We had a beautiful female Border Collie pup who came into our rescue and was completely deaf. Only 5 months old, and chasing shadows everywhere.
She was trained to respond to hand signals and found a wonderful home with some agility owners, and became a very successful agility dog! Due to her deafness she was very very good at following the owners body language and hand signals, her focus was way above that of the dogs that were not deaf! She would leave them behind for dust.

Unfortunalty since then she has since been put to sleep after suffering a very nasty brain tumour, its so sad as she was still so young. But she was a mighty fine dog, and will always be remembered both in the local agility club and also with her friends and family. It still brings a tear to my eye to think of her.

Bless. Sorry you weren't able to have her for longer but I bet she was a loved, cared for little angel for the time you had her. Cody was 5 months when I started fostering her and her OCD was really bad. With the help of a proper behaviourist and her new family's patient and energy levels she is now a happy, healthy and cheeky 3 year old.
To be honest from the agility point of view I was advised not to encourage it as it could of made her OCD worse because of the excitment. Her new family do it for fun so they have been able to work it without the excitment sometimes seen with agility and although see will never be the fastest at it she has won rounds at her centre and got best handler and dog a few months ago and most importantly she is using her brain and her energy so settles much more afterwards as with most dogs.
It is much more satisfying teaching with body language, facial expressions and hand signals as it takes away the one tool we tend to use wrongly (voice).

Aw bless! It really is so rewarding when they pick it up and just constantly wait for your next movement or signal. I think sometimes it helps with having a very intelligent breed such as a Border Collie, they seem to really pick it up so fast.

Sorry the Border Collie was not mine I wish! She was actually a dog which came into our rescue centre to be rehomed. We retrained her to understand all of our hand signals, and gave her "focus training" getting her to make eye contact with the handler and check in for a treat. She then really got into chasing a tennis ball! (First of all when she came in she had no idea how to play ) She just constantly wanted to chase shadows all day long whenever the sun came out. Poor girl
After the training, she got much better. Eventually she found the perfect home!
Just such a shame that she got so poorly so quickly, It was so shocking. But yes, She certainly lived a wonderful life and she will be remembered.

I agree with you, it really is so satisfying to see a dog pick up on the hand signals. I love it, I don't find deaf dogs any different to a normal dog. They just need that extra time and attention to be trained slightly differently. = It makes it all the more exciting and rewarding if you ask me!

The thought that breeders would do this disgusts and upsets me! This pups life will not be that much different to a normal pups! So long as people are prepared to put in the time and effort to train a deaf pup with different methods it should make little difference.

If they breed a deaf pup then they should not use the parents again!! If a pup is born deaf then that is genetic.

Then again, I am someone who is against killing any animal (yes I am a veggie) so on that note, if you don't want the deaf puppies give them to me!

I heard about a puppy about to be pts because it was deaf as the breeder was not allowed to sell a pup with a 'defect' luckily the lady i know was in the vets at the time and said she would take him, already having 2 deaf dogs.

Personally I would only have an animal pts if it was suffering and death was inevitable, they dont really understand and it seems wrong to me.

I guess a lot of people that breed do it for money and see the animals as products or units rather than life....

Its not all that long ago that white Boxer pups were routinely PTS at birth "just in case" they were deaf. Think of all the hundreds of white healthy pups culled - "just in case". Horrific.

In the case of deaf pups the breeder wont know until the pup is up moving around. Even then they will follow the other hearing pups making it duffucult to be sure. Responsible breeders will take white pups one at a time to a quiet room with no distractions. Let pup play & then use noise distraction. I think at this stage when the pups are approx 4+*weeks old, if the breeder finds they have a deaf pup & has it PTS, personally my opinion is, they shouldnt be breeding &*would not be what you call a responsible breeder. A responsible breeder will keep that pup until a suitable home is found. They can have tests carried out via the vet to see if pup is deaf in one or both ears.

Times change & nowdays the "old*
school" of culling white Boxer pups at birth are not in the majority.

We got both our Whites as pups & knew*there could be a chance of deafness - I have always used both hand signals & voice commands. If your dog is out of voice range but can still see you, you can use your hand signal to stop them. Both ours have perfect hearing.

Maybe some deaf dogs end up in rescue but theres a heck of a lot more hearing dogs end up in rescue. Should breeders therefore "cull" all healthy, hearing or otherwise, down to 3/4 surviving pups * out of a litter of 5 + " just in case" some end up in rescue........

I was aware that mine could have been deaf ,but once we picked them out the litter at 4 weeks old, deafness would never have stopped me ...

Ditto.

But you cant take them all, and for every one that might find a home one will not, or may well find that home, then said home finds it cant cope with a deaf pup.

Would it then be better that said pup grows up in rescue , doing the rounds from rescue to rescue.

People give up on their dogs for far lesser reasons, never mind then being deaf.

Personally I dont condemn a breeder for putting to sleep a puppy they find is deaf, if they find a good home or keep it themselves, then I commend them for that too.

But I dont judge someone for doing what they feel is right for one of their pups!


P.S... I know a few people locally who have white Boxers, but funny enough, when talking to them, none of them new anything about deafness in white Boxers?

Now that could have ended badly, going blindly into buying a dog that may turn out to be deaf, could well have been to much for the owner, what happens then, do they keep or put into rescue?? luckily all are OK, but the look of horror on their faces when it was discussed , may be an indication of them coping.

Boxers are a difficult breed to bring up without any added problems, to many buy a Boxer because of the cute value, then when they realise what they have, they get rid. thats why we have to many in rescue as it is.

"Quote. By Jackbox
P.S... I know a few people locally who have white Boxers, but funny enough, when talking to them, none of them new anything about deafness in white Boxers? End quote"

You need to look at the whole picture here. The dogs are hearing therefore the breeder did not need to mention that white pups could be deaf. Why should they & bring to attention a faint chance. For the percentage born each year - 25% as we know there may be a very small minority that are deaf. I wonder how many of the coloured pups born each year are deaf. Deafness is not always exclusive to colour. With the trend for flashy dogs (white markings - white marks down front of face quite sought for) white pups will continue to be born & with it the risk of deafness. Trends need to change or should i say "fashion" needs to change.

Owners that discard a deaf pup will discard any pup with what rhey consider to be a problem. Since our rescue was formed there has only been a few deaf whites came through & all have gone on to be successfully rehomed.

People are fickle & have no problem getting "rid" of dogs. They dont do any history of our breed before jumpingbon the bandwaggon to buy one. The point is Jackie if you or I got a pup that turned out to be deaf we would work with it & train it. If we had a pup thar had behavoural issues we would work
with it & train it. Pups are too easily obtainable &too easily disposed of when it suits

Couple of years ago i met a couple in PAH with elderly brindle boy. Their commenrs to me where " Knew someone who had white one, theyre all deaf, blind & sickly, wouldnt have one" & that assumption was based on one white dog who was partially deaf in one ear.

Anyway we can agree to differ