# Deaf/hard of hearing



## gohabs1985 (Mar 20, 2010)

Anyone have experience with a deaf or hard of hearing bird dog? I have a Llewellin setter who has a high level of hearing loss and/or a low level of total deafness. She can hear certain things but we have been so far unable to identify a pitch or level of sound that consistently work. 

Trying to figure out the best tactic for training her so she can hunt off a check leash. She does ok with checking in visually but is not consistent enough to take her off the lead yet. 

Anyone ever train a dog with hearing loss from birth? Obviously totally different if the dog is already trained and then loses hearing so that really wouldn't help. Any good books, area trainers, etc.?


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Not familiar with that breed but I know that birth deafness is a significant problem with Dalmatians so you may want to search along that path.


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## Misdirection (Jul 16, 2012)

They make a training/hunting collar that vibrates instead of beeps for the warning. Get one of those and a 30' lead. Start training on vibrate to return (press button to vibrate and then retrieve lead). Once the dog is in sight of you, you can work on hand signals for other options.

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk


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## 202 SportFish (Sep 23, 2014)

I agree with the vibration collar, I have 13 yr old Boykin spaniel, that still has the eyes nose and legs but is deaf. I bell her also so I can follow her in the high grass. And sometimes I have to send my 8yr old male to get her. 
Keeping hunting her just work with the limitations and good luck..


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## ckfowler (Jul 14, 2008)

GPS and ecollar combination would allow you to know where they are as well as vibrate or Nick for recall. Different tone whistles might be worth a try for giving commands but I won’t hunt even my hearing dogs without GPS collar any more. So much peace of mind.


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## parkerss3nm (Dec 30, 2019)

> Not familiar with that breed but I know that birth deafness is a significant problem with Dalmatians so you may want to search along that path.


Where did you hear about Dalmatians ?


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