How can I help my hard of hearing dog hear better?

Question

I have a white bull-dog (we once thought it was a boxer) that is pretty deaf. He can hear some high pitched things it seems, but when asleep he does not respond to yelling or other noises.

Is there anything I can do to help him hear things better?

Answer 1

While you probably can't actually help him hear better you can use alternative ways to communicate. I would recommend getting a collar that vibrates and to teach your dog that the vibration is the signal to come find you. That way you can get his attention even if he can't see you. Also work on hand signals so that once you have his visual attention you can communicate the rest of the command. Dogs tend to learn visual and motion queues faster than verbal only queues so once he is looking at you the rest should not be more difficult than normal training.

I would also highly reward him for voluntarily "checking in". Because you have to rely on visual queues you want your dog to prefer to keep you in his line of sight or frequently come to you to. So anytime he voluntarily does this without you giving a queue you should reward it.