www.cattledog-forum.de

[Tuulia Heikkinen]

I would be interesting in reading your expereince with living with uni deaf ACDs.
Do you think your uni deaf ACD has/had difficulties to in his daily life; to figure out noises etc? Is he more scared than ACDs generally? Has he behaving troubles, which you think is due to uni deafness? Is he more aggressive than ACDs generally. Do you think you uni deaf ACD is clearly handicaped? Do you think your uni deaf ACD would be easier to handle or daily life would be easier with him, if he had been full hearing?

I would be also intersted in reading your experinces living with full deaf ACDs.
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Only few persons in this world are more intelligent than those great blue and red Aussie dogs.

[Eva Holderegger Walser]

tuulia,
i have not had an uni acd, but we have one girl in switzerland - beautiful nova "miss whitetail" - and i follow her activities closely.

nova is around 4 years now, and she is one of the few dogs working as a "war-dog".
every few month she is flying to an other country to help her master, and he is full of praise about her skills!

when i meet her, i do not see anything that could give you the idea that something with her hearing is not functioning properly. she must have adapted so well with one ear.

i believe that an uni-dog has no big handicap in daily life. and i bet there are more unilateral hearing dogs around then people know.
so many dogs are not tested, before they leave the breeders place.... and an owner unfamiliar to the first signs will never guess that there is something wrong.

regards
eva

[ViK]

Hallo Tuulia!

I don't have personal experience with uni lateral deaf dogs, only second hand. I met owners of an uni lateral deaf ACD bitch who told me, that the breeder had no BAER-test done and hasn't noticed that she was unilateral.
The new owners noticed very soon that something was wrong witch the bitchs hearing and told me that it was kind of obvious.

This bitch adapted well, too, but in some situations her handicap is showing up, because she has no stereophonic hearing. If called at wide open places with no visual contact this bitch can barely decide from which direction the call came from.

I didn't ask about any behavioural problems, in my opinion this young dog was very friendly and happily invited me me to scrape her belly.

ViK
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General Appearance: That of a small, thickset blue Dingo. (Robert Kaleski, 1902)

[Caroline]