Gus is our dog that we got a couple years ago from Jack Knox. He's a nice, nice dog and well trained. But sadly he has early hearing loss - bilateral. We knew this when we took him and realized he'd most likely be completely deaf at some point - whether soon or much later, was unknown and we accepted that.
He is my husband's best buddy above all, and brought him through some tough times, as well as being his work partner too. I've gushed about Gus's personality before - he's the funniest dog I've ever known except Jetta my current foster may have him there - but she's funny in a different way. She's Robin Williams, he's Rowan Atkinson.
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Over the last year Gus has shown more and more signs of losing his confidence. It was hard to tell whether there was something wrong with the way we were handling him, or whether it was his hearing. Something that really threw us off was a herding clinic we went to with Jack Knox a year ago, at which he seemed to work perfectly when Jack was working him, at quite long distances.
But a couple of months ago it became obvious that Gus's hearing is effectively gone. I'm sure now that over the last year he only worked when he was sure exactly what to do. He worked nicely for Jack because he knew just what to expect and Jack is very consistent about how he stands and moves and when he speaks - and he used whistles, which Gus can still hear faintly. Gus would hear something and guess he was expected to do something, and since he's a clever and eager to please dog, he could figure it out within one or two guesses.
Gus never actually learned whistles though, unfortunately. And I'm sure he probably can't discern one tone from another, based on my hearing loss experience, which is similar to his - I hear higher ranges okay but tones sound flatter than they used to.
I've been toying with teaching him signs, but I kept running against the problem of what to do when he wasn't looking at me. I put out some questions on a couple of working dog lists, and someone offered to loan me a couple of vibrating collars.
That sort of gave me an incentive to get going on this project. I've been gimping around for a week or so after an accident, so it was an ideal time to work at short range.
Jack, Gus' trainer, trains his dogs with very distinct body language, so that helped a ton. Gus responds quite freely and happily to really subtle motions already. He's been "coming" to a leg pat his whole life - I made it just a little more distinct, three sharp leg slaps. "Walk up" ie, push the sheep, is hand claps - this is how Jack encourages young dogs to engage the sheep and it was easy to get Gus to take that as a command.
As he's bringing sheep, a finger shaken in the opposite side from the direction I want him to take, turns him off nice and clean most of the time. A whole hand raised a bit higher and a step back will widen him out. Hands up, palms out, stepping back, stops him or gets him to lie down. Once he got used to "listening" to that consistently, just one hand up gets him to "slow down" rather than stop entirely. Or, if I need one hand to do something, I can make the motion more emphatically with one hand and he understands I still want a full stop.
That left just a few key things to train. Gus is not a clean worker - he needs some help to keep in line. He needs watching when he goes around the sheep one way or the other. He's also pushy - he has a tendency to speed up if not reminded to let the sheep move at a gentler pace. The tradeoff of course is tons of power, guts, and the ability to find sheep anywhere and stock sense under normal circumstances.
I needed "off" to make him swing way away from the sheep while circling, and a sign equivalent for "Hey!" 
Plus an "attention" signal that would turn his head back, like calling his name, so he could see my signs when he was facing away from me.
"Off" was an easy sign to decide on. I used a sweeping motion with the back of my hand and he's learning this okay. What I need him to do is get further away from the sheep while he's running around them - and eventually it's the command for "You haven't seen all the sheep - you have to go wider to get some further back."
We're working in the round pen to set up situations where he typically comes in tight and then if I time the motion right, he's pretty much expecting the correction and does the right thing. Basically I limited the options until he's either too close or not - so if I react, he is familiar enough with the scenario that he can then choose the right thing right away.
Something interesting that I have found, is that he learns best when I simply set up the situation and do nothing but the sign. No emotion on my face, no other body language (it's tempting to try to step towards him to push him off, to supplement the new sign), other than what I'd normally do (like step back a teeny bit to relieve pressure and make sure he knows he's not really in trouble). If he doesn't take it right, I sign for him to lie down and move over so it's set up again, and then ask for the sign.
