I just discovered that my sweet, bitchy old lady dog Reba is deaf. She's been acting extra-bad lately, barking, howling, ignoring me when I ask her to do things, just making a nuisance of herself. I'd mentioned to Rob a couple of times, half in jest, that she might be going deaf.
Well we took them to Rob's studio yesterday to have some photos done, and I noticed Reba would watch me and respond to my hand gestures to "down" or "sit" or "stay," but she wasn't responding if I just spoke the commands or if I called her name.
Then we ordered a pizza last night, and the delivery guy came and knocked on the door and Reba, who barks any time a doorbell rings on TV or someone knocks on a table much less a door, sat next to me contentedly and didn't even acknowledge that the guy was there until Tucker ran up to greet him at the door. THEN she started barking her fool head off and wouldn't shut up till I could get her attention and make her sit with a hand signal.
I've been testing her out all day today--knocking, singing, whistling, calling her name, asking her if she wants to go for a ride, go to the park, go for a walk, have a biscuit, everything. Not a response unless Tucker responds first or she can figure out what I want through my body language.
I'll be damned, the dog is deaf as a stone. I wonder how long she's managed to mask this . . . not even the vet noticed when she went in for her last checkup. Crazy.
I wonder if she'll be up for learning more hand signals, even at 14.5 years old!