Clicker training the deaf puppy

Clicker training is an awesome way to teach your dog.  Thinking dogs especially love to figure out what it is you want them to do and the mental exercise is just as tiring as physical.  I'm not going to go into too much detail about the hows whys and wherefores of clicker training since Karen Pryor already does a heck of a good job on her website and has lots of cool books and videos as well,  http://www.clickertraining.com/

Having a deaf dog creates challenges for clicker training since a deaf dog can't hear a click.  Now, the click is just a marker.  The fact that it's a noise isn't as important as the fact that the dog knows that the marker means that they did something right.  What you need for your deaf dog is some kind of visual marker that does the same thing.  Enter... the flicker.

Why yes, mine is the color coordinated one.

Now I know some folks use a laser pointer because you can use the dot to direct the dog, however we've seen some bad OCD behavior come out of frequent use of them and don't recommend them.  We are having our vet look into seeing if there's any actual research on the subject other than our personal experience and I'll let you know if we find any but suffice it to say, we don't use them.

 

What we DO use is one of the little LED keychain lights ($10 or so at Home Depot) with  a ping pong ball (color optional) glued on top of it.  We made another version with an LED Christmas light bulb on top but we liked this one better.

  LED keychain light              Ping pong ball

We add the coiled wrist strap because it's not that easy to juggle flicker, treats, hand sign and puppy with just two hands.  Why the ping pong ball?  The ball makes the light bigger and easier to see and completely avoids any type of beam or spot that can cause the OCD behavior.  

There are still challenges with the flicker over the clicker though.   A hearing dog can hear the clicker whether its in their line of sight or not.  The flicker has to be in their line of sight and since puppies spend the majority of their time with their noses on the floor looking for that one thing you forgot to pick up to chew on, it's harder to get it in their field of view.  Thankfully, that field of view is quite a bit larger than ours.  

Once you get past that, though, the principals are the same.   Mark behavior with the flicker and give the dog a treat.  Rogue gets great focus when the flicker comes out. She knows it's time to work.

 

As for our newest addition, she got a clean bill of health from our vet on Friday and was a whopping 12.8 pounds three days before her 11 week birthday. Considering the fact that she was only 8 pounds at 8 weeks old, she's growing like a weed.  

These two pictures were taken exactly three weeks apart.

 

This past weekend, she went to socialize with local kids at the sledding hill, even going down the hill once with me.  (It wasn't pretty for me, that's all I'm saying)

I want to go again.  Can we go again?

She played ball with my two other Aussies, Steel and Ruby, and was as determined to get that ball as the others, no matter the fact that she is too small to keep up.

 She is learning our two dogs' body language so even though she can't hear warning growls, she knows when they are not pleased with her behavior.  This doesn't mean she won't push it, but then, she's a bratty little sister.  Even Ruby, who is a little on the high strung side, will play with her and Steel will actually take toys and initiate play.   The only one who is not thrilled is our 13-year-old, Allie, but Rogue has learned not to bother the old dog... most of the time.

Coming up next time, Rogue's hero, Belle.  A deaf dog who does agility, therapy and a whole lot more.