Apparantly so! Though it sounds more like a ’squeak.’ Eatonroyce and I have recently introduced a new addition to our household. A new little puppy called Quin! He’s funny little thing but damn he’s cute! Quin is a cross between a big, red cattledog (dad) and a little jack russell (mum). Quin is somewhere in between. He has a red cattle dog head, with jack russell whiskers on his chin. Short little legs, curly little tail (which will probably be straight soon going by how often he pulls on it), and soft fuzzy fur all over! He is mostly white with red spots on his sides, red and brown markings on his face, and now a mottly red speckling is appearing all over his coat. Quin’s growth spurts have been all over the place. First it was his head, then his legs, and yesterday, I swear his ears grew as they are suddenly really big and floppy and keep getting turned inside out!
Despite his mismatched though very, very cute appearance, thats not the most unique thing about Quin.
Quin is deaf.
It came as quite a surprise as I have never heard of anyone having a deaf dog before! At least not born deaf. After doing some reading I found out that it’s not so uncommon, especially in particular breeds. It seems that red cattle dogs are very highly at risk of deafness, and jack russells are also within the top 60 most susceptible breeds. Dogs that are born white or mostly white tend to be more likely to have hearing problems. And, after investigating, I found out Quin was pure white when he was born!
I was a bit worried at first as to how we would communicate with our new puppy until I read about dog sign language. Instead of using vocal commands, you just use had signals to convey commands such as “sit”, “come” and “good boy.” You can use any hand signals you like. Essentially, it’s not that much differerent than training a hearing dog, afterall, hearing dogs can’t understand English or whatever, – the only difference is it’s more difficult to get a deaf dog’s attention. Whenever the dog is looking the other way, they are oblivious to anything you are trying to tell them!! I think he is starting to get the hang of some signs. He now responds to the signal for his name “Quin” “good boy” “come here” and “watch me.” Everything else (and more often than not the signs he has been taught) he takes as “Do whatever you want.”
But how can we ensure the safety of a deaf dog? Afterall, he can’t hear if a car is coming or respond to anything approaching him. Well, we have done a few things to help us out. We bought Quin a cat collar with two little bells on it. That way, we can always hear where he is! (This doesn’t apply when he is asleep somewhere though). We also had a name tag made for him with his name, Eastonroyces’ mobile number and “I am deaf” engraved on it. That way, if anyone finds him, they will know he is deaf, and hopefully hold him and call the number. We have bought him lots of toys to play with, so he won’t get bored and wander. We didn’t buy any squeaky toys though. Heck, he can’t hear the annoying squeaks so why torture ourselves?? He has free run of the backyard when someone is home, and if not, he is in the enclosed back patio. We only allow him in the front yard when supervised.
Despite this minor inconveniences, we are discovering heaps of advantages to having a deaf dog! For one, he can’t hear the vaccuum cleaner so we just vaccuum around him, he never hears packets opening in the kitchen so he doesn’t think everything being opened is food for him, he can’t hear the other dogs in the street barking so doesn’t join in, and, he is the first dog I’ve ever had that isn’t terrified of storms! (he slept better through the one last weekend than I did!).
But most of all, he is a cute, affectionate little friend that is always delighted to ’see’ us and is lots of fun to have around! Unfortunately I don’t have any images with me to post at the moment (hopefully will soon though!), but to get an idea as to what cute little Quin looks like, take a look at Eastonroyce’s blog.
Cute doggy Cassie!