Agility with a deaf dog

So heres my Question. Has anyone done Agility with a deaf dog. I would like to try it with my deaffie as I know she'd be quite good at it. She watches me constantly and learns new things very quickly. She is also a fantastic athlete, rebounding off the back of furnature and leaping into my arms. I just want to know if there are any special considerations for deaf dogs and what would be different. I would like to do something fun with her and strengthen our bond. She is so smart and just a fantastic dog.

Patch, Dogseys own agility guru has more than one deaf agility dog. I am sure she will be along soon to tell you about them

Makes a change from being the Tick guru mind you :smt044

Hi Sara'n'Scout,
For my sins lol, I have 4 deaf dogs - my eldest has been competing in agility for many years [ near enough retired now except for veterans ], another is training at the moment, and my youngest is doing pre-agility play [ directions, poles on the ground, tunnels ], as she is too young to train `proper` for agility just yet [ not 12 months old yet ].

You already sound very in-tune with your girl so you have a head start there as you already know how much she watches you.
The main thing really is to always try to be in her line of sight wherever she is on a course / exercise and to give clear signals for her.
Once she has the basics you won`t need to do exaggerated movements, as she will be able to see the formulation of a movement and be able to suss what the full movement will be ,so when you start teaching her make sure any cue`s for specific elements are different enough from each other that she does`nt pre-empt the wrong obstacle

I do use some specifics for obstacle identification for my crew, ie circled thumb and forefinger for tyre, [ either hand for sending through on either side ], wide circled arm movement for open tunnel, both hands together with a straight armed sweeping motion for flat tunnel, straight arm point to base of contacts, that sort of thing, but you must use whichever movements come naturally to you as the more natural your cues the easier she will `read` them.

For all my deaf dogs, with Weaving I go ahead of them and walk backward, its the easiest way [ imo ] for them to fathom the element as they can see the handler and the poles nice and clearly that way. You can of course gradually change over to you going forward if you prefer but for me I have found it the easiest way [ and the quickest for my own dogs ], so I stick to going backward for the weaves [ it feels a bit strange at first but once you get the hang of it especially getting in place to start with it will feel like second nature ].

For her line of sight, the easiest way for you to figure out where she needs you to be if she is ahead of you is :

hold both arms out straight at shoulder height,
then move them as far back as you can [ if you have normal range of shoulder movement ] -
where your hands are behind you, thats a dogs range of sight behind them when they are facing forward, so as long as you are in that range however far forward she is, she`ll be able to see signals from you :smt001

If you have a look at these two vids they may help you :

One is my Lurcher doing some training - he can hear but I`m so used to handling my deaf dogs I handle him silent [ did`nt realise I do it that way with him til I watched the video back :smt005 ].
On his clip you can see the movements used to draw him toward me and to send him over jumps, and to turn wide or tight depending on jump angles, and importantly you can see where I made errors of blocking his line of sight between him and a couple of jumps [ errors are a great teaching tool ]

The second is a dog learning weaves for the very first time and shows the handler going backward to guide her dog through the poles - as an instructor I start all new handlers and their dogs this way for the weaves because of it being such an easy way for the dogs to get the idea especially visually from their handlers

Actually, a third clip - a Manchester Terrier only on his fourth ever agility lesson including his first time weaving as well, he does them twice in the sequence and shows the handler doing the backward walking weave - he had never seen a weave pole before the start of the session

Hope these help a bit for you :

My Lurcher, silent handling

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p...edium=text_url

Weave basics

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p...edium=text_url

Manchester Terrier, nice beginners back-walking weaves in the sequence

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p...edium=text_url

All the above for agility is providing she is at least 12 months old now, [ no jumping or any other impact work should be done until that age, older for large breeds, and no flat tunnel without it being held open for under-age pups because of the weight of the fabric and the physical effort needed to push through if not held open ].

If she is under 12 months at the moment, you can use all sorts of directional signals and movements to guide her in preparation, and an open tunnel is fine, as are planks on the ground for contact equipment preparation.

Many dogs find tunnels a bit scary at first, a deaf dog more so [ usually ], because they can`t see or hear their handler when going through them so to give them confidence right from the start, use tunnels in straight line, squashed up as short as possible, and ask someone to *gently* hold your dog toward the entrance so you can get to the other side and look through it so she`ll come to you, then when she is confident you can increase the distance of the tunnel and introduce curves to it - but don`t rush her on it, let her get completely comfortable with the tunnel at each stage before upping the challenge. Of course she might be happy to go through right from the off but I do feel stages are the best way to build confidence consistantly

Hopefully thats enough on the main basics to start you off but any questions on specifics, throw `em at me and I`ll do my best to respond as concisely as I can in writing or will endeavour to take vids of my crew to show how I go about things if a visual would be easier any time.

Oh, one more thing - if you want to compete, be aware that pesky judges are a pain for deaf dogs because when they signal faults a deaf dog can mistake it as recall cue, so try to avoid using visual cues which might end up with her running toward a judge for a cuddle - my eldest has cuddled lots of judges over the years because I did`nt think of that when I first adopted him, and rotten judges just laugh when I ask them not to signal his Faults [ can`t think why ], but how was I to know he`d end up competing and his distance recall signal being similar to a judges fault signal might be a slight inconvenience :smt044


HTH :smt001