The old adage that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks might not be true, but one young dog has learned sign language in just eight weeks.
When dog mom Jo Le Page, 41, found that her seven-month-old Spanish Water Dog Rafa couldn’t hear, she began to teach him sign language.
Nine Signs in Eight Weeks
And in just eight weeks, the clever pup has learned nine different signs. The signs he’s learned include sit, stand, stay, and paw, as well as watch me, spin, lie down, come, and even safe. With safe, he’ll walk under his mom’s legs, turn around, and remain there.
However, Rafa isn’t finished yet, as he’s still busy learning more hand signals. Jo says that his disability won’t limit his life. She hopes that people won’t be as quick to euthanize disabled dogs – or leave them in shelters.
Rafa would turn his head when other puppies heard noises and would follow all of them,” she explained to MailOnline, “’He was always good at following cues of other puppies. He’s very visually aware.
“Within a day of having him he wasn’t responding to any noise and he wouldn’t wake up when we came in … He particularly stood out to us as he wanted loads of cuddles and waited by the gate as we were leaving.”
Future Deaf Therapy Dog?
When training Rafa, Jo uses thumbs up rather than verbal praise, while “you can’t use hands in a negative way, so showing something to be unacceptable is difficult”.
When Jo first got Rafa from a local breeder, she was unaware that he was deaf. However, she was determined to keep looking after him even when she realized he couldn’t hear. After researching sign language for dogs, it “opened up a whole new world”.
Rafa hasn’t let anything hold him back. He won first prize in a junior handler competition at an inclusive dog show when he was only five months old, and has started therapy dog training too – potentially becoming one of the first deaf therapy dogs.
