Elli isn't deaf; just me!
I brought Elli home in July 2006. I started taking ASL in August 2006. It was very natural to train my new puppy to recognize ASL. At first, I did both Voice and ASL to teach her "sit". Then, I taught her "speak" and only used sign, no voice. I realized that she learned much quicker when I used only sign.
She is a great help to me. She alerts me like a hearing ear dog. She goes berzerk when someone knocks on the door, but any dog can do that. But she's so smart that she tells me when the mailman drops off the mail and when my iPhone vibrates in the other room. She tells me when my boys are fighting upstairs.
How long did you teach your dog? I think that Jack Russell dogs are the most stubborn than other dogs.
My 4-years-old JR was very special to me. My mom taught her to find her tennis ball in the woods. She told the dog to go further by saying, "yes, yes." If it is not the right track, and she changed the path when my mom said, "No, No." Then, she said, "Yes, yes, go, go" to get the right path... "Hurray!"
Unfortunately, she died of unknown disease in her stomach or liver after we brought her to a Vet emergency room. She was too weak. Her 40-years-old woman vet was the biggest jerk of all that refused to let us to be with her in other room with no windows because she was so afraid. The vet has to right to get rid of my dog and kick us out of the building if we refuse to obey her because there is no law or Federal law. (No joke.) My dog went thru her suffer and very frightened there for four hours. The vet extracted a needle in her stomach to find out if there is an infection. It came out negative... I paid the vet for $2,000 which last four hours. Sigh.
Many vet shops do not have a window for anyone to see their sick dogs in other room. In other town, a vet building has some windows for the dogs to see the surgery room from a cage room - oh my god!
We always checked for deer ticks, and she had some Frontline. The Frontline do not always work. A strong antibiotic pill is a big problem especially for young very sick dogs. Distemper shot usually doesn't work, and I may think that this causes a health problem if Distemper's dose is a little too much in the injection due the skin inflammation from the shot for days. JR dogs are the most difficult to take care of themselves because they profoundly ignore their health problem. Many vets still do not know why for years.
Yes, I think that your dog is very special and a good spirit because I see that in your video clip.
for sharing the video, Dory! 
