Hard of hearing help..

[collinedward]

My male 11 y/o GSP seems to be losing his hearing. In the field or coming out of the woods when I yell for him he has a hard time telling which way the call is coming from and most of the time goes the wrong way. I'm fearing that one day I may lose him while hunting. Echo's really throw him off.


Any ideas to help this problem?

[shags]

Invest in a Garmin Astro. It won't help the old fella's hearing but if he gets turned around, you can easily hunt him down.

[Neil]

Yes to the Garmin, also an e-collar with vibrate, his nose will bring him back.

Please hunt him as long as he is physical able. I have a 13 yo and two at 12 that I hope to hunt one more year. I love the old soldiers, they have given so much for so long, it is time to baby them.

Neil

[fourtrax]

You can also purchase an e-collar with a vibrate function.
Worked well for me with an old dog & deaf. I could at least get his attention.
If it's a big running dog then get the Astro also.

[deke]

I was wondering this same thing, my old lab has gone down hill fast in the last year. Arthritis really bad in his front elbows, his eyes are starting to go bad quick ( he cant tell the difference between my dad, brother, and I anymore until we are really close to him), and the other night I was standing on our back deck yelling at him to come in and he was looking around the back yard trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. Now he just holds down the couch, and makes sure the fire stays warm.

[markj]

I'm fearing that one day I may lose him while hunting.

Get a young dog, transition to i,the older ogs really suffer from a long hunt. I got a old dog here is my brothers, he would come pick up the dog, go hunt all day, old dog would lay up in kennel 3 or4 days, then here comes saturday. I stopped that, old dog lays around basking i the sun shine and he gets a live quail ever now and again it gets him alll excited for awhile.

Old dont mean complete stop, just slow it down a bit.

[SetterNut]

I had a old Gordon that I took hunting some the last year or two she was around. She had a hard time getting around, was slow, hard of hearing, but wanted to go hunting.

She was getting really weak in the back end, and one day feel in some tall grass while hunting. If it were not for my then almost year old pup, I am not sure I would have found her with the wind blowing. I could not hear her, and she could not get up.

I bought a Garmin Astro, and felt safe hunting her to her last days.
But if you do not have an E-collar, I would look at the Garmin Alpha, its a heck of a unit. Just got it and love it.

[collinedward]

I don't use an e collar with him and he acts weird when you put one on him. Here's an example of what worries me. Last season we were in the woods quail hunting , my friends and I were out of the woods first. I called him a few and he came ,stopped at the wood line and looked for us but went the other direction. We were probably 30 to 40 yards away.

[bobman]

you may try a low frequency whistle people and dogs lose their higher frequency hearing first

[CDN_Cocker]

I don't use an e collar with him and he acts weird when you put one on him. Here's an example of what worries me. Last season we were in the woods quail hunting , my friends and I were out of the woods first. I called him a few and he came ,stopped at the wood line and looked for us but went the other direction. We were probably 30 to 40 yards away.

I would use the ecollar regardless and teach him to come on the vibrate function. If you put it on him enough he's going to stop "acting weird". Vibrate won't hurt him at all and will teach him to come. I am currently conditioning my pup to recall when i use the vibrate function. Very handy if he's out of sight or hearing range. Feels the buzz and knows he better get back.