Hi all, I'm a newbie to this site, and while I love it because of my interest in working dogs, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for another dog situation.

I have a 15 year old female Cocker Spaniel who has been deaf for about two years now. Her vision isn't perfect, but she can still see well enough to get around. She has always been a whiner when anyone comes home or comes over for a visit. She has always been very well behaved around us and everyone else, she just whines when she gets excited. A while ago this whining turned into a bark or two when we got home, and we just shrugged it off and thought that maybe, because she couldn't hear herself, she doesn't know how loud she is. Obviously the barking has gotten worse, and very quickly, or I wouldn't be here asking for help.

It's gotten worse within the last month or so. She waits outside at our backyard gate around the time I get home from work. Now she starts barking as soon as she can see me (or anyone else in the family) turn down our street to come home. And she will bark when we get inside. And she will bark after we're home. We always ignore her barking, and she usually stops, because she knows she gets attention when she calms down. But lately it's been taking a very long time for her to stop barking. She can go a good hour.

Because she's deaf, none of us really know how to address this issue. Most of the information I find is for dogs who were born deaf. And not much of it has to do with barking. If you come and touch her from behind, it scares her. She hasn't snapped at anyone, but it does scare her enough to make her jumpy. And since her attention is on us while she's barking, I feel like giving her attention back would be reinforcing her behavior. But, I could be wrong.

Does anyone have any advice? It would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the board!

Tell us how you reward (and correct) this senior for other behaviors and perhaps we will help translate it to this behavior.

Have you done any kind of marker work in the past with this dog?

Is she completely deaf? Or does she hear percussive-type sounds like cupped-hands clapping?

She is completely deaf. For a while we thought she could hear the percussive sounds, but about a year or so she stopped responding to them. And we've tried with and without distractions (like when she's just laying by our feet on the floor) and she doesn't seem to hear anything.

This is the first behavior we have had to correct in years. That might sound crazy, but in her old age she is very calm and luckily the obedience we've taught her in her younger years has kept up well. If someone completely new comes to the house, she will always try to jump on them. Because one of us is in front of her then (to let the person in the house) we can give her a firm touch to the neck (we call it the Ceser Milan touch, if you know what I'm talking about, that "bite" that he does with his hands). It always only takes one correction, and she stops jumping. We've tried doing this with her barking, but it only stops her barking until we start walking away from her again. I don't feel right for rewarding her when she stops barking, because I fear that she won't make the connection that it's her silence that pleases us. She is great on walks. She hardly ever pulls, and even when she does get distracted and starts to pull, she steps back on her own without any correction. And every time when we get home, I tell her "good walk" (we never stop talking to her even though she can't hear us) and give her a good pet and pat before we go inside. She doesn't bark at all coming home from walks, if that means anything. And when she's just moseying around the house or comes and lays in my lap on the couch I give her lots of scratches and belly rubs. Mostly because I love her, so I enjoy the time spent with her, but I also am hoping it reinforces the idea that when she is calm and quiet, we will give attention and affection.

The only other time we reward her is when we have to give her medication, but I'm not sure if you'd call that a reward. She does get chronic ear infections, so after we give her the ear drops we will give her a treat. Now we can just get the medication out and she will be more than happy to let us give the drops. I'm wondering if this was a bad decision on our part (to give the treats). She hasn't had an infection in a few months though.

Keep in mind I have a lot about dog training to learn. If I'm doing it all wrong, please, don't be afraid to let me know. Thanks for your help!

15 can be a rough age to introduce new behaviors. Years and years ago we had an elderly cocker spaniel named Lucy who went progressively blind and deaf and she also took up some nuisance barking associated with.

Due to age we began to see some dementia like behaviors. We also noticed she began to get lost in the house in certain rooms. When she got confused she began the barking behaviors. I'm not sure if it was stress, or if she just learned that if she barked in an empty room we'd come rescue her. Either way, we had her for 18 years, at least three years of truly geriatric behaviors.

