Canine carers at Dogs Trust Ilfracombe are looking for a special new home for a two-year old Crossbreed who is deaf.
Sweet-natured Jonathan arrived at Dogs Trust Ilfracombe back in September 2018 after previously being a stray. But despite waiting over a year for his forever home, playful Jon doesn’t let his deafness hold him back.
Jonathan enjoys having a run around with his doggy playmates as well as spending time with his canine carers. 
He is an excitable chap who initially found it hard to channel this energy and focus on the task in hand. But his dedicated team put together a personalised training plan for him and worked with him every day for months to help him learn in the way only he could – through sign language.
By adjusting their training technique to use only hand signals, Jon is proving that you can teach a deaf dog new tricks as he has learnt to respond to hand signals for commands such as sit, down, paw and spin in exchange for a tasty treat.
Jon even understand when he’s been a good boy as his carers give him a well-deserved ‘thumbs up’ signal.
Elise Watson, Rehoming Centre Manager at Dogs Trust Ilfracombe, said: “We don’t know much about Jon’s background, but we suspect he has been deaf since birth, which can occur in some white dogs. Sadly, some deaf dogs are abandoned or end up in rehoming centres due to owners’ lack of understanding of their hearing problems.
“Often people feel they wouldn’t be able to cope with a dog like Jon but deaf dogs can have a perfectly normal life and can be trained fairly easily using hand signals and positive, reward-based techniques – you just have to be a bit more inventive when it comes to gaining their attention but it’s perfectly possibly to train a deaf dog to respond to numerous commands.
“Though he is working with our expert behaviour team, he is still a young dog who hasn’t had much in the way of training or socialisation so he can be a little over-excitable therefore is looking for a home who can offer a high level of exercise and mental stimulation, as well as teach him how to relax.
“We really hope that Jon will not be overlooked just because he is deaf. He’s a real joy to train because he is so smart and really wants to learn. He has such an infectious zest for life and will make a very rewarding pet in the right home.”
Jon would be ideally suited to a family who have experience of training a dog with hearing impairments or are willing to make adjustments to their training techniques. He needs an adult only home and whilst he needs to be the only pet in the home, he’d benefit from regular walking buddies.
If you are interested in finding out more about Jon, you can contact Dogs Trust Ilfracombe on 01271 446058.
