We picked up Lily the deaf Lurcher pup from battersea today :) She has already given one of the rabbits a run for his money - ive never seen a pup move so fast She has taken most things in her stride, obviously the birds havent bothered her because she cant hear them - much to my African Greys disapointment, he so loves to wind the dogs up with his whistles and other stupid noises :rolleyes: The one thing that she isnt sure about is the tv, the look of shock on her face when I switched it on !! She keeps stalking it now :) She is certainly a shadow, she has been trailing me all day, we have played in the garden and had a kip on the sofa :D She is now laying behind me - before anyone says it, I know we have to get her used to being confined and left alone :( its just nice for her to be free at the moment after being in kennels all her life. We picked her up at 2pm and I just fed her and she had a drink and she has just taken herself off into the garden for her first wee 4 hours later :) !! I wasnt quick enough to praise her in the act though :(

Its really weird having a deaf dog, you have to remember to make exaggerated facial expressions for good dog/bad dog (we are going to look right prats when we take her for walks !!) and hand signals have to be spot on - I suppose it will take getting used to. Its lovely watching her run loopy round the garden, I dont think she has ever experienced such a large expanse of grass to run free in.

Im going to ask a really dumb question now :) she is white and has some black spots on her ears and legs, could she have dalmation in her ? and could this be the reason she is deaf ? her mum is a grey lurcher and her brother is brindle. I know she could have all manner of breeds in her as they didnt know what her dad was, but I was just curious as she has similar colouring to my friends dog which is a staff x dalmation.

Claire :)

When I bought Robbie (whippet) he was pure white with only a black head and black spot on his bum. He is now almost 3 and you would think he is a dalmation as he is covered in black spots. His mother is Blue and his dad Black, but his grandfather was white/parti. The other 3 in the litter were blacks I have seen a few greyhounds like my whippet so I doubt your lurcher is off a dalmation. Susan

Hi,
It's possible she has dalmatian in her, but more likely to be Border Collie - there is a higher-than-average incidence of deafness in that breed too (especially with the merle gene), and collie is a more likely 'ingredient' in a lurcher.

Good luck with her - I'll be very interested to know how you get on.
:)

Good luck with your pup, she sounds as though she has landed on her feet!!

Hiya Claire,
So she's home - you must be very excited - good luck she sounds a doll :)
Sharon

Best of luck with pup :D Keep us all up to date with how pup gets on ;)

Sharon - how is Diesel ???? :)

Hi,

Good luck with the pup, a lady who went to my puppy socialzation class had a deaf puppy a collie X as it happens too, and I didn't know they had a high ratio of deafness until I meet this lady. Her pup is called Buzz and he's gorgeous she walks him free but with a long lead trailing behind him. Sal adores him and whenever we see them out you wouldn't believe of the two of them it's him thats deaf :D

Buzz always has one eye on Sarah but Sal is totally oblivious of me ;) Sal will actually though do sits and down and comes to hand signals as I used them in conjunction with the words. Thought it might come in handy and works if she's a distance away too.

Karen

Congratulations on bringing Lily home - and giving her such a good start! Keep us posted.

Jo :)

Hullo Lily :) She sounds lovely.