Using a dog whistle for our deaf elderly labrador

Crazycatlady39

Hi all

Our pooch is now nearly completely deaf. But she still has great energy and if we go to the beach or local forest park she has no problems trotting on ahead (we go early in the morning when both areas are pretty quiet). The only thing is that, because she's gone deaf, she can't hear when I call her so doesn't know to come back until she turns around to see where I am.

Would it be cruel to introduce a silent whistle? I don't know anything about them. I only want something to help get her attention before she runs off too far on her own. She wouldn't run away and has always been great like that, but I do have a fear that she'll get lost if she can't hear me calling her and ends up going off somewhere, because she thinks I'm behind her. Even though she can't hear me calling her, she can hear me clap from a certain distance (presumably because of the pitch?) so I'm thinking that a whistle would work, just a very short burst or two to grab her attention.

I'll always bring a lead, but generally she's off it (the reason we go so early) and is as happy as larry, so I really don't want to start restraining her now.

Thanks,
ccl

Cherry Blossom

Silent dog whistles are not silent. I don't see how she would hear it anymore than your voice.

I would go with a vibrate box attached to her collar. You train the dog to look at you when it vibrates, then use a hand signal that you teach her to come to when she sees it.

ganmo

Usually high frequency hearing is the first to go in humans so I assume the same in dogs.

Ms Doubtfire1

agreed. if you are walking in a no danger zone(long stretch of beach etc) she'll be fine. lead otherwise. i used to wlak my totally blind and nearly deaf collie on the beach and he'd still run as he knew the beach for years.He was on the lead anywhere else.

My parents cocker spaniel is almost completely deaf also. My mum struggles to get him in at night when it's dark , cold and wet. She can't see where he is and he can't hear her shouting.

We've also noticed that he can hear her clapping loudly (although he's not sure where it's coming from or what it means). When I'm there I whistle very loud and high and he hears that and comes. So my mum just said yesterday she must get a whistle.

I wasnt aware that they lose the ability to hear high pitched noises first. He also gets really distressed if the fire alarm goes off in the house. He can't hear you saying his name while standing directly next to him but when they fire alarm goes off he races the kitchen and starts frantically digging at the ground while whining.

Thats weird so. I expect he'll lose all his hearing soon enough anyway.

tk123

Would a normal e.g. Acme whistle not work if she can hear you clap OP? I use these ones - https://www.amazon.co.uk/ACME-Dog-Whistle-No-black/dp/B004DYIOI4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1508421784&sr=8-3&keywords=dog+whistle
The thing is though you'll still have to condition her to it which takes weeks with a hearing dog and probably the same all over again if you went with a vibrating collar after if/when completely loses the hearing so maybe skip the whistle completely and go straight to the collar?

CircleofLife

I second the suggestion for the vibration collar- they are often used to train deaf dogs to recall. The vibration is also really soft- it feels like a phone vibrating.

Crazycatlady39

Thanks all for your posts, this is great. I'll definitely look into the vibrating collar and see if that helps. She's a very quick learner, always was, so hoping something like that will work. Really reluctant to put her on a lead at this stage because she's in her twilight years now (she's 14) and I want her to enjoy life as much as she can - the places we go are familiar to her and while she doesn't mind the lead, she has always loved rambling off ahead on her own so I want to find a solution that will allow her to still do that.