We found that a simple gentle touch would stop the barking, patience is required because if she's alerting at the door she may take a little longer to understand that it's time to stop. We also found that crating in rooms that we spent most of our time in was a huge help.

If I had one simple piece of advice it's use patience and error on the side of kindness. It's possible at the age of 15 her mind is having trouble connecting the dots in behaviors to rewards which is why you're seeing the increase in barking.

Thanks Melissa, we have definitely thought about her age and wondered if the barking was a sign of dementia like behaviors. It's good to find other people who have experience with senior dogs, especially those who are deaf/blind/both.

We have noticed that Dolly, our spaniel, is losing her sight too. It's happening very slowly. We've mostly noticed when we give her treats. We have a fairly dark laminate flooring, and since the treats are also brown we've noticed that if we put one on the floor we have to point it out for her. If we don't, she will eventually find it with her nose, it just takes her a little longer than normal. You can tell she looks around with her eyes first for a few seconds, and then puts her nose to the ground.

When the barking first started we associated it with her lack of hearing. So we just kind of let it go because she is old, and I'm sure she doesn't realize she's bothering us. That probably wasn't a good idea, but we do have patience, and will definitely continue the touches (we don't do them hard, I just wasn't quite sure how to word it so I used the Cesar Milan example) and see how it goes from there.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

My granddog is a senior (Border Terrier) who has his senior moments when he is a little confused and anxious.

What ended up being a pretty good snapper-outer was to give commands that he knew on a very deep level. That is, "sit" and "down" are almost cellular by now to this retired working dog.

So in moments of bewilderment and wandering, my daughter now goes to him with high-value treats and asks for ingrained behaviors. It appears that he is relieved to receive commands that he knows, because he complies immediately, receives the rewards eagerly, and seems to find a kind of grounding in this.

It can take a while, but eventually we all realized that it was a huge favor to the dog to snap him back promptly (and of course gently) to his accustomed world. Long-familiar routines are the way this works for him.

Our old Jack Russell stud dog Fergus just passed away at the respectable age of 17. These dear old dogs have given us so much, it feels like a privelege to help them in their old age, doesn't it?

Anyway, I have one idea that might make things a bit easier for your sweet old gal. This isn't so much a response to the barking, as to your remark that when you touch her she startles and you seem (I think rightly) a bit concerned that although she hasn't yet snapped when touched, she might.

A really light leash, like a cat leash might give you a way to gently guide her or get her attention without startling her, and if she did startle and snap, it would be no harm no foul. Of course, you would only leave it on her when shes supervised, especially outside.

Those are both great suggestions. Dolly is still very good at downs, because she knows the hand motion we used when we first trained her as a puppy. I will have to sort of re-teach the sit. We didn't use a hand motion for some reason. I know she would do it if she could hear us say it. She also knows that when we point away, we want her to back up and give us some space. I have six nieces and nephews, some of which grew up here at my parents home. So we taught her to back up when we had the babies on the floor.

I've been working with her when I've been coming home. Now before she gets a chance to bark when I'm through the door, I've given her soft touches and it seems to calm her down. I do it the whole time I walk through the front room, the kitchen and into my bedroom (or wherever I usually go first). She hasn't barked though! She actually really seems to enjoy this type of greeting. I think I might try to down her while I at least take my shoes off, and then give her a treat. But, I'm also worried that this might make her extra excited when I get home (because she knows the treat will come) and make her bark more. What do you think?

The cat leash is actually a really great idea! I've never even thought about it. There's so many times we've had to lean over her to open doors if she's standing in front of them not facing us, or squeeze by her side not to startle her from behind. She likes to lay on the bathroom tile floor during summer because it's so cool. And sometimes when we come in she doesn't hear us. But when we turn the light on she looks around like, "whoa! what just happened?" She's made the connection that a light on means we're in the room, but it still takes her a minute sometimes. It really does feel great to help out senior dogs. And I really feel like I owe her. She's such a great dog and always has been. Her obedience, and especially her patience with the young kids, surprises me still.

I will definitely consider both the commands she knows, and the cat leash. Thanks again for your help! It's been very helpful!