I have to say I don't know what I'd do without him. Our 3 and a half year old male Aussie, Steel has been the marvelous big brother a puppy could want and when that puppy is deaf, he's priceless to the humans in the equation.
Steel: He really is all that.
Now, getting a second dog will make more work for you, not less, no matter what anyone tries to tell you, however, having an adult dog when you are getting a puppy can actually help. It's still more work than just one dog, but a well socialized adult dog can teach your puppy things faster than you can. Now, when that dog is a smart herding breed, not only can he teach her things (some of which you didn't want her learning), but he can also provide some crowd control as well.
For example, we Rogue is not allowed off leash anywhere other than our fully fenced back yard and the house. Her recall just isn't good enough and she's really fond of the come chase me game. Our other three will happily go from house to car and car to house pretty directly but we have to let them out in a specific order or Ruby will get in the car first and then prevent anyone else from getting in. So, I let Steel out first and zoom, out goes Rogue with him. Panicking, I run into the house to grab a really good treat and start to hear Steel barking. I look out the door and he's darting back and forth in front of the garage, preventing Rogue from leaving it.
Of course, as soon as he saw me heading toward them, he decided that it must be all right and let her go. Thankfully, she adores her big brother and with only a brief thought about seeing if I would play the chase game, she followed him into the car. (whew!)
Even a puppy who can hear can be a problem when they don't have solid recall, but often, if your adults recall, the puppy will follow. I don't recommend you depend on this but in an emergency, it can be a literal life saver.
Best... big brother... ever.
I mentioned Rogue's current fondness for the chase me game. This is especially fun when she has something she knows she shouldn't. Unlike a hearing dog, you can't giver her a verbal correction and we don't quite have drop it down with her yet so what do you do? Unless it's something dangerous to the puppy, don't chase them, even if you're sure you can corner them and get them. Why? Because then they know they can get you to play the game with them and they love that game.
So what do you do? I have two methods that I switch between depending on the situation. If Steel is around, I call Steel. Rogue will see him heading for something fun and usually trot along behind him to see what's fun thing is going on. Steel's recall is damn near perfect so this works really well when he's around. If he's not around, I run, if possible, and walk if not AWAY from the puppy.
I know, this goes against every must-keep-the-puppy safe instinct. Go away from the puppy who is running away from you? Go further instead of closer? It's INSANE!!!. The puppy wants to play, so you play, but you play chase the human. With herding dogs, this is particularly useful because they like to control the situation and they need to know where you are. They're perfectly willing to play the chase game if you're the the one being chased. I can't tell you how many times this totally non instinctive reaction to one of my dogs running from me has brought them running back.
These are not things to rely on though. These are for that emergency when the puppy gets out or slips her collar. A good, solid recall is the single best safety precaution for your dog. If they come to you before they get to the street, they won't get hit by a car... and neither will you.
With a deaf puppy, they have to have a solid recall and a solid check in. If they aren't looking at you, you can't tell them what to do. So rewarding your deaf dog/puppy when they look at you is important. They need to want to look at you for direction.
But teaching check in and recall in a high distraction environment isn't easy and how do you know when you can trust that puppy off leash? That is where big brother gets to help me again. My hubby has started teaching Steel to 'Fetch the baby". Steel loves to fetch so he started with a small tug toy. Then he tied the tug toy to the handle of a leash and had him fetch that for awhile. The final stage, of course, is to put the leash on the puppy and have Steel fetch the leash and bring him the puppy.
Excuse the condition of the basement in the video, but I DO have a puppy. :)
As for the rest of us, Rogue had her first rabies shot on Thursday and had a mild adverse reaction to it. The vet is aware and we'll see what we can do next year to prevent it. This is why she never gets more than one shot in a visit. Had she gotten them all at the same time, we wouldn't know which one caused her to react. Thankfully, she enjoys the vet and had fun 'riding' the examination table up and down. Of course, we'd spent our time waiting for the vet in training go to your mat while the table was in the down position.
Come on, one more time? Please?
She's getting so big. She's over 20lbs now and today is her four month birthday. It seems like such a short time ago that she was 8 pounds of cuteness I could pick up and snuggle at will. Now, she's a heavy hellion and I'm going to put my back out picking her up these days.
Thankfully, Rogue has her big brother when she can't get the humans to play with her.
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