Scooter Update

This spring, our family dog, Piper passed away unexpectedly and after some thought, we decided that this family would not feel whole without a dog.  You can read the story here.
 
Scooter joined the family in early June just as the girls got out of school.  He has been a good little puppy but I always felt like we weren’t exactly connecting with him the way we should.  Something was just off.  I chalked to up to comparing him with Piper and that the bond would come.
 

I don't care who you are ... that's a cute puppy!

 

He showed the signs of being a smart lil guy who loved to play catch and take walks … but for the life of me, I couldn’t get him to learn his name!  He chewed on everything … like you would expect out of any puppy but he chewed US a lot and wouldn’t stop, even when he made the kids cry.  He would only come when I squatted down and patted the ground.  I thought I was not training him enough or giving him enough attention. 

I noticed more things that I thought were a little strange such as he wasn’t afraid of Micah’s power tools or the Kings Island fireworks that we hear every night over the summer from our house.  Then we got the electric fence set to training mode and he didn’t bat an eye at the warning beeps … you know where I am going with this, don’t you?!?

My sister-in-law Erica was the first one to put 2 and 2 together when she was watching him this past weekend while we were at Norris Lake.  She was working with him (with her 2 other well trained dogs) and noticed how different his reactions where compared to the other dogs.  She called my father-in-law (not wanting to upset us on vacation) and let him tell us her concerns.

 

As soon as he said the words “Erica thinks Scooter is deaf,”  I was nodding my head ... I knew that is what it was … that was what was off with him all of this time.  It make perfect sense … How could I not have realized this!?! My mind is completely bloggled!!   I knew she was right but we took him to the vet to confirm.  She is pretty sure that this is the case but will do a little more testing next week.  I am still trying to wrap my head around this.

 

I have been chasing the dog around the house for the past couple of days banging on pots and pans trying to get some sort of reaction out of him ... Nothin'.  : (

A few people have asked me if I was going to get rid of him … Ummm, that pretty would go against just about everything that I believe in … if you know what I mean.

 I felt pretty terrible for not figuring this out sooner and anxious about how I was going to handle my special needs dog and I asked Micah what am I going to do!?!  In classic Micah style he points to the 3E Love shirt that he is wearing and that says …

 Embrace

Educate

Empower

 

 

And then he says to me “sound familiar?”

 

Me ... "Yep"

 

Scooty Scoots definitely is here to stay.  I think Micah put it best when he told me that he thinks that he likes Scooter even more now than he did before.  I am pretty sure he found exactly the right family.
 

That being said, I am open to any advice about training a deaf dog … so, if anyone knows anything, I would love to hear your thoughts.  Any suggestions for a trainer in the Cincinnati area would be appreciated since I have some concerns especially about his safety.

I swear, you can’t make this stuff up!