Owning a dog can give one so much joy, as well as offer the canine a loving home that it has been looking for.
While most all prospective dog owners opt for puppies, there are others who would rather rescue a dog from a local shelter or humane society.
This gives dogs who have been surrendered for various reasons an opportunity to placed into a loving home, rather than being euthanized.
At times, shelters or humane societies are presented with the challenge of placing dogs with disabilities.
One disability that many potential adoptive parents might steer clear of is a deaf dog.
Many think that adopting such an animal would prove to be impossible to work with in terms of training, but this most certainly is not the case.
In fact, studies have shown that, when trained properly, dogs trained in the method deaf dogs are to be trained are more responsive than those dogs trained with verbal cues.
Dogs, when in a natural pack setting, communicate not through sound, but rather through expressions and body language.
With this in mind, dogs who are unable to sense sound need to be trained through the use of visual cues.
Using hand signals to train a deaf dog is an extremely successful method of training.
Because the dog is unable to hear, the owner is presented with the challenge of getting the dog's attention in another way.
One way is to use a small object, which is tossed at the dog.
Once the object hits the dog, or the dog notices it landing near it, the owner should make their attempt to gain the dogs attention.
Once the owner has the dog's attention, it is time to reward the dog with a treat.
This should be repeated until the dog is able to respond to the touch of the object whenever it is thrown.
From here, the owner can begin working on creating hand signals for different commands.