Ddog has gone deaf

[fivedogstofeed]

It seems really sudden, but realistically her hearing's probably been failing for the last month or so and now she doesn't even hear me rattle the dinner dishes :(
DH thinks I should take her to the vet. I don't want to neglect her, but she's an incredibly fit and healthy 12 year old. Is there anything a vet would do in this case?

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

A trip to the vet would be a good idea, if only to rule out easily resolvable matters like a blocked ear canal.

Plenty of dogs live great lives despite being totally deaf - owners use sign language commands instead of voice commands for instance - so even if permanent it's not a major quality of life issue for your DDog.

[fivedogstofeed]

You're probably right. It's not a massive issue as she's really well behaved and stays close off-lead, so the only difference will be possibly not letting her off lead in unfamiliar places.

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

There's certainly less margin for error when it comes to recall with a deaf dog, so I'd put DDog on the lead earlier before reaching the road for instance. However, all is not lost with recall - I know someone in the park who does recall with their deaf dog by shaking a rope toy as a form of sign language. They also use a thumbs up in lieu of a marker word / clicker.

My own, hearing, dog finds sign language commands easier to follow than verbal ones because it's more consistent, so we use a mixture of the two - often both at once.

If the hearing loss does prove to be permanent after a trip to the vet then there will be a bit of back to basics training to be done if you want to continue using all the commands, but personally I quite enjoy training and DDog should pick it up quite quickly.