I don't have time for that.

A well trained dog is a lot of work.  A deaf dog is no different, though I have to say that Rogue is not nearly as much additional work as I thought she'd be.  Since we often use hand signs or body language cues to teach new behaviors with our hearing dogs, it wasn't a big change in teaching Rogue.

But back to the time thing.  Training takes time and time is a precious commodity these days so how do you get all that training into a busy schedule.   One great way is commercial training which is using those annoying commercial breaks during your favorite show as a time to do a little bit of training.  It's actually a perfect amount of time for a dog/puppy's attention span.  You can teach come, sit, stay, off, on, and just about anything else without taking your butt off the couch or missing a moment of your favorite show.

Potty time is another great opportunity.  Sit or lie down before you open the door, stay before you let them go outside and a nice recall to bring them in (assuming they're not running in the moment they're done because it's freezing outside). Make your dog do something for their dinner.  You know they want it.  Make them do something for you before you give it to them.

Figure one hour of TV (8 commercial breaks), two meals and four trips to potty has given you 14 training sessions in one day at no additional time cost.

Cold paws, cold paws cold paws!!!

In last week's puppy class, our homework was to work go to your mat. This is an easy trick that has all kinds of uses.  So, while I was cooking this weekend, I put the mat where it was out of my way and got Rogue to sit on it.  I would periodically give her kibble while she was seated on the mat to the point where she just stayed on the mat.  This works really well to keep dogs out of your way in the kitchen by the way.  I can't wait to show her off in class tomorrow.

Speaking of class, one of our teachers is Belle.  Belle is a deaf double merle Aussie who is a Master of Tricks, has one nosework title, and has her therapy dog certification.  The only reason she doesn't have any Agility titles is because the AKC won't let deaf dogs participate.  Belle does practice agility, she just can't compete.

The lovely and talented, Belle.

I understand Belle and her human, Roxanne are now working on their Champion of tricks. Here is one of my favorites.Belle Go Hide.  

Yeah, I'm thinking that took more than one day to perfect.

As for our evil little imp, I know a lot of folks have had issues with the cold weather.  On the few nights that she gets me up in the middle to potty, we still use the potty pen in the garage, however, for the most part, she keeps busy with Steel and Ruby.

Yup, even on the coldest day, they're out there chasing each other and a toy around.  Now, we keep play time to about fifteen minutes but she's loving the bigger two dogs even if she isn't quite big enough to catch them and this makes three tired dogs which makes me a happy camper.

Rogue also had her first disc dog practice over the weekend.   To our surprise, she's not the only deaf dog in the Midwest Disc Dogs organization.   

 

This is Storm.  Isn't he beautiful?  There are multiple disc dogs around the country who are deaf and two that I know of who only have three legs.   How cool is that?  Dogs are amazing and kudos to the humans who let their 'disabled' dogs do what they love.  

And to finish off today's entry, here's Rogue with her first experience with a disc.

 

Clicker training the deaf puppy

Clicker training is an awesome way to teach your dog.  Thinking dogs especially love to figure out what it is you want them to do and the mental exercise is just as tiring as physical.  I'm not going to go into too much detail about the hows whys and wherefores of clicker training since Karen Pryor already does a heck of a good job on her website and has lots of cool books and videos as well,  http://www.clickertraining.com/

Having a deaf dog creates challenges for clicker training since a deaf dog can't hear a click.  Now, the click is just a marker.  The fact that it's a noise isn't as important as the fact that the dog knows that the marker means that they did something right.  What you need for your deaf dog is some kind of visual marker that does the same thing.  Enter... the flicker.

Why yes, mine is the color coordinated one.

Now I know some folks use a laser pointer because you can use the dot to direct the dog, however we've seen some bad OCD behavior come out of frequent use of them and don't recommend them.  We are having our vet look into seeing if there's any actual research on the subject other than our personal experience and I'll let you know if we find any but suffice it to say, we don't use them.

 

What we DO use is one of the little LED keychain lights ($10 or so at Home Depot) with  a ping pong ball (color optional) glued on top of it.  We made another version with an LED Christmas light bulb on top but we liked this one better.

  LED keychain light              Ping pong ball

We add the coiled wrist strap because it's not that easy to juggle flicker, treats, hand sign and puppy with just two hands.  Why the ping pong ball?  The ball makes the light bigger and easier to see and completely avoids any type of beam or spot that can cause the OCD behavior.  

