Here's an interesting one for you

Hi folks, well not been on much this week, what with talent shows with the fostering kids, and fishing with them we've been rather busy. But as always the gang have to be walked, so today we chose Babbs Mills, so they could have a couple of hours run.
We got there, and from the side of my eye I noticed a rather eccentric looking guy with three border collies, one red and white, one black and white and a beautiful white and blue merle.
Off we set, the walk went well, plenty of chasing the ball, swimming in the lake, and the river, etc., a real peaceful walk. Then as we returned to the car this same guy was coming towards us, we noticed he had a little boy with him around 7/8 yrs, who promptly came striding over to us and with all the confidence in the world said 'rather nice little pack you have there' we agreed and went towards our car, but the boy followed us telling us all about how he was an uncle and that he wanted another collie to join his pack.
Suddenly the father comes over, and with just as much confidence as his son, starts asking where we got our dogs from, by now he's holding open our car door and making no attempt to move.
Suddenly with out any warning the Merle attacks Skye, pinning her to the floor and turned extremely vicious, without a thought I grabbed his collar and he became extremely friendly towards me. The guy said 'He's completely deaf, he 18 months and he's best ignored.
I let go of the collar and he starts telling us that he's a rescue with the 'white gene' and can not hear a thing, the little boy is also laughing about it.......Skye wasn't.
Then the same thing happened only with Bruce this time, Bruce retaliated and a fight broke out, again I grabbed both dogs and held them apart Pat got Bruce and popped in the car quickly. The guy and his son still laughing said 'your best ignoring him, he can not hear you'
We made our escape excuses of 'got to get home anyway' but everytime I tried to get the girls in the car, this Merle attacked and snatched them back down to the ground by thier legs.
I had to ask the guy can you hold him, so I can get my dogs in the car........his reply (now he was talking to someone else) was, ignore him......
So I had to hold the Merle back, whilst Pat popped the dogs in the car a shut the door. I realise the dog was deaf but he was loose and running around quite freely in the car park......if that was me I'd be worried a car or something would harm him.

oh my you were quite alot more patient with that guy than I would have been cant believe you had to go thru that what is wrong with people hope your babies are ok xxxxx

I'm afraid, having a deaf dog that 'ignoring him' is not good enough, the dog still needs discipline (for want of a better word). The only difference is that Dougal gets signals instead of vocal instruction.

You treat them exactly the same except you use signals. Thankfully aggression is not a problem we have with Dougs, I don't think he has an aggressive bone in his body.

Thanks Hun, yes they are fine Skye has a small tooth hole inside her leg, but she;'s ok....it's always her that gets attacked Bruce being the biggest now is ok, he's just getting to the stage where he doesn't suffer fools gladly
I don't think this dog knew any language.....signal or anything else, it was a shame because he was friendly towards people, but I did think that it was silly to 'ignore' that behaviour and ignore him running around free

What on earth was a rescue thinking of homing a deaf dog to someone like that who clearly does`nt realise deaf dogs have a brain which needs input and training like any other dog, idiots like that make me so mad, they are the sort who screw up deaf dogs in the flippin` first place

[ sorry to rant guys but its something I feel very strongly about for obvious reasons ]

totally agree patch, why ignore him? i dont get it? how did he adopt him anyway? surely he has to prove he can look after and train a deaf dog??

Stupid, STUPID owner. Sorry you had to experience this, Stephanie. I hope all your crew are ok?

Ignore It I would have told him to get him back on a bloody lead and grow up.
Well the air might have been a bit bluer but hell he would have gotten the picture.

Glad you and yourn are ok hun.xxxx

Thank you Patch....you have picked up on my point exactly. I wasn't in my post 'ranting' about the aggressive attack, I was STUNNED that this guy, with an obvious lack of knowledge had this beautiful deaf dog in the first place, I myself felt that this dog had been rehomed with him because he already owned BC's not because of any experience he had.I described him as eccentric, because that was exactly how he was, flamoyant coloured clothing, very dated, straw hat and glasses perched right at the end of the nose, which he looked over the top, he took great delight in the fact it was stone deaf, yet here it was 18months old, running around FREELY all over the car park, which has a blind spot to the entrance and his only topic of conversation was 'no matter what this breed has to endure, it is smart enough to work things out for itself, without human input' and as soon as I started to say 'I wouldn't let mine start working things out without my input, he moved to talk to someone else, with NO regards to what this deaf dog was doing. I understand your rant Patch...I was ranting in the car all the way home too.
Yes Vicki my crew are ok, two things came out of it....Skye needs a suit of armour, and Bruce needs neutering soon as he is an obvious fighter if pushed...we had a job getting Bruce off...and he's only 7 months

No wonder you want to rant, you have got to feel sorry for the dog, he doesn't stand a chance with such an idiot for an owner.
Poor Skye, hope she isn't too badly affected. Sounds like your baby Bruce is growing up and protecting his family.