Training a Deaf Dog: Do I Have Your Attention?
The basics for training a deaf dog are no different than training a hearing dog: you want to reward desired behavior and ignore unwanted behavior. If you decide to train a deaf dog, you will face some special issues pretty quickly. Most positive dog training practices rely on communicating through sound. Since your dog can't hear, you'll have to come up with some alternatives for commands and for getting and keeping your dog's attention. You'll also need to discover substitutes for verbal praise and feedback.
Of course, you can use your dog's vision to communicate. Most dogs--hearing or deaf--will actually learn hand signals more quickly than verbal commands, so this isn't such a big deal. The only problem you'll may face is keeping your hand signals consistent from time to time and among family members.
