Rebecca A Withey: Why deaf people make excellent pet owners!

In a little over a months time Luna, our Labrador, will be one year old! She’s gone from being the cutest little pup with huge floppy ears to our big friendly giant who takes up two human spaces on the sofa. We adore her.

Yet only last week I was chatting to a friend of a friend about Luna when she suddenly asked me an odd question.

“Is it hard, like?”

“Is what hard?” I asked.

“You know… having a dog when you can’t…”

“Can’t what?” I probed.

“Being deaf, you cant – like – command them!”

Huh.

“Course I can command her, how am I talking to you?” I retorted. (I was using my voice as this person couldn’t sign.)

This new friend stumbled over her words and stuttered before I smugly proceeded to show her all the commands Luna knew, both with voice and using sign alone. That’s right Luna, let’s show her!

Satisfied I’d proved her wrong, I shrugged off the comment as being pure ignorance, and hoped that this person wouldn’t make any more daft assumptions in future.

I feel from my own experience – and I’m sure many of you will agree – that deaf people make excellent pet owners because we are so tuned in to our other senses. We are observant and we notice body language and movements quicker than those who depend more on their ears.

I would also say we have a stronger sixth sense / intuition / whatever you like to call it which gives us so many clues about our environment.

Luna isn’t a hearing dog per se but by watching her behaviour, I can tell what’s going on around me and I feel safe. Sure, she darts to the door with a wagging tail when someone gets home, that’s an obvious one. But the more subtle cues she shows are the ones I love the most.

Like how her head rocks from side to side when she’s listening to the birds singing above. I notice how her neck stretches and her tail straightens when she’s caught scent of a squirrel. She looks up to indicate there are helicopters or planes flying above and if she walks up to the back door and looks back at me, she’s saying she needs the toilet.

See, I’m no dog trainer but just from watching her I can tell how she’s feeling by the way she holds her ears, her tail and her mouth. I notice it in other dogs now too, it’s like this silent language that canines have been communicating in all along.

And to top it off, Luna’s BSL skills are pretty awesome. For example, if we are in the garden and I sign the word “drink” without using my voice she will gallop right over to our water tap. Similarly I can sign Sit, Down, Wait, Come, High Five and she knows exactly what to do. Dogs are smart.

To top it off, we recently found out that our neighbours daughter has discovered her new border collie puppy is in fact deaf! The owners are using sign language to communicate with him and the little pup is bright as a button and doing really well! See, it’s all about the communication between owner and pet and the relationship you form with them.

So my dear, no – being deaf and having a dog really isn’t hard at all. They learn from you and you learn from them – all you need is a way to communicate, whether it’s by using your voice, sign language or gesture. Using commands with dogs isn’t an issue at all.

But if there’s a fool proof way to command children to do things the first time you ask them – now that I would like to learn! Haha!

Wishing all of our Limping Chicken readers a happy, safe, healthy summer.

Rebecca x

Rebecca Anne Withey is a freelance writer with a background in Performing Arts & Holistic health. She is also profoundly deaf, a sign language user and pretty great lipreader.