Our new puppy

[alee]

We just adopted this pup from a rescue last week. Her name is Bella, about 5 months old. She is a double merle Australian Shepherd. Double merles are also known as lethal whites, they are born blind and/or deaf. Bella is blind in one eye; although we were told her hearing is perfect, we strongly believe she is deaf in one ear. She can hear sounds fine, but she is not able to tell where they originated. She is the sweetest girl, and we already love her to pieces. In the first pic, she is with our other Aussie Charlie, a 2.5-year-old goof ball.

 

[lisa h]

Absolutely beautiful! Deaf dogs (and blind, for that matter) do very well, so if she's only deaf in one ear she'll do just fine! Pi**es me off that people are still breeding merle to merle, but most things pi** me off LOL

 

[kinyonga]

I'm looking after one dog that is almost blind and another that has a big hearing loss....so I end up "yelling" at the "deaf" one to come in the house and talking to the "blind" one until she figures where the door is. (I wonder if the neighbors think I'm crazy!) They are both good dogs though.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Very cute pup!! Usually dogs of a breed that aren't usually white that have white fur completely around the eye are deaf in the ear on that side of the head. Doesn't take away from her cuteness though!

 

[Olimpia]

What an adorable puppy though! What a sweet face!

 

[laurie]

What to lovely thing to do, taking in that sweet dog. I always wonder why some of the best animals in the world are ones that people don't seem to want. I am glad she is in a loving home where she is wanted.

 

[alee]

Thanks everyone. We just found out the vision in her "good" eye is poor, especially at night. She never looks at us when we are talking to her, she always looks off to one side. She bumps into things, and growls & barks at nothing when we take her out at night. Poor thing. She does the same in the house at night when everyone is sleeping. My husband and I are trying to figure out how to train her to know our invisible fence (we have been walking her on a leash). The rescue had full knowledge of both her eyes being impaired, and yet only told us she is blind in one eye and her other eye was "fine". They also told me a hearing test was done and that her hearing was perfect, but there was no record of any hearing tests on papers (they gave us all her papers the day we picked her up, I had 2 vets review her records). It seems like the rescue just wanted to get rid of her and to take the $350 adoption fee. We are not thinking about giving her up, but are not sure on how to train her and worried about her safety. We love her, she really is the sweetest thing.

 

[Hoj]

what a nice pup and good on you to take her in, all animals deserve loving homes
and i know what you mean about shelters i have lost total respect of the local SPCA and that sucks, i used to donate over 1000 a year but they screwed that up.

 

[lisa h]

If you do some on line searches, you can find quite a bit of info on training dogs that are both blind and deaf. The rescue should have been honest with you, but if you don't want to return her, then you'll need to learn a little bit
If a proper hearing test was done it would be called a BAER test, and somehow I doubt a rescue bothered to do one. Maybe ask them if that specific test was done.
PM me if you would like some info on training resources.
She certainly is a cutie, and she will soon start using your other dog as a helper. Good luck!