I truly adore getting Happy Tails like Jake’s Happy Tail. I love when a special family comes forward and instead of seeing a “special needs” dog they see a special dog who will give to the needs of others. I can’t wait to add Jake to our Deaf Dogs Rock Therapy Dog Wall of Fame once he goes through his training. Best of luck to Audrey and her boyfriend on being Jake’s advocate and training him to be a “Rockin Therapy Dog”. According to my deaf dogs Nitro, Bud and myself Jake and his family totally ROCK! ~ Christina Lee – Deaf Dogs Rock
Jake’s Happy Tail by Audrey Becker
Meet Jake the dog. When my boyfriend and I decided to adopt a dog, we hadn’t thought of the possibility of having a deaf dog. We were just regular people looking through a Humane shelter for a good companion. Of course every person who walks down the row of dogs is going to fall in love with every single one, but when I saw Jake I knew he was our dog. He wasn’t barking, he was happy, and he cuddled up into the corner of his area so I could better pet him.When we asked the Humane shelter workers if we could visit with him they were very enthusiastic. I knew he was special, but I didn’t know how special. When I found out he was a deaf puppy, I was even more thrilled to not only teach him a few tricks but for him to teach me a few things as well. When we visited with him he didn’t know what to do, he wanted to please both my boyfriend and I. After one night of sleeping on it I called the shelter and arrived an hour before they even opened to adopt our wonderful companion, Jake.
We have had Jake for two years now and in that time he has come to understand certain sign commands we have taught him like “sit,” “lay,” “go potty,” “stay,” “come,” and his name (the letter J in ASL). He always walks pretty as he is always conscious of where we are at and loves to meet new people on the paths we take. At first Jake had doggy aggression, but with consistency and looking up lots of information, by now he is very friendly with both dogs and people.
My boyfriend and I are professionals in caring for people. My boyfriend is a nurse and I am a Kindergarten teacher. We decided, based off of his progress, that Jake will go through therapy dog training so that he can visit my boyfriend’s workplace and visit my kindergartners. Already we have given him visits to the home my boyfriend works in and all times Jake has been patient, friendly, and calm. At six months our puppy can handle many people grabbing at him and petting him a little rough without becoming agitated.
I consider Jake a gift. Through having him as our companion he has taught me patience, new sign language skills which I now utilize with my Kindergartners, and compassion. He is a wonder and we are very proud of our intelligent, eager to please deaf puppy, Jake the dog!
