been a number of differences in what I expected versus what it is really like.
First and foremost - she's a dog. She reacts, behaves and learns just like any other dog. She is affectionate, obsessive, playful, stubborn, graceless and graceful, as any other dog would be. The only difference I have noticed is her inability to hear me calling her. I don't see any of the neurotic issues you read about - endless searching for owners when they are not there, OCD like fascination with light reflections.
She's a dog. A good dog.
Yesterday a fellow PAWS volunteer and a customer of ours took her out to "The Lakes" (FDR park) for a long line run, a look at a pond or two (she was scared) and a few geese (she avoided them like the plague). I was so jealous that I couldn't share this experience but thrilled that someone could do it. Her reactions were those of a dog, not a "deaf dog", not a "disabled dog" but just plain dog.
She's sleeping in her crate right now, two rooms away (she lives at the shop for household harmonic concerns) totally blissed out in her dreams. She didn't hear the alarm when I came in 10 minutes ago, she doesn't hear me typing. When I walk in the room she'll be sprawled as best as she can in the crate, maybe upside down because she sleeps like a puppy, completely relaxed and at ease. She gets rest that I'm sure many of our dogs wish they could, on a regular basis. No strange people waking by the house, no sounds of the city buzzing and disturbing that peaceful, blissful, infant-like sleep.
Infant-like in a 70+ pound body, yeah, right.
She's a big baby, and never more than when she puts her paws on my shoulders and looks me in the eye and licks my face like I've never washed before. She happens to be deaf, but she doesn't know it.
Learn more about my foster dog, and check out some videos!
