# Deafness in older Goldens?



## Pablo (Jan 3, 2006)

Curious if anybody has ran into this.

Recently we noticed that our older Golden (almost 13) has likely gone completely deaf.

It was very clear the other day when someone rang the door bell. He did not move, while our younger one was up and partying by the door. We had thought he was just sleeping deeper than usual the past months, we assumed getting older/tired, but now we realize that he simply wasn't hearing.

He now gets startled when woken up (by touching him), but otherwise he is doing fine, active, and happy.

We found a very interesting paper on this topic, which we are going to follow.

-Pablo


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## Charlie06 (Feb 10, 2007)

my 14 yr old cockapoo can't hear well at all. She doesn't hear the doorbell either. The neighbors must think I'm either crazy or cruel cause I have to practicly scream at her to call her in when she's really close by. Other than that and sleeping a lot she's a happy camper. She runs like a puppy when it's time to eat.


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## missmarstar (Jul 22, 2007)

i have known plenty of happy, healthy, deaf dogs who don't even seem to notice they have a disability.  this is the main reason why during puppy training with Sam, i started using hand signs as well as verbal commands...


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## missmarstar (Jul 22, 2007)

ps - totally off topic, but Pablo, my dad used to live in Woodinville... i spent A LOT of time in that neck of the woods


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## norabrown (Jul 20, 2007)

My 13 year old lab (he'll be 13 in March) doesn't hear. We use hand signals. He sleeps though all the play the puppies do unless they jump on him. He's happy too. He also has moments of confusion like going to the wrong door to get let in. Going to the wrong room for bed. But that doesn't happen often. He is also starting to have very bad arthritis in his feet...poor baby.


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## Jackson'sMom (Oct 13, 2007)

My current golden, Gage, is quite hard of hearing. He doesn't respond to the doorbell, me coming home, etc. Toby, my previous golden who lived to be 15, was also very hard of hearing the last couple of years of his life. But it doesn't seem to bother either of the dogs. If I need to get their attention, I just stamp my foot or tap them on the back.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

Deaf dogs, if not taught to sign, do so well at reading our body language. My Cocker went deaf and she knew what we wanted from her if she could see us. 

We realized she was deaf when I would walk in from work and find her on the livingroom couch. That was a no, no for her, but she used to jump off when she heard the car pull up...LOL It was pretty funny when I would walk over and tap her gently and point to the floor. She always knew, she was busted!


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## Brittany (Jul 24, 2006)

My older Golden, Hope (about age 10) lost some of her hearing as she got older. It didn't seem to bother her at all....she seemed as content as ever. It did scare us a bit, though, because we live in the country and she liked to lay in the sun in the middle of the driveway, and she couldn't always hear when vehicles were driving up. Other than having to yell louder to her when we wanted her to come, it didn't cause any major problems.


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## jcasks (Oct 14, 2007)

Charlie06 said:


> my 14 yr old cockapoo can't hear well at all. She doesn't hear the doorbell either. The neighbors must think I'm either crazy or cruel cause I have to practicly scream at her to call her in when she's really close by. Other than that and sleeping a lot she's a happy camper. She runs like a puppy when it's time to eat.


 
This made me laugh because we have a neighbor that does this and I always thought she was a bit nuts...but maybe it's because her pup is hard of hearing!


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## Griffyn'sMom (Mar 22, 2007)

My Jake went pretty deaf in the end - we were never sure if he was completely deaf or if it was "selective hearing".  Jake had a history of ear infections though so his ears weren't great. 

If your dog is sleeping and not seeing you coming, it might help to give the floor a little harder stomp to let him know you are there before reaching out to pet him. You don't want to risk him being startled.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

My Beau has been losing his sight but not his hearing. The eskie that I rescued several years ago was deaf and we would flash a light outside to get his attention at night. And getting his attention if I was behind him, I would put my hand in front of him and wave it. He always turned around like he knew we were there. I made sure not to come up behind him and touch him because it always scared him to death.


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## gold'nchocolate (May 31, 2005)

My 13 yr old lab is completely deaf now. I thought she was only really hard of hearing until last week when I was trying to get her attention by calling her name. I was standing behind her and she was looking the other way and never heard me at all. She was always scared of thunder, fireworks, crying kids, yelling kids, etc and now she has no problems with any of it so it is sort of a blessing for her in her twilight years.


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## Sundance's Mom (Jul 8, 2013)

*We think our ten year Golden boy is deaf, also*

We have noticed that Sundance has been unresponsive to us lately. We actually thought he might have dementia; I'm so glad we found this forum with info re other Goldens experiencing deafness. He learned hand signals when he was just a little guy, so that is helping. I was wondering if he would be depressed due to not hearing us? We have always "loved" on him a lot, so we're loving on him even more! My husband started a blog about our Golden boy...goldenwyomingsundance.blogspot.com
Feel free to go visit!


