Every morning our dog anxiously awaits me letting him outside for his potty break. I usually have enough time to get dressed and then head back to the door to find him waiting to be let back in. Unfortunately, this morning he wasn’t there. I was in the backyard hollering away and unfortunately, he still didn’t come back. After an hour of searching the neighborhood, I had to go home empty-handed. Worse, I had to go to work not knowing where he was. Luckily, he keeps his collar on and I knew as soon as he made friends with someone I would hopefully get a call.
By lunch I had a neighbor call and said he was visiting at her house. I raced to go get him. When I got there, I hollered from across the street for him to get in the truck like normal and no movement. I hollered again, and nothing. The polite neighbor made the comment “I noticed he doesn’t hear unless you are right next to him.” As I approached him and talked to him, he realized it was me. Shocked, I put him in the vehicle and thanked her for calling and we went home. Sure enough after we were home I tested the distance between us and unfortunately, the neighbor was right, he clearly couldn’t hear me from far away.
Now it wasn’t right for him to run out of the yard, but he definitely didn’t hear me calling him. The last couple days, for his safety and ours, he is on a tie out when we let him out in the backyard. He can still hear us from this distance and it keeps him safe. We live in a nice, quiet neighborhood, but occasionally have people drive by and all I could think about is if he can’t hear me, he can’t hear a car either. My husband and I discussed the situation that night and we realized he unfortunately has been losing his hearing for the last couple months. Sharing our stories, we realized this is not new.
Again, here we go denial. We both are head over heels in love
with our dog and we tend to overlook his poor eyesight and hearing, strange behaviors, etc. Now realizing our best buddy needs more attention than ever, we will do whatever it takes to make sure he is safe!
Here are some helpful tips of how to help your dog with his hearing loss – located under “Help for Hearing Loss in Older Pets:”