Before we got Tank (blind) and Olive (deaf, some blindness starting at around a foot from her face) I was a reasonably confident trainer. Maddie has came to me a 9 month old bucket of overflowing energy and no prior training, and we eorked through it. Moose was doing off leash rally exercises at the park when he was like 16 weeks old. Then we got these two. And I had read all about how dachshunds were difficult. Mine even more so because of their impairments. No big deal, we'd work through it like I did with Maddie.
They were harder. Way harder than expected. I tried and tried and had given up. I started resenting them (neither of them had really bonded to me) I stopped visiting my dog forums, and truly just stopped caring.
Well for whatever reason I started visiting the forums again. I started wanting to train again, too. I researched training deaf/blind dogs, talked to trainers, the works. Earlier this week I started working with Tank. I figured this would be a smoother translation for me as he can hear. Turns out, he's pretty darn quick to pick things up! He learned sit, down and shake in two 10 minute sessions.
So with my spirits up I started working with Olive today. I had armed myself with a few different hand signals, as she can see them as long as they are close to her face. She picked up sit and down with relative ease, and even shake was pretty simple! I started working her on roll over, she did it twice and then I ended the session before she could get bored. I started working on having Tank sit up and "beg" which he does naturally all the time so it's just a matter of catching the behavior
Anyways, I'm pretty excited now that I'm confident again. I just think I went into it with the wrong mindset last time. I forgot how truly happy I am when my dog learns something new!
They were harder. Way harder than expected. I tried and tried and had given up. I started resenting them (neither of them had really bonded to me) I stopped visiting my dog forums, and truly just stopped caring.
Well for whatever reason I started visiting the forums again. I started wanting to train again, too. I researched training deaf/blind dogs, talked to trainers, the works. Earlier this week I started working with Tank. I figured this would be a smoother translation for me as he can hear. Turns out, he's pretty darn quick to pick things up! He learned sit, down and shake in two 10 minute sessions.
So with my spirits up I started working with Olive today. I had armed myself with a few different hand signals, as she can see them as long as they are close to her face. She picked up sit and down with relative ease, and even shake was pretty simple! I started working her on roll over, she did it twice and then I ended the session before she could get bored. I started working on having Tank sit up and "beg" which he does naturally all the time so it's just a matter of catching the behavior
Anyways, I'm pretty excited now that I'm confident again. I just think I went into it with the wrong mindset last time. I forgot how truly happy I am when my dog learns something new!