I have a DEAF Great Dane... Beautiful , but very untrained...?

My dog right now is also an adopted Great Dane that was previously abused (although she's not deaf). Here's what helped me.

First, buy this book http://www.amazon.com/Good-Owners-Great-Brian-Kilc... many bookstores carry it.

Teach her using hand signals, dogs actually understand hand signals better than commands (there is info in that book about the proper hand signals for each command).

Control her food intake, don't leave food out there for her to nibble on. Give her a set feeding schedule, make it at a time, when you don't have to leave right away. She'll need to go poop in about half an hour. Watch her and either take her out 15 minutes or so after she eats, or watch her and as soon as she starts sniffing the floor, and maybe walking in a circle, take her out immediately. Once she goes outside, praise her like crazy. Never scold her for going in the house, sticking their head in their pile actually doesn't work at all and scares the dog. A dog only understands consequences for what she is doing right now. Even if she pooped 5 minutes ago, it's done. If you call her up and scold her for pooping on the floor, she thinks you just punished her for coming up to you and will be more afraid of you. If you catch her going in the house, do not scold her but don't wait for her to finish either. Immediately grab her by the collar and take her outside, even while she's still going. If she finishes going outside, then praise her.

If you can dedicate a weekend to this, she'll learn quickly.

Great Danes are very social animals, so don't keep her outside most of the time. If you do need to put her outside for a little bit, don't let her in when she's scratching, wait for her to stop, even if just for a moment, then let her in. Otherwise you're reinforcing that scratching gets her in, so she'll do it longer and harder every time.

Put your trash away under the sink or in the cubbard or get one with an automatically closing lid. Keep the food away from the edges of the table and don't leave the food unattended for now. You'll want to focus on the bigger problems first. I'd teach her not to poop in the house first.

When you're ready, just start setting up situations where something tasty is on the table, but you're watching her from maybe around the corner, and reprimand her if she gets anywhere close to that food on the table. There are several techniques described in the book, I'd just use a little water pistol and squirt her as soon as she reaches for the food. Catch her enough times and then re-direct her attention to maybe playing with a rawhide bone, and she'll learn.

Also, be patient, my dog was fully grown when I adopted her and she wasn't housebroken at all. It took me a good two months until she was completely housebroken. My other dog took just a couple of days. She is fully housebroken now, but once in a great while if some food item is really tempting and is left unsupervised, and close to the edge to where she doesn't need to stand on her hind legs to get it, she'll still steal something, she's as survivor, she was found as a stray, so I have to cut her some slack. Again, just like with poop, once that turkey leg is gone off the table, unless you caught her right in the act, you can't scold her, she won't understand.

Finally, perhaps your biggest challenge is your kids, you'll need to teach them how to treat the dog right and take care of her. They'll need to clean up the trash after themselves, not leave the food out, watch for the signs of her needing to go to the bathroom.

If you decide that this is too much of an undertaking for you, take the dog back to whatever rescue organization you adopted her from, apologize and explain that it's not working out. I hope you don't have to do this, but if you find after a while that she just sits outside all day, then it's not fair to the dog either.

Please e-mail me if you have any more questions. If you're here in AZ, I'd be happy to come out and help you teach her. And please get that book, it'll help you soooo much. And once you read it, teach it to your kids.

Oh dear i would put her back into a breed rescue that can place her in a proper home.

A dane cannot live outside very well they are people dogs, you can train a deaf dane with hand signals but it takes a huge amount of dedication and it is not for the light hearted, definitely NEVER ever use a shock collar on any breed they are inhumane and barbaric......

Why on earth did you take such a beautiful creature on if you were ill equipped to cope??

If you are going to keep her i suggest leashing her a few times a day around the house and clip her to yourself, so you know where she is and can keep enforcing the hand signals. They are intelligent enough dogs and i have met deafies successfully trained this way.

shock collar is not the answer.

Find a trainer in your area. Ask the vet for a reference.

Dead dogs can be trained,. and a lot of times it doesn't take much more effort than a hearing dog. Skittish dogs need some extra help, but many times can come around and live a happy normal life.

http://www.libertydogtraining.com/

I understand your frustration, but leaving her outside is never going to teach her right from wrong. First you must have patience. Second, try to muster up the money for a crate. In order to train her, you will need to leave her in the crate whenever you cannot be physically with her. Upon coming out of the crate, straight outside to potty, play for awhile, potty again, then back in the crate. Also, since she cannot hear when whe is gettin in the trash, etc, but you need to get her attention, a squirt gun would do the trick.

It may take several months of doing this exercise, hence the need for patience, and you must be strict about it so as not to confuse her.

You've got to come up with a unique training system that works for you and your dog. I'd suggest that you join a dog group on yahoo... if you join a big one, maybe someone who has experience with training deaf dogs could help you.

My advice for you to get her house broken would be to keep her on a leash or at least in the same room with you. When you see her start to look for a spot to go (trust me, you'll learn her cues) take her straight outside. You may even tap her GENTLY on the shoulder or rump, to get her attention and distract her from what she was about to do. When she goes outside, give her a treat.

When house breaking an adult dog, it's good to take them outside every few hours, at least until you learn how often they like to go. Whenever she does her buisness outside, she gets a treat. If she starts to have an accident in the house, do whatever you can to distract her (without scaring her) and take her outside to finish. If you scare her every time she has an accident in the house, she'll just find a spot to hide to go.

Well I hope this gets you started! good luck, and know that it can be done!

~J~

Here are some great sites, just for training a deaf dog> http://www.wagntrain.com/deaf_dog.htm

http://www.bogartsdaddy.com/Bouvier/Sabrina/doc-tr...

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/plains/9576/tra...

http://home.gci.net/~divs/assisted/deaf_dogs.html

It helps to know you are not alone..these sites will give you a good understanding of how to communicate with her.

It is important that she not be left outside, where she can't learn a thing but frustration..so, with a little commitment you can have a rewarding experience, and a good life-lesson for your kids..Get them involved all that you can..

Special needs dogs, like yours, need training. In your case, it would be training by hand signals. I would suggest a trainer, but you claim to have no money.....maybe right now isn't the time to take on a special needs dog?

it probably sounds funny, but why dont u use sign language. when u sign "no" to her, give her a look os disaproval, maybe spank her butt (not hard, but enough so she will get the point), and when shes doing something good, sign thank you, or good job, and smile at her and pat her or give her a treat. good luck!

my dog's name is gracie too =)

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