Henry learns to "listen."

The next semester was an interesting one. Henry and I were back and forth between our place and Chris's, trying to survive the hardest semester of vet school and in the midst of all of this, we had to establish a schedule, rules and figure out how to make him "listen." 50lb puppies don't exactly have tiny accidents so housebreaking becomes rather urgent.

That being said, housebreaking was a semi-slow process. Mr. Henry knew that he was supposed to go outside, he learned that quickly (over the first couple of days). But when playing, he'd forget that he had to stop to tell us that it was potty time. Inevitably, a trail of pee, first headed in the direction of the front door and then sharply heading to his crate in anticipation of the guaranteed time-out, was a weekly occurrence in the beginning.

 Now teaching a deaf dog to "listen" to commands was a much more fun process. I decide to use a combination of ASL and common dog-training hand signals, starting with "come" "sit" and "shake," to get Henry used to the idea of "if you pay attention, you get a treat."

Here, you can see how things started: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10102916601883264&l=8558426382563727398

The first several commands came very quickly--- my chubby little puppy was pretty motivated by his TINY training treats. He also learned "yes" and "no" and to go to the door to go outside, which he abused at every opportunity. #stopstudyingmom 

The next trick we tackled was "roll-over." Admittedly, "stay" might have been a better choice for my 60lb, 15 week old puppy, but how cute is this?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10103031138650664&l=6908986799455360800

When I left Kim's house in December, she had a special request--- she wanted to see a deaf dog speak. Well, Henry was happy to oblige.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10103086619197204&l=2440258368423938484

Today, Henry's commands include: sit, shake, lay-down, speak (although he can't speak while laying down #cantturnleft), roll-over (which is getting tough to do), and stay (as long as I'm in his line of sight). He also knows, "get in your crate," "want food?" "I love you!" and "back up."

My smart little monster doesn't let a little hearing impairment slow him down! (He just uses it as an excuse to pretend he doesn't know that I prefer to shower alone...)