Training a deaf english setter

owensmith

Button Buck
Hey y'all, a few months ago my brother bred his english setter bitch with my male and had a litter of pups. I got the pick of the litter and absolutely fell in love with her. Took her to the vet and found out she is deaf. From the info we found this is pretty common in english setters and other breeds that are white and develop ticking. Her dad is a solid dog, and she shows strong signs of interest in finding birds. She has held a few points on a quail wing and tracks scent extremely well. Just got a book on training deaf dogs, and was wondering if anyone has had any experience training one to hunt for quail, woodcock, grouse, etc. She is a wonderful dog and shows a lot of promise. I'd love to hear any info from y'all about training a deaf dog to hunt and any extra precautions I might need to take in the field with her. Thanks and God Bless.
 

appmtnhntr

Twelve Pointer
Could be awesome for woodcock if she can learn to check back up to you in real tight circles. As long as you trusted her not to go wild.
Good luck with training.

May also be possible to teach her blood tracking or squirrel sight hunting?
 

NC Quailhunter

Six Pointer
Teach the commands with hand signs and then use the vibrate on an e collar to overlay the recall. Teach her to hunt close and check in often. These are my thoughts. Keep us posted. I would love to follow the pups progress.
 
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nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I have never "trained" a deaf dog but have hunted two dogs that went deaf. Both people never knew they were deaf if I didn't tell them. I used the vibrate feature on training collars which they readily adapted to and it was no problem. We are talking tree dogs, but the process would be much the same.
 

41magnum

Twelve Pointer
One of our Brittanie's was on a cable run when the tree was struck by lightning.
He went deaf, WE THOUGHT.....but found, over time that he could hear the wavelength of a clapping hand, but NOT a plastic whistle or my oral/mouth whistle.
Might want to try a deeper/different noise source to get your dogs attention.
 
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