There are still challenges with the flicker over the clicker though.   A hearing dog can hear the clicker whether its in their line of sight or not.  The flicker has to be in their line of sight and since puppies spend the majority of their time with their noses on the floor looking for that one thing you forgot to pick up to chew on, it's harder to get it in their field of view.  Thankfully, that field of view is quite a bit larger than ours.  

Once you get past that, though, the principals are the same.   Mark behavior with the flicker and give the dog a treat.  Rogue gets great focus when the flicker comes out. She knows it's time to work.

 

As for our newest addition, she got a clean bill of health from our vet on Friday and was a whopping 12.8 pounds three days before her 11 week birthday. Considering the fact that she was only 8 pounds at 8 weeks old, she's growing like a weed.  

These two pictures were taken exactly three weeks apart.

 

This past weekend, she went to socialize with local kids at the sledding hill, even going down the hill once with me.  (It wasn't pretty for me, that's all I'm saying)

I want to go again.  Can we go again?

She played ball with my two other Aussies, Steel and Ruby, and was as determined to get that ball as the others, no matter the fact that she is too small to keep up.

 She is learning our two dogs' body language so even though she can't hear warning growls, she knows when they are not pleased with her behavior.  This doesn't mean she won't push it, but then, she's a bratty little sister.  Even Ruby, who is a little on the high strung side, will play with her and Steel will actually take toys and initiate play.   The only one who is not thrilled is our 13-year-old, Allie, but Rogue has learned not to bother the old dog... most of the time.

Coming up next time, Rogue's hero, Belle.  A deaf dog who does agility, therapy and a whole lot more.

 

Potty training 101 or no plan survives contact with the enemy.

So, armed with Sofia Yin's book, Perfect Puppy in 7 Days, (http://drsophiayin.com/perfectpuppy?utm_campaign=Product+Page+Clicks&utm_source=PP), we were all set to get Rogue to potty training perfection.

Enemy number 1 (and 2)

We have a pair of great horned owls that live around us and while it's kind of cool to hear them arguing in the night and they do a lot to keep the rodent population under control, it is NOT cool when taking a puppy who is still rabbit sized out in the middle of the night for potty breaks.  So, I have to bring one of the other dogs out with me to keep the owls interest in other things and that causes a lot more trouble.  Thankfully, this is only at night.

Enemy number 3 

 

Yeah, it's cold.  Really freaking cold and with  negative degrees and a yard full of snow, those pink baby pads get cold and she was starting to limp after only a couple of minutes.

Enemy number 4 

Oh yeah, she looks cute...  but while the principal of offering a click and reward after potty is a good one, it's a lot more of a challenge when you can't use an audible clicker and the puppy has to be looking AT you for it to be effective.  And we don't always remember to bring treats because we don't want to be out there either because it's cold.  Did I mention cold?

So, how to solve the potty dilemma?   We took the borrowed x-pen (later on why that wasn't working for puppy containment and put it in the garage with puppy pads in it.  The garage is much warmer than the outside, there are no dogs or other fun things in the x-pen for her to play with and the owls haven't figured out how to get in the garage yet.  So far, it's working.  There's nothing interesting in the pen so we get piddle (or poop) within 30 seconds of putting her in there.  Then she gets out and gets love.  Of course, it's only the first day.  

So, why the x-pen didn't work.   Rogue doesn't like being separated from us.  This is something we'll have to work on but after she's through the fear period.  She is a confident little girl when we're around but doesn't like to be on the other side of any type of barrier.  I suspect that because she can't hear us, she needs to have access to us to make sure we're okay.   I don't have this problem when we crate her for sleeping because I put a blanket over the crate door.  So, alone in her crate/room is fine, but alone in a pen NEXT TO MY COMPUTER WHERE I AM SITTING, is not  

It is important to remember that every puppy is different and no one book can tell you how to handle every situation so read a lot of them so that when your puppy does something not covered in book number one, you have other ideas to fall back on.   Improvisation is key.

So, other than the perils of potty training and our failure of having a perfect puppy in 7 days.  (The book is awesome, by the way.  We just aren't.) we have been busy with more socialization.  Rogue went with me and Ruby to a disc dog event in Ohio where she schmoozed with some of the champion disc doggers while we threw discs in blizzard conditions for disc dogs that didn't understand why we weren't enjoying it as much as they were.  

Yeah, I got this.

