Help needed training puppy

Hello everyone. I was told you might be able to help me.
I am adopting a 4-month-old puppy. He is full of energy to the max, and doesn't wear down. He cannot handle restraint or confinement of any sort and needs to be where he can see at all times what is going on.

He is totally dependant on his vision and goes crazy if he can't see. He is deaf. This is where all his problems stem from. He can't hear a lick; the vet says something is missing inside his head that make him unable to hear a sound.

We are trying to figure out ways to train him and work with his lack of hearing. We will be teaching him hand signals but that will only work if he is looking at us.

Any ideas on how we can train Max (Maximillion RST RST- Rip Snortin' Terror)? We live on a small farm/homestead and he will be around a lot of animals. We are concerned about him not harming our animals and also with so much room to roam, him not running off or getting lost. We can't go outside and just call him. :confused:

He is modern English Bulldog and Blue Healer.

From what I understand, he is not housebroke either. So we will have to do that also. He has been kept outside most of his life. I feel our best bet for a great training relationship is to keep him as close to us as we can so he bonds strongly with us.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hill

Hillbillee@aliveandkicking.com

You have already answered your own question. Keep him close. We always recommend for people to connect their new dog to them with a 5 ft. leash (I use a carribeener and hook it to my jeans belt loop). This dog needs great leadership and support, and this provides that very thing. Everywhere you go he follows - makes you the leader automatically. Do it as much as you can stand, but not if you are in a bad mood. It is to create a good time and positive relationship - not to punish him. It also reminds you that there is a new toddler in the house for you to monitor (especially house training) and allows you to start communicating with him regularly. Pups look to the people for advice all of the time - recognize this and answer his looks. If you don't then he will give up on you as his leader and become independent and more difficult to manage.
Make sure you relate a hand signal to a reward of some kind - I like to use the 'thumbs up' for mine.
There is balance in all things - he must also learn how to be alone. A crate is great for this. Do not abandon him to it and walk away. Teach him to eat in the crate, get his best toys in the crate, take naps in the crate and as he is comfortable with it start to leave him for short periods of time and lengthen them as he is able to handle it. I would also give him a plush toy that you have slept with for a few nights - it gets your smell deeply imbedded in it - to keep him company when you aren't there.
I have never heard of such a mix, he could have a major stubborn streak - I would love to see a picture.
Good luck!

Here is a site by a wonderful lady who fosters and rescues only deaf animals.

You'll find tons of help here!:)

Deaf Dogs (http://www.catatonic.freeservers.com/penny/deafdogs.html)

I am sorry to say that after over a month and $250 (that we did get returned), we are not going to be getting Max.

The people whom rescued him ran into major problems with Petair, the business they use to ship their dogs.

They have been trying for over a month to get him to us and Petair has not done their job and even tried to charge us more money to pay for their mistakes.

The people who rescued him told us last night that they was not going to ship him to us, they spent a LOT of their time into this and are really frustrated with Petair.

I don't know anything about this Petair, have never done business with them before but the things they have said, the lack of compassion they have shown this dog and us in this situation, has convinced me we don't want to do business with them. The other people have used them a lot and they also said after this they will no longer be using them.

We are all really sad here. We really got our hopes up of owning our dream dog, which we could never afford to buy. I just hope someone very loving and special adopts him.

If anyone is interested in adopting him or seeing a picture of him here is the people's email address. You can write to them. They are really great people and want to find the right home for this dog.

mjskmilr@ yellville.net

Hill

Thank you all for your help and advice.

Hill