I need info. - Page 1

Last week  I get a call from a lady who has a 12 year old child that has been deaf from birth, she tells me her daughter just loves dogs and wants to train a German Shepherd. They have a 4 year old shepherd but the daughter wants a puppy and to raise and train it. They went to there local 4H program and I guess was told it could not be done. She called me last week and I gave her several web sites and video,s to go see of trials and such just thought it would help  now the daughter is all fired up to do Schutzhund!! she comunictaes well signing, I imagine that with a clicker and hand signals it could be done with the right dog? but i,m WWAAYY out of my element here. Any help or advise would be appreciated.   Could she even compete? I know they will make allowences for handicaps but any one deal with this before?  

Bob, I imagine it could. They teach hearing ear dogs to respond to sign language, so why not schutzhund. However, it would distract from the dog's focus as it would always be looking towards her for signals. And how's it going to hear a clicker from a distance when it's running the blinds?

But yeah, if she just wants to do it for fun, I say give it a try!

I know a lady who's in a wheelchair. Ivan Bablanov helped her train her medical service GSD for personal protection. However, the lady had shown AKC for many years, and also done schutzhund before when she was in good health.

 

I'm wondering if she could use a whistle like they use in field dog trials.  The girl would have to learn the breathing pattern for the signals, but it's not that much different than learning sign - language is essentially a code.  My son can't speak (complicated issue) but Georgia has learned what his sounds mean even though they aren't the commands that I use with her. 

Opal

I never thought about whistles. Thats a good idea. I wonder if you could use different pitch whistles for different commands?. From what I have been told the older Shepherd and the girl are inseparable I don,t know if introducing a puppy or young dog in the mix may cause problems?.  I don,t want to create a problem but like i said this  is all new territory to me.

She can and would be accommodateds as necessary to compete. USA had a VP at one time who was blind. He competed with two people walking down the sides of the field with him, among other things. Another competitor used an ATV in trials, and the dog retrieved to the right hand. Jason Lake, who sometimes posts here, can also address the accommodation issue directly . The girl could use hand signals with her dog, or whatever vocalizations the dog understands as a command; it doesn't matter that we don't. :-) Someone else might have to give the dog a hand-signal command at the end of the field for the send-out, for example.

Hey Bob,
I would say it could definitely be done and what a great thing it would be.  The advice given already is fantastic.  I train my dog with hand signals as well as voice.  I can easily direct my dog to search rooms or specific doors by pointing, if I point right he will check the right door, if I point left he goes left and checks and that area.  So, I don't think the blind search would even be an issue.  Combining hand signals, which everyone in SchH uses with a  whistle and different tones or blasts would work well.  The bird dog people do amazing things with their dogs with whistles and hand signals.

Sounds fantastic to me.

Jim

Bob, I see that the girl is deaf, but is she mute as well?  Her speech may be impaired to the point that she is not able to verbalize in an understandable manner with people, but with a dog she could utilize any distinct sounds that she can make to correspond with a command.  If this is the case, she may not need to use hand signals or whistles, although she could still train and incorporate the use of hand signals, as Jim pointed out, as an additional communication tool.  But as long as the sounds are distinct it would be like another language, which is acceptable as we all know some train in English while others use German, etc.  It would be a language all to themselves, which would be really cool!

Michael 

You can use a clicker or hand signs......................My GDS go by hand signals...........or you can look at them with different faces and they will follow those commands too..But the Clicker or the whisle is the best...........Good luck and please keep us inform :)

When I was growing up, my best friends parents were deaf.  Most deaf people are not mute, and if she is like most, she will be able to verbalize specific commands for the dog.  If she does happen to be  mute, then the whistle is a good idea and should work fine.  In order to train the dog, unless she is lucky enough to belong to a club where members are fluent in sign language, the difficulty will be in finding a club dedicated and patient enough to learn to communicate with her and also finding an interpreter willing to accompany her to every training session, until she is able to communicate with club members herself.  Remember that as beginners we learn so much by watching other handler/dog teams and being able to ask questions about what we are seeing.  Personally I would see this as a win-win situation for everyone willing to get involved from  club members  to the parents to the girl to the dog and for the sport.