Do I think it was a coincidence that the over all winner was the one player from Rogue's country of origin?  Not a chance.  :)

So much awesome for a little puppy to absorb

Thankfully, Rogue travels well because we had bad weather coming and going.  She was great in her box and pottied like a champ whenever we stopped.  That's going to be key for taking her to disc dog events in other states and countries.  

But you know, it's good to be home.

Technically, this isn't my home, but it IS how Ruby and I felt after a weekend of disc dogging and puppy wrangling.

I'd better go, someone has been out of my sight for too long.

100 dogs 100 people 100 days

Socialization is so important for a puppy.  This is as important if not moreso for a deaf puppy.   Rogue has to learn visual cues from dogs because she can't hear growls or yelps of pain.  She came to us with pretty good bite inhibition (Thanks again to her wonderful breeder) but she also came fearless.  Fearless is great but it means that we have to be particularly careful about her exposure to people and other dogs.  Good things can come with good socialization in those first hundred days but bad things can cause problems that will take a lot of time and training to fix.

So while quantity is good for socialization, quality is probably more important.   So, we played it smart.


We started small.  Little boutiques are going to have fewer people and fewer dogs and they often have a store dog that is well socialized.   Much less stressful on the dog than rushing into a large store. 

Go Dog Go is a local boutique and they loved Rogue there.  Even the store cat liked her.

Another place that welcomed her was our local Home Depot.    They might not all allow pets but ours does and there were a lot of employees and customers that were just dying to meet the fluffy little puppy.

Since she did so well in a smaller setting, we did take her to Petsmart and she wowed everyone she met.  We kept her in the cart to prevent accidental encounters with dogs we didn't know.  Rogue is fearless and would have no problem marching up to any dog whether or not that dog was interested in meeting her.  That could spell disaster for our social girl.  Socializing with other dogs is a lot about control and knowing your dog and knowing the dogs you're introducing her to.

We lucked out this year.  Our local Petsmart had puppy play time which was an hour of play for puppies up to 4 months old.   This was an awesome opportunity for Rogue to socialize in a controlled environment with young puppies who could match her energy level and enthusiasm.  There were 8 puppies in addition to her and they all romped and played very well with only a few time outs when someone got over excited.  And honestly, what's more fun than watching puppies play?  

Rogue was particularly fond of Staley, a young blue heeler.  They spent most of the hour wrestling with each other.  The good news is, Staley and his people live nearby so we see lots of playdates in the future.

The other advantage of all this socialization is that it's mental exercise for a young puppy.  It tires them out almost as much as that hour romp with other puppies.   Rogue has gone out socializing just about every day since we got her and even visited the vet today just for a playdate.   She doesn't know she gets her shots next week.

In the end, socialization gets the puppy what the puppy wants and gets you what you want...
This:

A little peace and quiet.  

I'm so happy my little deaf girl is so fearless and that so far, (knock wood) nothing has happened to rob her of her fearlessness or her love of people.  Her lack of hearing certainly doesn't seem to bother her and while I could really use the ability to tell her no when she grabs my pant leg, we've had to make adjustments and redirect or remove ourselves from her instead. 

It's been an awesome week so far.   She has a great default sit and we're working hard on recall.  This weekend she goes to her first disc dog event and can meet even more people and dogs.  I can't wait.

Rogue's first puppy class

Those of you who know my husband is a dog trainer might be wondering why we are taking our puppy to a puppy class with another trainer.  There are a couple of reasons:  1) The hubby and I don't do teacher/student relationship well no matter which of us is the teacher and which is the student.  2) The trainer for this class has a deaf aussie and 3) Curt loves to watch other trainers teach to give him more ideas.

So Wednesday night, we piled miss Rogue into her almost too small for her already crate and drove an hour and a half to take a puppy class with two other dogs.  One is a 15 week old underexercised mutt... I mean designer dog, named Toby.  But instead of calling this shi-tzu/bichon hybrid something like a Bitzu or a shichon, they call it a teddy bear dog.  No, I'm not kidding.  Toby wants to flying tackle, jump on everything that moves.

Puppy number 2 is a 16 week old chihuahua mix rescue that has some confidence problems, named Tinka.  She wanted to play but Toby's energy was wasaaaay too much for her.

The instructor had them play two at a time so that we could all see play behavior,  Toby's people were upset with his 'aggressive' play behavior.  There was nothing aggressive about him, he was just HIGH ENERGY.

Rogue took a few minutes to wake up when she was playing with Toby and then it was all out, run, jump, chase and play.  After a few minutes, she was starting to realize what all Aussie puppies do which is, "Hey, they can't turn like I can."  That was when Toby got replaced by Tinka. 

