Rebecca A Withey: Reflections on introducing our new puppy into our deaf family!

When it was announced that there would be a second lockdown, my husband and I were already preparing to bring our new puppy home. We had been looking for the ideal dog and weighing up our options for a long while, and we finally found a beautiful black labrador pup to join our family.

I guess in some ways lockdown is a great opportunity to adopt a pup. If you’re on furlough or working from home, you’re able to train puppy from home and manage with broken sleep for a couple of weeks without the pressures of having to commute or rush around in the morning. A lot of other people must agree with me because it seems that a record number of puppies were adopted or bought this year during lockdown! A puppy boom!

So here we are now, with our lovely little Luna. She’s jet black like the night sky, so we thought a name that reflected the moon would be perfect. She also has these deep, pensive eyes that you could get lost in!

Anyhow, it’s fair to say we all well and truly love her and are getting used to our new routine. I wonder though, how our experience is different to other families who have adopted a puppy. Does Luna realise she’s in a deaf family, I wonder?

So what makes our experience different? Well firstly – all of Luna’s commands are given with signs. And she is even starting to recognise the signs we use when they’re not accompanied with voice. Proof that dogs can indeed follow sign language!

Secondly, we realised that despite experts saying to ‘listen out for the dog crying or whining as it means they need the toilet in the night’ – we can’t actually hear her cries. So instead, we decided to set up a timer to wake us (well – my husband 😉 ) up regularly through the first few nights so we could prompt her to use the toilet and now two weeks later she is sleeping wonderfully for 6 hours straight, hurrah! My poor husband can finally return to his bed after a fortnight of sleeping on the sofa next to her crate.

Over the last fortnight I have also noticed that instead of crying or whining, she will come up to me and nudge me with her nose when she wants to be let out for the toilet too. If I see her walking towards the back door and waiting, I know it’s time to shoot out! Body language is everything!

When we’re relaxing in the living room, I’ve noticed how Luna watches us wave to each other or tap to get each other’s attention instead of calling, and she’s becoming equally tactile – nudging and following someone whenever she has a need.

Having Luna in our family has also made me realise how noisy the world actually is. Seeing her flinch at cars zooming past or dart her eyes upwards when a bird flies across, makes me curious as to how everything sounds from her point of view.

The vacuum cleaner, after a while seems to send her to sleep. The washing machines piques her curiosity. If she suddenly jumps, I know she’s heard the next doors dog barking. She doesn’t like the sound of dishes clattering -so my hearing son tells me – and she loves to listen to music in the background while she’s dozing. (I often put the Christmas music channel on, for both of our enjoyment!)

Having a puppy is also a very mindful thing – you can’t take your attention off them for too long or they get into mischief, ha! So I’m noticing more than ever how important it feels to do one thing at a time. To focus on her, to play, to train, to praise, and let everything else fall to the wayside. Then to rest when she rests.

Agreed, having a puppy is exhausting. It’s like having a baby but only this time the baby has teeth and claws, is fast moving and likes to chew and explore and eat things they shouldn’t! But I’m told the puppy phase doesn’t last long so I’m determined to make the most of it.

Another issue we found was that when she’s sleeping and we’re busy around the house, we didn’t want to have to keep going into the room to check on her. So to get around the dilemma of not hearing her wake from her naps, we bought a wonderful pet cam (£12 from Amazon!) which connects to my iPhone and I can see her clearly in her crate snoozing or chewing or waiting to be let out. Problem solved!

She’s now about to begin a new adventure of being able to go for walks now that shes fully vaccinated, so it’s time to gently socialise her and welcome her into our very varied world, one step at a time.

Has anyone else had a puppy during lockdown? I’d love to hear about it.

Take care all,

Rebecca and Luna 🐾