A puppy that was dumped at just eight weeks old in Salem now has a new home. The pure bred white boxer (not albino) named Nitro is now almost eight months, but Nitro is no ordinary puppy. He’s deaf.

Nitro likes to play and do tricks and as our News 7 crew learned he loves the camera.

Owner Christina Lee has been training Nitro using American Sign Language to communicate with him.  Nitro follows hand commands for sit, stay, down, turn-around and shake to name just a few….

Full story:
http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-deaf-dog-rescued-in-salem-is-now-learning-new-tricks-20110407,0,804530.story

- Thanks to WDBJ7

An example of the Dachshund

Offenders at the South Central Correctional Center (SCCC) in Licking not only gave Zeus a second
chance at life, they also made sure he was going to a good home where he will help others. Zeus, a male,
deaf Dachshund, was donated to the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton. The adoption fees were paid for
by the offenders.
Zeus was born deaf. The birth defect rendered him useless to the breeder and his future was
uncertain, at best. The Dachshund ended up at an animal rescue shelter where his handicap plagued any
chance for adoption. The shelter reached out to SCCC, which participates in the Department of Corrections’
(DOC) Puppies for Parole program. The program pairs rescued dogs with offenders at prisons throughout the
state for training in order to make them more adoptable.

Read full story:
http://doc.mo.gov/pressreleases/2011/20110131.pdf (PDF)

- Thanks to MI, State of Missouri Dept. of Corrections, and Hearing Review

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/deaf-bulldog-shows-off-her-reading-abilities-to-514236.html

University of Cincinnati researcher close to getting hearing aid on market

By James Ritchie, Staff Reporter  4/17/09

Otto wearing hearing aids

It’s not just people who are living longer these days. Our pets are, too. And like their owners, animals often suffer from the diseases of aging – including hearing loss.

There’s not much veterinarians can do about it right now. But University of Cincinnati researcher Pete Scheifele is trying to change that.

Scheifele likes the results he’s seen so far with a canine hearing aid he’s developing. In fact, he hopes to get a version on the market by the end of the year.

“What we’re finding is that we can put hearing aids in, and if the dog is a good candidate, it can bring a certain quality of life back to that animal,” said Scheifele, an assistant professor of bioacoustics and hearing/speech sciences. “This is looking very viable.”

The first patient was Scheifele’s own dog, Otter, who had, at 17, become severely deaf because of age. Otter seemed to like it so well that when he wasn’t wearing it, he’d sometimes seek it out and start nudging it.

But Otter, a miniature pinscher/beagle mix, is no average dog. He’s a highly trained canine who has appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” and the Animal Planet channel and performed at schools.

Otter doesn’t mind the tubes, but some dogs might refuse to wear the aids or scratch them off.

So Scheifele’s lab is working on modifications to make hearing aids smaller and more comfortable. One idea is using BlackBerry wireless technology in the dog’s collar and putting a small aid in the ear canal.

Scheifele said he is talking to several companies that are interested in commercializing a product. He thinks lots of pet owners would be interested.

“We already have a list of people who want to try it on their dog, and it’s growing longer every day,” said Scheifele, director of UC’s Facility for Education and Testing of Canine Hearing and Laboratory for Animal Acoustics, or FETCH/LAB.

Hearing aids would work only for dogs with acquired hearing loss, which occurs for the same reasons it does in humans, such as loud noises, exposure to certain medications and age-related changes in the ear. It wouldn’t help congenital deafness, where dogs are without hearing from birth.

More testing to be done

Scheifele hopes an entire veterinary sub-specialty in audiology will develop.

For now, he’s going to do more testing, this time on Ginger, a sheltie belonging to another staff member. Otter’s contributions are nearing an end; he’s dying of cancer.

Bo Williamson, president-elect of the Cincinnati Veterinary Medical Association, is seeing more dogs with hearing loss.

“It’s a huge increase, because dogs are living way longer than they used to,” said Williamson, a partner in “We expect the average dog in Greater Cincinnati to live to be 13 now. When I started in 1981, it was 5 to 10. What happens is we’re seeing all kinds of older-age diseases that we didn’t used to see, and hearing loss is one of them.”

How popular a dog hearing aid would be, he’s not sure. He imagines there are vets here and there who modify hearing aids for pets.

“Some of those things can be done, I just don’t have clients asking for it,” he said. “They would have to be easily adjusted and easily fitted. Those are some big hurdles for the pet owner.”

‘Probably just as happy’

Hearing aids for canines have been tried before, said Dr. George Strain, a professor of neuroscience in the veterinary school at Louisiana State University and a top expert on canine hearing loss. More than 10 years ago, a researcher at Auburn University, now retired, worked extensively with them.

The essential problem, Strain said, is that they aren’t that useful.

“Owners empathize, because they think the dog is miserable if it can’t hear,” he said. “You could probably sell these for $1,000 apiece to plenty of people. But I think the dog is probably just as happy being deaf as (when) it could hear.

“Dogs adapt very well to their environment when they’re deaf. They pay more attention to visual cues, vibrations, etc.”

- Thanks to Cincinnati’s BizJournals with thanks to Roy and NVRC, Fairfax