Now Rogues' favorite game at our house is bounce twice and leap at the other dog's face.  Our dogs have been patiently trying to teach her that game isn't cool but she's fearless and likes to do things her own way so I was a little concerned when it was her chance to play with Tinka.   Much to my surprise, Rogue dialed down her energy and was very gentle with Tinka.

She played rough with her siblings at the breeder and plays rough with our dogs so why the difference?  Apparently, Rogue was sensitive enough to the other dog's energy, that she realized that if she wanted to play, she had to dial it down and she did.  Wow, from an 8 week old puppy.

We already have her coming and sitting at our feet if she wants attention or to be picked up.  She loves being picked up.   Curt is working touch with her and we practiced that in class.  We also took them into the vet rooms and treated them for being on the vet table.   The trainer got out some obstacles  and odd feeling items and let the puppies explore them.  Rogue and Toby were fearless.  Tinka was a little more nervous but did pretty well.

Rogue was the star of the class and sat very nicely when we needed her to and worked touch like a champ.   Because she's deaf, holding the hand out for her to come touch it with her nose is our current recall.  I have started using it any time she looks at me.   We have to work her keeping an eye on us very hard this young because she can't see what we want her to do if she's not looking at us so getting her to make regular eye contact no matter what else she's doing is very important.

The added bonus of puppy class... tired puppy

At our house, Steel is starting to play with her.  He'll hold a tug toy and stand there while she pulls for all she's worth.  I have to admit he looks a little bored as if he can't believe that's all she's got.   Ruby is still hesitant.  Rogue's energy is still a bit too much, but it's getting better and Rogue is learning that if she wants to play with other dogs, she has to do what they want to do.

Any time you feel like actually pulling, kid, let me know.

 

We actually were pretty prepared for having the puppy, except for all the things you can't do because you have to watch her.  Keeping an eye on her is a full time job and while she can be crated when she's napping, she throws a hell of a tantrum if she's not tired.  We're getting used to our new routine and I have to say, other than not being at all responsive to auditory cues (which has the added bonus that she doesn't wake up if you drop something or the other dogs go ballistic because the mail man is here), she's a normal puppy.  We've nicknamed her the evil little imp.

Release me, mortal or I will devour your soul!!!

But since I'm not about to make that trip up to Canada and back again and she really is freakin adorable, I think we'll keep her.

Journey to the Great White North

All day Friday, I was asking for it by saying, "Well, at least it's rain and not snow."

Dayna and I drove over 10 hours in the dark and pouring rain and fog on deserted country roads to get to our destination.  By the time we arrived, my upper back, and shoulders were spasming and my hands were cramping from my death grip on the steering wheel.

But we arrived and that's what's important.  

Our hostess was amazing.   Teri Best Murphy and her TickLwood Australian shepherds made us very much at home, and, of course there were puppies.   Lots and lots of puppies.

8 little hellionis romping about like a herd of elephants, chasing, tackling, wrestling, and cuddling.   Most of them even managed to get at least one foot on a puppy pad before going potty.   I would have taken any one of them home.

To be honest, you couldn't tell Rogue was any different from her siblings in that environment.   I had heard that deaf puppies have problems because they can't hear the auditory cues other puppies give when they are being hurt, but she didn't seem to have any issues with that. 

She was snuggling and sweet and a little hellion.  In fact, I had brought my other girl, Ruby with me to keep her company on the way back and Rogue desperately wanted to play.  Her way of initiating play with Ruby was to leap at her face.   Ruby started with minimal correction (lip curl) and Rogue would back up and then launch herself back in with reckless abandon.  Finally, Ruby had enough and she whapped the offending pup across the room with her paw.   I'm not sure if Rogue finally took the hint or if she was far enough away that she got distracted by something shiny.

 

You're bringing it home???

Rogue has no fear.  I had to be careful when holding her in my lap because she'd just dive off towards the floor with no notice.  I don't think that has anything to do with her hearing and everything to do with her being a fearless, confident puppy and that's good breeding.

So we spent a lazy Saturday with puppies.   Teri arranged a shoulder and foot massage for me which I can't even begin to tell you how much I needed and the essential oils the massage therapist used, relaxed Ruby for the first time since we arrived.   I may have to do some research into this.

