Miss-Delectable
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Daily Commercial - <p>Deaf dog defies disability</p>
Joanne Hart-Rittenhouse piqued her young audience's curiosity.
"Do you see anything different about the dogs?" she asked members of Girl Scout Troop 6909 as they were introduced to two white male boxers, Karl and Otto, along with Whisper, a brown-hair female part boxer, who came to Eustis Elementary School for a visit.
The children guess away.
But, it's not until a book is dropped on the floor that the clue was revealed.
Otto was startled by the loud thump. Karl and Whisper were not fazed; they're deaf.
"It's then when everybody realized the other two dogs just stood there and didn't jump," said Hart-Rittenhouse, a humane educator with the Humane Society of Lake County.
Her mission is to show people -- young and old alike -- that dogs with disabilities deserve to be loved and have a home.
"They were going to be put to sleep because they were deaf," she told the children of Karl and Whisper's former owners. "That would have been really sad, wouldn't it? There is nothing wrong with these two dogs. They listen with their eyes."
Hart-Rittenhouse rescued Karl as a young puppy and she began teaching him American sign language. He's now a therapy dog along with Otto, and both are among five dogs owned by Hart-Rittenhouse, while Whisper belongs to a friend.
"Karl knows about 30 signs," Hart-Rittenhouse said. "People are just so amazed."
She found training a deaf dog is easier than a hearing dog since they are not bothered by outside stimulation and noises.
She enjoys taking Karl to the National Deaf Academy in Mount Dora, where she has found the students make a fuss over the boxer.
"They sit around in circles and they just sign to him and he doesn't understand everything that they are saying, but he is just so happy that somebody is communicating with him," she said.
Hart-Rittenhouse devotes her humane education on how to be responsible pet owners, and she shows the children how to act and be safe around dogs.
"Dogs really aren't biters, they're not mean," she said. "People make them mean, and the only reason they bite is usually out of fear. People get bit because of something they did, not because of something with the dog."
She also talks to groups about rescue dogs, therapy work, and of the many dogs that the Humane Society of Lake County that could benefit from a loving home.
"There are dogs that are blind, and we get a lot of three-legged dogs at our shelter. They get along really well," Hart-Rittenhouse said. "Dogs can miss a limb, they can miss their eyesight, they can miss their ears, and they can still make a wonderful pet. A lot of them adapt much better than we do."
Joanne Hart-Rittenhouse piqued her young audience's curiosity.
"Do you see anything different about the dogs?" she asked members of Girl Scout Troop 6909 as they were introduced to two white male boxers, Karl and Otto, along with Whisper, a brown-hair female part boxer, who came to Eustis Elementary School for a visit.
The children guess away.
But, it's not until a book is dropped on the floor that the clue was revealed.
Otto was startled by the loud thump. Karl and Whisper were not fazed; they're deaf.
"It's then when everybody realized the other two dogs just stood there and didn't jump," said Hart-Rittenhouse, a humane educator with the Humane Society of Lake County.
Her mission is to show people -- young and old alike -- that dogs with disabilities deserve to be loved and have a home.
"They were going to be put to sleep because they were deaf," she told the children of Karl and Whisper's former owners. "That would have been really sad, wouldn't it? There is nothing wrong with these two dogs. They listen with their eyes."
Hart-Rittenhouse rescued Karl as a young puppy and she began teaching him American sign language. He's now a therapy dog along with Otto, and both are among five dogs owned by Hart-Rittenhouse, while Whisper belongs to a friend.
"Karl knows about 30 signs," Hart-Rittenhouse said. "People are just so amazed."
She found training a deaf dog is easier than a hearing dog since they are not bothered by outside stimulation and noises.
She enjoys taking Karl to the National Deaf Academy in Mount Dora, where she has found the students make a fuss over the boxer.
"They sit around in circles and they just sign to him and he doesn't understand everything that they are saying, but he is just so happy that somebody is communicating with him," she said.
Hart-Rittenhouse devotes her humane education on how to be responsible pet owners, and she shows the children how to act and be safe around dogs.
"Dogs really aren't biters, they're not mean," she said. "People make them mean, and the only reason they bite is usually out of fear. People get bit because of something they did, not because of something with the dog."
She also talks to groups about rescue dogs, therapy work, and of the many dogs that the Humane Society of Lake County that could benefit from a loving home.
"There are dogs that are blind, and we get a lot of three-legged dogs at our shelter. They get along really well," Hart-Rittenhouse said. "Dogs can miss a limb, they can miss their eyesight, they can miss their ears, and they can still make a wonderful pet. A lot of them adapt much better than we do."
I've worked with deaf dogs but didn't know this about the field trials -
for that info, Dixie
