Hi NeilJ .... I hope I might be able to help or at least give a possible explanation why your dog is displaying this strange behaviour.

To give you a brief background:- I have a 9.5 month old Shar-Pei, Georgina, who since she's been a tiny puppy has been partially blind. (Fortunately its a cureable condition and since her 4th op, three weeks ago, her sight is almost normal). Like your dog she's spent a lot of her time pacing around searching for things that aren't there.

Some years ago I worked with blind and deaf people and one thing I learnt was that in order to compensate for the lack of sight or hearing, their other senses become heightened. A blind person for example will will rely more on their sense of hearing and touch than a sighted person.

With a dog who is partially sighted it will normally be the sense of [B]hearing and smell. [/B]And I would imagine with a deaf dog it will be sight and smell With Georgie even the slightest sound agitated her and set her off pacing, the worst time being in the evening and during the night which as you no doubt know is exhausting for both dog and owner!

Whenever I've had a behavioural problem with a dog the first thing I always do is to try and find out what triggers off the behaviour. Very often it's something that a human wouldn't even notice or think of as trivial, but until you've discovered the cause of the problem you can't begin to correct the behaviour.

In Georgie's case it was certain noises on the TV she was reacting to. As soon as she became upset and started her pacing I'd put her lead on and using treats and lots of encouragement I'd stand with her in front of the offending TV and tell her "telvision". I also left it on all day with the sound turned down low so that she got accustomed to all the noises it emmited! She now no longer bothers when its on and at long last I can watch the TV without having to jump up every few minutes.

Maybe with your dog as he's deaf so won't be aware of sound, it might be that the flickering of the screen is disturbing him??? Just a thought.

Another thing I found to have a calming effect on Georgie is to brush her or give her a massage ... there's a very good book by Linda Tellington-Jones called "Getting in TTouch with your dog" which tell you how to do it correctly.

Hope that helps and good luck with your boy!

I watched the video over breakfast and I am now head over heels in love with Martin... Well Done on teaching him so much, he is amazing!!

Good Luck with getting him to settle!

Martin is a wee star
Brilliant..well done to all of you

Absolutely brilliant post by Cho's mum. Dogsey at its best. Dog lovers helping and advising other dog lovers.

I did wonder if he was TOTALLY deaf? Or if there were some frequency noises he could hear that we can't?

The oddest things can disturb animals. Obviously not likely to be noises in your case.

Regarding strange 'sights' when I stayed at my son's with my dog she would stand on the bed (which was low to the floor) and bark randomly during the night at intervals looking at the window.

I was clueless until I got down to her level to look. His place is well below the street level with a slope and stairs to the street gate - all bordered by a dry stone wall. On the main Wells Road in Bath.

what she could see from her 'near the floor' vantage point (and what I couldn't see) was the tops of heads moving along the wall in the dark as people passed by occasionally (not many coz it was middle of the night) but from where she lay it cast a shadow she could see even with the vertical blinds closed. Because she could sort of 'see upwards' through the slats.

Easily solved by closing the blinds the other way round so she couldn't 'see up through the overlaps.

Regarding a noise - mine went potty every time the automatic air freshener gave a little 'puff' and I hardly heard it. But as it was aerosol operated - I wonder if there was a high pitch noise too that I couldn't hear.

Do keep us updated on how you get on. You've done so WELL with your dog. Devotion in action!

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I have some detective work ahead of me. I did hear a machine pounding posts deep into the ground, so that's my suspect. Although he's pretty calm right now.

Good luck Neil.

You have an absolutely gorgeous pup and from the look of what he has already learned he has a tip-top trainer! For any pup let alone a deaf one he already knows - and follows - so many instructions, so well done for all the work you have done and are doing!

Anything kind of ground vibration carries quite a long distance and for a deaf dog or person can be felt through the ground [and sensed through air vibration]. I have no discernible hearing in one ear [and limited hearing in the other] but an ABR showed that my brain responds to very high or very low frequencies which are sensed although they are not heard by my deaf ear, and when using the telephone [with my hearing ear] I have to hold it so that it touches my head above my ear so that I hear it through my skull and not my actual ear.

But I can "hear" vibrations through the ground,almost like a dull tingling in my feet so possibly that is what is happening to your pup, and when he is laying down he would feel them through his whole body hence the waking up and searching.

Also different types of vibrations feel different - for example the vibration a heavy truck makes going past is not the same as vibrations of a machine pounding posts in the ground, so whereas he might be used to one vibration a different one could cause a new reaction.

Good luck with him - he really is a stunning little pup!