The trip back had a rocky start.  All the rain had melted the snow into ice and I couldn't get my car out.   Teri called on some strapping young Kanuks to help and in no time we were on the road.  Rogue had brief tantrums when we put her in her crate, but otherwise was a great traveler.  She peed on her pee pads in the car when we let her out and was a devil trying to get by us so she could dive off the end of the back.  I did mention fearless, right?

We got home late and so she got a lot to drink before bed so she was up a couple of times during the night.  This is typical puppy and totally our fault.

In less than 24 hours, she's fetching, going to the back door to be let out for potty and sitting on command.  Did I mention smart?  She's eating like a pig but is a self moderator which I found out when I fed her BEFORE taking her to Petsmart for some socialization and she wasn't much interested in the treats.  (doh).  

So far, the flickers (visual clickers) seem to be doing well, though she is not very fond of this not getting her own way all the time thing.

 My life is hell!!!

 I can't say enough about how much of this is because of her breeder's care of her in her early weeks.   It's an advantage a lot of people with deaf dogs DON'T have because few people get them from a good breeder, they're often dumped at shelters and rescues by bad breeders who can't make money off them when they're not killed. 

She's currently passed out upstairs which will aggravate my husband since he couldn't get her to sleep for more than a few minutes while I was at work today.   I'll wake her up at 8 so we can bounce her and hope she sleeps better tonight.

Next up...  Puppy class

The beginning

We weren't in the market for a puppy.  We have three dogs, two of which are young Australian Shepherds and with two of us, that seemed just right.  But things happen...

You meet a lot of people on Facebook, especially if you belong to groups and I happened to belong to an Australian Shepherd group.  My husband, Curt is a dog trainer and we frequently provide advice to folks who need a little help.  I've become good friends with some of them so it wasn't unusual for me to be messaging back and forth with someone I never met but with whom I share the love of the Australian Shepherd breed.   This person;s youngest bitch had just had her first litter of puppies.  It was very exciting. 

But to make a long story short, she had a pup with a nearly all white head.  That's a sign that there's a good chance the pup could be deaf.  Now Aussies, as a breed aren't for everyone, high drive narrows the pool more and then add deaf and you've got a very small number of potential owners.

Don't get me wrong, I was flattered when she asked if we would take the pup.  After all,  Curt has trained blind, deaf and blind/deaf dogs so it made sense, but we talked about it long and hard because taking responsibility for a special needs dog isn't something to do on a whim, no matter how good your intentions.

She is not a double merle or lethal white (lots of information on exactly what that means here  http://www.lethalwhites.com/).  She is just deaf which means she won't likely have some of the additional health issues that often plague those dogs.  And so, we decided that we'd take Rogue into our home and our hearts.

Rogue was treated just like all the other puppies.   She was stress tested.  (http://breedingbetterdogs.com/pdfFiles/articles/early_neurological_stimulation_en.pdf) and socialized and even taught recall.  At 5 weeks, she was recalling to tapping on a hardwood floor.  We are very lucky to have such an awesome breeder who is working so hard during those first 8 formative weeks to make sure our girl is as prepared for her new life away from her mother as possible.

So, puppy is coming home.  What do we need?   I like this book by Paul Owen (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QCX7VA).  He gives a lot of advice on what to do BEFORE you bring your puppy home.  It's all positive reward based training.  We're also big fans of clicker training.  Everything you always wanted to know about clicker training is here http://www.clickertraining.com/.

Now you might be wondering how do you clicker train a deaf dog?  Well, the clicker is just a marker, it doesn't have to be a sound.  It can be, a sight.  For Rogue, we bought little squeeze flashlights and dimmed their beams.  Research is starting to show a link between laser pointers and OCD in certain dogs so best to just avoid it.  (http://blog.porchpotty.com/the-dangers-of-laser-pointing/).

It's three days until I go and get her.   She was 7 weeks old yesterday and shows every sign of being a normal puppy of her age.  We're puppy proofing the house, we've stocked up on paper towels and chew toys.  We bought her a collar and harness and toys... and more toys.   Her puppy food is sitting in the garage waiting for her arrival.

So, I'm going to Canada with a friend I met on the internet to get a dog from a friend I met on the internet.  Sounds a little odd, doesn't it?   I am thankful for the breeder and all of the support we've had from the Australian Shepherd group where all this started.   We start our first puppy class tomorrow taught by a woman who has a two year old deaf Aussie.  No dogs the first class so we're safe.  .  I'm hoping, when all is said and done, that this will be a helpful resource to others who find themselves with a deaf dog of any breed at any age.  I'm sure looking forward to the adventure.