08/17/2023
Mister Willow the spicy double merle Aussie looking ever so handsome in his flower muzzle.
Buckle up, this is a long one (sorry).
Some of you may not know that breeding two dogs with the merle gene can produce offspring with two copies of the merle gene. Double merle dogs have a high chance of having hearing and vision impairments, and sometimes this results in complete deafness and / or blindness.
Despite being completely deaf and having vision impairments, Willow’s owner has dedicated a ton of her free time (and I mean a TON) to training him and working on his reactivity. His obedience is top notch and he even knows some tricks! He and his mom have figured out their own way of communicating, even though we still talk to him as though he can hear us 😅.
Due to Willow’s deafness, he has a fairly high startle response resulting in barking and lunging, especially at cars. He is also reactive to some people close to his home and neighbourhood. We don’t know how much of his vision is impaired but we do know that he can see 🥰. We suspect that some of his reactivity towards people is from being unable to recognize certain things like canes, hats and masks etc.
Despite all that Willow truly is such a sweet boy who just needs some time to check you out to make sure you’re not dangerous. Once he loves you, boy does he love you and he will shove his head between your legs to initiate some snuggles and pets. I’ve also learned that he is a VERY big fan of liver.
Our training involves working on his startle response, and desensitizing him to cars and people. We are implementing some food games and exercises that allow him some autonomy. He gets to choose what humans he approaches and who he doesn’t. Giving dogs a sense of autonomy is SO important for every dog, but especially reactive dogs. It builds their confidence and their trust in their owner.
Remember, your reactive dog doesn’t have to like people touching them, we just want them to be neutral and calm around their triggers. Our goal is to create a neutral dog so he can return to his off leash adventures with his mom. 👏🏻.
