Deaf puppy 'learning sign language'

Miss-Delectable

Miss-Delectable

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Odd Section - News - Deaf puppy 'learning sign language' - Digital Spy

An 8-week-old deaf puppy in Australia is being taught sign language by her owner.

Border collie Pixie has been trained to recognise hand commands to sit, drop and come forth by owner and Coffs Harbour specialist Liz Grewal, The Australian Sunday Telegraph reports.

Grewal said: "Dogs understand your body language, your hand gestures, they read all of that. They know.

"Consistency is the key to training any dog but you have to emphasise it more with a deaf dog."

She added: "You've to train them in a different way, they train quicker than a hearing dog as there are no noise distractions. I want these dogs to have a fantastic life, and I know they can do it.''

Grewal explained that she gets the attention of her four deaf dogs by squirting them with a small water bottle.
 
My deaf ferret understood basic sign. Stomping the floor was a better way to get his attention than spraying him though.
 
One of my med dog breed pit bill mutt does understand some of Sign Language, but mostly one of my older sister's Small Dog really understand what i did Sign Language, it is weird.
 
Very common, to have deaf dogs learn some basic ASL. Or modified visual cues. We have a few Pitties deaf in rescue currently who are learning such. Dogs naturally understand body language primarily, not spoken language, although many may think their dogs understand a verbal cue - the dog is really responding to a visual cue. That is why we teach verbal and visual cues separately in classes, because if you put them together<Spot, "Sit" , with both voice and visual> the odds are the dog is responding to the visual and if you take that away and use only verbal cue, the dog will not know what is wanted. Dogs respond to very minute change in human body language -may be a bit of a shoulder turn, a raised eyebrow, or the way someone's feet are pointing, etc.
 
Guide dogs for the Deafblind are often taught commands in sign language.
 
awesome. I always think that dogs do understand about body language and signs. :D
I had a loving dog who i grew up with, he understood what basic signs like "go, stop, sit, no, eat. that was it. i taught him when i was 9. I missed my old dog named Bosco.
 
i think you were lucky to have a dog as a kid, Frisky!

Intriguing about the dogs for deafblind, CJB; as far as I'm aware, I have not seen a dog working in that capacity around here.
 
My friend has a deaf boxer and she brings her to my house to play with my dog. Now, my dog and my son have deaf friends. LOL!

Yep, the dog understands ASL.
 
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