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## dborgers (Dec 7, 2011)

Our boys hearing diminished greatly when they hit the senior years. The hammer, anvil, and stirrup in the ear fuse. Some quicker than others, some not so much, others quite a lot. Has nothing to do with anything but old age.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

My childhood Golden lost his hearing towards the end of his life. He slept in the front hall, and we discovered it because all of a sudden, he wasn't hearing us approach anymore, and we'd open the door and bang into the poor guy.  We started to open the door slowly. He was okay - I don't think it diminished his quality of life. He developed cancer, so he sadly wasn't with us more than a few months with his diminished hearing. 

Hand signals are a real plus - I'm sure your guy will do fine. A little extra patience - and all the extra love will work wonders.


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## penparson (Sep 19, 2010)

My Reuben became suddenly deaf at about 12 following general anesthesia. It's rare, but does happen. The only significant change in his behavior was that he started barking at guests, which he'd never done before. He still hated thunderstorms - guess the atmospheric pressure change was enough to trigger the fear.


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## TulsaDavid (Jul 8, 2013)

Sundance's Mom said:


> We have noticed that Sundance has been unresponsive to us lately. We actually thought he might have dementia; I'm so glad we found this forum with info re other Goldens experiencing deafness. He learned hand signals when he was just a little guy, so that is helping. I was wondering if he would be depressed due to not hearing us? We have always "loved" on him a lot, so we're loving on him even more! My husband started a blog about our Golden boy... http://goldenwyomingsundance.blogspot.com
> Feel free to go visit!


 This is Sundance's dad. We lost Sundance to cancer this past Sunday. He truly was a gift from God.


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## Gwen_Dandridge (Jul 14, 2012)

Our previous golden, Amber, also went deaf as she aged. It seemed to be an embarrassment to her. Someone would come into the house (everyone and their chickens has a key) and she wouldn't have announced it, as she didn't hear. She would do this quick head turn to look at us as if we were going to yell at her for not doing her job. It was so sad.

We loved her no matter what.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

TulsaDavid said:


> This is Sundance's dad. We lost Sundance to cancer this past Sunday. He truly was a gift from God.


I'm so sorry for your loss. My heart goes out to you.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

TulsaDavid said:


> This is Sundance's dad. We lost Sundance to cancer this past Sunday. He truly was a gift from God.


I am so sorry for your loss of Sundance, my thoughts are with you.


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

My Maggie was hard-of-hearing in her senior years, I started noticing it around age 10.


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## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

Thank you for sharing your link to your beautiful Sundance. I am sorry for your loss. May your treasured memories help you during this time of sorrow.


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## Barkr (Dec 23, 2011)

What beautiful boy, so sorry for your loss.


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## goldlover68 (Jun 17, 2013)

Those of us that hunt with our dogs, frequently have older dogs with loss of hearing. Owners also suffer from hearing loss as we age (both ears for me). It is from shooting our guns without proper ear protection. With our dogs it is from having a dog that jumps out to retriever before you have shot your gun. In this case the sound blast is louder than if they are at heal or behind you and is a result of incomplete/poor training (We would say the dog is not study). Just FYI.....


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## TulsaDavid (Jul 8, 2013)

Sweet Girl said:


> I'm so sorry for your loss. My heart goes out to you.





CAROLINA MOM said:


> I am so sorry for your loss of Sundance, my thoughts are with you.





solinvictus said:


> Thank you for sharing your link to your beautiful Sundance. I am sorry for your loss. May your treasured memories help you during this time of sorrow.





Barkr said:


> What beautiful boy, so sorry for your loss.


Thank you all so much for your kind words. A rough week for my wife and I, but our hearts are full and richer from having had that precious golden boy in the family.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

TulsaDavid said:


> Thank you all so much for your kind words. A rough week for my wife and I, but our hearts are full and richer from having had that precious golden boy in the family.


It's so bittersweet, they bring so much love, joy, and fun into our lives. Sometimes we don't realize just how much until they are no longer here with us on earth.

If you'd like to post a tribute to him in the Rainbow Bridge section, we'd love to hear all about him and see his pictures. 


Godspeed Sundance


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## TulsaDavid (Jul 8, 2013)

CAROLINA MOM said:


> If you'd like to post a tribute to him in the Rainbow Bridge section, we'd love to hear all about him and see his pictures.


Thank you very much. I have.

Rainbow Bridge Tribute


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## Hew (Feb 10, 2016)

Before I got my golden I did a lot of research because I wanted him to became my service dog and I wanted to do all the training myself since I do not need a full service dog. I read that large breeds when they get older sometimes they became deaf so all his training was with voice commands and signs.

We started when he was 8 weeks old and now he is 5 yrs old and most of the time we communicate in sign language, I’m not deaf but I worked with deaf children.

My jack russell, he is 12 yrs old plays deaf unless I got treats in my hand.






Pablo said:


> Curious if anybody has ran into this.
> 
> Recently we noticed that our older Golden (almost 13) has likely gone completely deaf.
> 
> ...


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