Deaf Dog Mama

You definitely will noticed a spotted fur kid on my social media posts. I’m a proud dog mama of a Dalmatian. She is 10 years old!

I’ve got many questions from people asking if my dog knows I am deaf and how is she different with me than with other hearing people.

When she wants to eat, she will come to where ever I am, and sit directly in front of me and stare at me.

I moved in my current home 5 years ago. It didn’t come equipped with a doorbell (don’t ask me why). Although, I took our sweet time to get one too, but I never needed one because dogs are always our doorbell right? Mine runs frantically from the window then run to me and back to the window if someone was in the driveway. Same goes for people at the door, she would run from the door to me and back to the door. I actually have a funny story to share! The UPS man comes and drops off packages. I didn’t always go to the door immediately to retrieve them. One day, he came and left. My dog constantly ran from the door to the kitchen where I was prepping dinner. Back and forth several times. I even peeked out to make sure the UPS man was gone. He was. She wouldn’t stop. So finally, I followed her to the door. The UPS man had left her a milk bone on top of the package!

A common question we get is if she knows any sign language. Yes, she does… I use American Sign Language for her. Her favorite word probably is ‘eat’. She knows sign for ‘play’ for play time in the yard, ‘potty’/‘poop’, ‘water’, ‘sit’, ‘stop’…etc. There are a few words where I have to use a different sign, like for example I sign ‘swim’ which means beach for her.

I also have noticed that while in the yard, she tends to check often by looking back to see where I am. I don’t know if this is related to deafness, as deafness really rely on visual. In a way, it’s almost like she knows I need extra protection so she keeps looking at me.

The only con with being deaf owner of a dog, is when we go out in the public. A Dalmatian gets a LOT of attention. People will talk to her. She LOVES people. So the issue is, when strangers comes up behind me/or not in my visual zone… then baby talks to my dog. She will turn and pull hard (out of excitement) so that surprise whiplash isn’t always fun. I’ve spent a lot time trying to train to break this habit but it’s hard when people still talk to her.

Another question I often get… is she a service dog for the Deaf/or will I ever train her to be one? I honestly never looked into it. A hearing dog is usually trained to alert owners to sounds around the household such as doorbell, alarms, phones, babies crying, etc. The dog will paw at the owner and lead them to the noise. It’s a possibility that I could look into this with next dog that I will have.

So does my dog know if I’m deaf? Sometimes I wonder if she does. Sometimes she acts like she does. Sometimes she doesn’t. I do believe she knows there is something unique about me. She is a wonderful doghter for me!