I MISS working with my dog!

[Terri]

Ever since he became hard of hearing he just hasn't been keen to work, and now he has stopped entirely!

He does not chase the rabbits, he does not harrass the possums, and yesterday when a man came to the door after dark he never even woke up! Also, the neighbors orange cat has been coming over and beating up my daughters cat. He never would have DARED, before! The sound of fighting cats WAS a siren call to this dog!

I lost a chicken a couple of weeks back as well. The predators might have figured out that the birds are now less well protected.

Old age comes to us all, but I MISS my working buddy! Worst of all, I cannot get him a young assistant because my kids have pets now and that would put us over the dog/cat numbers allowed!

Just needed to vent!

[Little Quacker in OR]

Boy do I understand this! I feel bad for you. I don't know if your buddy is of the age that he would take to hand signals? When my old Cattle Dog started losing his hearing I just added more hand signals to his repertoire..he already knew "speak"(a finger pointed up) and a number of others so maybe that would add some fun for you and your buddy?

I also added "go to the door and speak"! which was not a hard thing as he knew to "push" or hit the door, I just combined the two.

Good luck with things..I know it's hard when you depend on them. I didn't sleep well for a long time after I lost my boy, and had to add three dogs before I stopped waking up at every little sound!

Hang in there...LQ

[raymilosh]

i'm right there with you. My friend Ada May is 13 years old. She has been my eyes and ears and protector and alarm system and friend for a long time. Now she can't hear, can't keep up on a long walk, has only one eye that works, has seizures frequently, etc. She's teaching me about death.
She's not the least bit scared. It hasn't come to the point where the problems are so bad that she isn't still happy to be here, but that day is coming. Then she'll be happy to leave.
It has been a torturous decline for me to witness, so when the day comes, i'll probably be relieved that she has decided to get out of her worn out body.

[free-2-b-me]

Our dog lost his hearing last year . He has taken to hand signals well . He is 11 yrs old . We can come in the house or anyone can and he does not respond .
He is a good old boy though . We love him and pamper him .

[Terri]

Huh.

I think I WILL teach him to bark on a hand signal command. It is true that he spends most of his time sleeping (he is 13), but SOME barking is better than NO barking! Even if he does it only once in a while.

Especially when somebody rings the bell after dark, or the orange cat is beating up one of ours!

He has EARNED an honorable retirement, but a few "woofs" should not be taxing!

He was a very good dog: it was his joy to find an excuse to work! A tresspassing cat to chase, a rabbit to get out of the garden, a stranger to bark at, or best of all a possum to frighten! Possums always PLAY possum, which means that he could get eyeball to eyeball with the possum and bark, or practice his pointing skills, or WHATEVER! And the game would go on and on FOREVER! I wonder how many of those traumatized possums ever came back! I would feel sorry for them if they didn't eat chickens.

OK, time for truth. I am a SOFTIE! I used to call him off after a half hour or so! He is a Britany and Brittanys are pointing dogs, so he didn't kill the possums, just did his best to give them a heart attack from fear!