Because he's pretty sure I'm asking him to give on his flank, he's picking this up fast.
Someone suggested a really funny sign for "hey!" (ie, his verbal correction) Again, I don't even try to make faces or scream. Instead, if he makes an inappropriate choice, I throw my hands to my head like I'm getting ready to tear out handfuls of my hair. 
Just one hand, then two hands, then I go to him like I would if he were blowing off a verbal correction - except where you'd normally be yelling and shaking a finger, I keep my hands up at my head. I want him to know that sign means Big Trouble. Again, I keep my body language and face neutral except the last bit when I'm going to preach the straight and narrow to him.
This one has been a bit tougher because many times if he's blowing me off, he's somewhere where he can't see me. So again I've had to go back to the round pen with some of my 4 month old lambs - these are small enough that he can't get out of my sight no matter what he's doing, unless he's faced right away, in which case his butt would be handy as a target for tossing something. ;)
I can also work on this sign in the house. His responsiveness is growing and I think it will work fine. He's not a naughty dog in general.
Everything so far has been baby dog stuff, no pushing sheep directly away where he can't see me. His confidence and excitement at working have increased exponentially! He really was giving up on us - you could see he was letting sheep get the best of him and many times he'd come back and crouch at our feet and refuse to work. Now I'm having to refresh his memory that that'll do really means that'll do! 
Gus is just eating this up as fast as I can figure stuff out and set up training sessions.
As for me, I'm having a very good time. Signing comes naturally to me as I worked on and off, years ago, assisting in special ed classes and it was pretty often that I had to use ASL with various students. That's why it was instinctive to stop trying to talk to him and instead hold body language to relevant motions. I'm not that smart at stockdog training normally!
It's also easier to shut up and motion what you want the dog to do when the signs are sort of intuitive - it's like skipping a mental step. Once we start pushing sheep away instead of bringing them, things get switched around and commands will be less intuitive, but I don't anticipate a huge problem. This is where I hope to use the vibrating collar. He's going to have to learn to glance over his shoulder when I ask, or come looking for me if he's entirely out of sight.
Oddly, I handle much, much better doing this. For some reason I find it much easier to watch the sheep, possibly because timing is so crucial to make sure he understands what to do. Which is kind of, duh, I should be doing that with my HEARING dogs - can we say number one handling issue for me? So I hope this will help.
I've also filled in his "around the house" commands. Strangely, he never learned a lot of the basics like sit and kennel and tricks. So we've remedied that situation. He loves licorice jelly beans, so I have a bowl of Jelly Bellies in the front room where he supervises Patrick while Patrick's "at work" on the computer. I've "clicker trained" him - I "charged" a motion with my thumb and index like I'm pinching something - pinch/jellybean, pinch/jellybean. Now I can reinforce the basics anytime and I only have to carry Jelly Bellies in my pocket, which doesn't work too badly. Better than most treats I use. 
This is to set up the vibrator. First buzz/"click" sign/jellybean, buzz/"click" sign/jellybean.
Then I'll buzz him randomly and if he turns he gets a "click" and then he can get a jellybean. In the house and yard, of course. Then I'll extend it to out of sight response. Then we'll work some humble lambs in a tiny area and I'll set him up facing away from me but right in front where I can still give him a Jelly Belly if he wants it (he may not - a fun command may be more reinforcing). Gradually I'll fade the marker on sheep but continue to reinforce it around the house.
I'm getting a new/used camera this weekend and I'll try to get some video to share. Thanks for reading this epic length novel - I'm sitting here with my foot up having somewhat overdone it in my enthusiasm (and after a lovely session working with the Tedlet) and wanted to set all this down and maybe get some input. I'm very excited about this. Gus is really in his prime still and it will be nice if this works and he can still do what he loves!
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