I know no-one can answer this question for me. It has to be a case-by-case decision based on an individual dog and the walking environment. However, it would be great to hear other people's experience of making this decision.
My terrier is 13.5, still very active, and becoming significantly deaf. I think his vision has deteriorated a bit too.
There have been a few incidents recently where he has run off in the wrong direction and/or totally failed to hear me calling him. Sometimes I think he does hear the call a bit but gets confused about the direction its coming from.
I've always used a whistle as well as voice, but he often fails to hear that too. I've moved towards hand signals, which I have always used a bit as a reinforcement of sound commands. But of course those are no good if he loses sight of me.
His recall has always been excellent in the past - and still is when he hears me! But I don't want to take too many risks, especially since he is quarrelsome with other dogs.
I know I am going to move towards fewer and fewer off-lead opportunities, but because he is very active I feel really mournful about that and want to prolong the period when he can be off-lead on walks.
It would be great to hear of people's similar experiences, and how they have balanced the conflicting needs of exercise and safety.
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Old dog going deaf. How much to restrict off-lead exercise?
7 replies
AlphaNumericalSequence · 19/03/2019 07:54
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