I've been considering taking on a deaf dog or pup from a rescue.I do have a hearing dog at present who i use hand signals with alongside voice commands.I have visited many websites looking for information and the only problem i can envisage is with recall unless i train my present dog to, "go fetch".any advice very welcome.Also what special things would a rescue be looking for in a home .I am home all day and dog/pup would go to weekly training lessons and 100% commitment comes as standard.

a freind has a deaf dalmation and they use a knock knock on the floor to get their dogs attention as he feels the vibration through the floor. Of course this would only work if your indoors!

I there is also  a device called a dog pager which sends a signal to the dogs collar which would be very handy for a deaf dog you can find it on britishdog's (dog training products)  website  (are you allowed to do links on this site?)

My parents rescued a deaf lurcher from Battersea last year, she was 16 weeks old and born deaf.  I took her to training classes and she learnt quickly through hand signals all of the commands.  Recall was always going to be a problem as she is a lurcher !!  As a pup she was really good and kept an eye on us when out (hiding from her often kept her on her toes ;) ) She then went through her "kevin" stage and although she never ran away she would never come close enough to be caught   since her first season it seems to have all come together, she can now go off the lead in safe places and will come back when beckoned.  Obviously the difference being she has to be looking at you to be beckoned so it is best to train your dog the "watch me" command, the signal we use is pointing to your eyes.  When she is off chasing rabbits though we cant stop her so it is very important that she is only let off lead in safe places.  You can get remote controlled vibrating collars which can be used like a clicker for clicker training or to get your dogs attention.  A good book to read is by Barry Eaton, I think it is called Training deaf dogs or something, there is also a website dedicated to deaf dogs, if you do a search on champ dogs for deaf dogs you may find my posts from last year and the help people gave.  You do have to get used to pulling stupid faces to show the dog your expressions because that is what they pick up on, when Lily is good we smile and jump about and give her the thumbs up, when she is bad we frown and shake a finger at her :D :D  When we got Lily the people at battersea said they wanted her to go to a home with experience of deaf dogs or to a home which already had another dog.  We had neither but had experience of sight hounds and proved we had done the research into her training requirements.  Lily is a really loving dog and my parents wouldnt be without her, sometimes you wouldnt even think she is deaf because she is so good at reading body language.

Why dont you join then you can ask further questions or PM me.

Claire :)

the book by Barry Eaton is called "hear hear" I got mine from amazon.  this is the deaf dog website http://www.deafdogs.org/

best of luck