Back in July Deaf Dogs Rock received an email for help from someone who needed help finding their 8 week old Deaf English Bulldog Puppy a loving and protective home. The owner of the puppy said she had no way of screening potential homes and she wondered if we could help. I told her we could help and then I reached out to a wonderful woman in Ohio named Cathy who fosters deaf dogs occasionally for different rescues. I asked Cathy if she could foster the deaf English Bulldog puppy since it was so close to her in Ohio. Cathy agreed to help us out and Deaf Dogs Rock paid for the pups shots and neuter surgery.

Deaf Dogs Rock was really lucky because Cathy knows so many great dog people in her area. As soon as she got the puppy home, she had several people who were interested in adopting the puppy as soon as they saw who cute he was. Cathy named the pudgy little English Bulldog Ludwig and she really enjoyed fostering Ludwig. Cathy was also really good at screening potential applicants and letting each person interested know about the challenges and joys there are when raising a deaf puppy.

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Sometimes when we foster deaf dogs like Cathy does we are extra picky where the dog is going to go when it comes to picking their forever homes. Mainly because it is like giving away one of our own dogs which is very difficult to do. Cathy did a great job helping find the perfect home for Ludwig. He has now been in his forever home for several months and he is thriving. Here are some photos and as you can see he has gotten big!

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Cathy in her car with Ludwig. As you can see he is the ultimate VELCRO dog! Great selfie of these two! 

 

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From Cathy:

Ludwig is 60lbs now!! And very happy in his new home in Galena, Ohio.  His new parents are great and say he is quite the cuddler – both with them and with his new brothers and sisters!

Thanks to the support of our Deaf Dogs Rock community we can help deaf puppies like Ludwig get the experienced help they need to make sure we set them up for success in the future. Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us safe one deaf dog at a time.

 

Update from Luddy’s Mom 1-22-2014: 

It is hard to believe that he is now over 7 months old.   Sometimes, he looks just like a puppy, especially when he is sleeping and other times he looks like an adult dog.  His chest has expanded and he is all muscle.  He still tries to stuff himself into Daisy’s cloth carrier along with the plastic crate you gave us.  We got a bigger crate for him, but for some reason, he just likes the the smaller crates.  One day, in fact, I guess he was having difficulty getting into Daisy’s carrier and found a unique way to finally get into it.  The top of the carrier has an opening that can be unzipped and he climb in from the top.  So his upper half was in the carrier and his lower half was hung over the the outside of it. From what I heard, it sounded like an America’s Funniest Video moment.

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He made it through his obedience class and now knows, on command, how to sit, lay down (though the hand signal still has to touch the ground), stay and release, come here, touch the hand, and watch me without treats.  With treats, he can spin around and heal (still need a lot of work on that one).  

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The biting is beginning to subside.  The last of his teething is finishing up.  We had some issues with him using sticks to do his biting.  We finally got the right kind of toys for him to chew on and the getting him to stop using the sticks.  Problem was, Roy thought this was such a good idea that we now have to train him out of using sticks as a chewing toy.

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This coming month we are going to start working with come here with a vibration collar.  In February, I plan to sign him up for another class out at Sky Dogs.  It helps having regular classes to keep up the training.  

Orville and Luddy became really close and Orville was acting like a parent with him, at least it felt that way.  He would snuggle with him when Luddy slept.  He would “yell” at him when he misbehaved.  In fact, one day they were in the kitchen and I heard Orville “yelling” at Luddy.  When I went to see what was going on, I found Luddy playing with his toys on Orville who wanted to take a nap.  So, I move the toys away from Orville and made Luddy go over where they were and play with them there.  I came back to check on them about 5 minutes later and Orville had moved over where Luddy was now playing with his toys to be with him.  It was the cutest thing ever.  In fact, in one of the pictures, you can see Orville hovering in the background.

Now for the sad news, we lost Orville 2 weeks ago.  He was pretty old, 14 1/2 years.  I have to say that Luddy really gave him a lot of energy and pep these past few months that I hadn’t seen in a while.  Luddy was there when he died and of the three dogs, he is handling the grieving process a lot better than the other two dogs. He is such a wonderful addition to our household.  I can’t thank you enough for giving us the opportunity to be his parents/guardians.

Mary Hooker-Myers – Ohio