A video of a deaf dog being trained before the arrival of a new baby in a home has gone viral on TikTok, where it received over 215,000 views at the time of writing.
A message overlaid on the video shared by Lucy Dunne (@dunnebells_) , a personal trainer based in Melbourne, Australia, read: “Training our deaf dog in preparation for our baby,” as a woman was seen sitting on a floor with what appeared to be a baby doll.
A caption shared with the post simply said: “Send help.”
While teaching and training a deaf dog takes more time and planning than with a hearing dog, “the principles are identical,” said veterinarians Ryan Llera and Robin Downing in an article for VCA, one of North America’s largest animal hospital chains.
Deaf dogs must be taught specific visual signals, rather than verbal ones, to be associated with specific actions. Some people use American Sign Language (ASL), while others modify ASL for single-hand use when holding a leash in one hand. Some also create their own hand signals, with some help from the ASL dictionary.
The veterinarians noted that how effective the training is hinges on rewarding the action we want the dog to repeat.
“One key ingredient is to find a reward that is meaningful to the dog. Most dogs are food motivated, so training with treats usually works well. For some dogs, you may need to use a favorite toy as a reward instead,” they explained.
The woman in the latest viral video was seen handing what appeared to be a dog treat to a pup sitting across from her before she patted the baby doll’s stomach.
The dog then reached its paw towards the doll before retreating it back to its body after the woman raised her hand.
After giving the pup a thumbs up, the woman then placed her pointer fingers together to create a triangle sign. This prompted the dog to run away from the woman before returning to its original position next to her on the floor.
The woman then gestured the triangle sign a few times, which saw the dog bow its head towards the floor each time. When she made the same sign again, the dog was seen throwing its left paw directly onto the face of the baby doll before later running off following a few more misunderstood signals.
“Oh God,” a voice was heard saying while laughing in the video, adding: “You’re in for a rough ride.”
Another message overlaid at the end of the video said: “We’ve got some work to do!
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:
@dunnebells_ Send help #deafdog #deafdogsoftiktok #deafdogtraining #babymeetsdog #dogmeetsbaby #deafheeler #deafpuppy ♬ Bluey Theme Tune – Extended – Bluey