Solving the Dog Fight Mystery

Last week, we introduced a new dog into our family only to have a giant fight break out and have him leave just as quickly. There were a lot of readers who took a personal interest in what had gone on, and even though I’d sworn off writing about our dogs again – I have new information.

I heard from Gus’s new family yesterday. (If you’ll remember, he was a rescue dog.) They finally got him to their vet who discovered that he has a partial, but significant, hearing loss. We all think this is the reason for the animosity and ultimately the big fight. He was unable to hear her.

When we first introduced them and she growled to ask him to back off, when she barked to let him know she wasn’t a fan, when she gave him all the clues that dogs give which let their pack know that they really are-not-having-it-right-now…he didn’t know. He can hear sounds in the upper registers like playful yips and whistling, but the deeper get-the-heck-away-from-me sounds not a bit.

I talked to the rescue, and they didn’t have him listing as a special needs dog because of how well he responded to the staff member in charge of him (crazy high Minnie Mouse on helium voice) and, we suspect, visual cues.

I suspect that his hearing loss was what made him so appealing to us – didn’t really bark, wasn’t startled by the commotion of my children, was a perfect gentleman even at the CrossFit Box with the loudness of dropping weights and blaring music, and paid no mind to barking dogs when I took him on a morning run. We had thought him to be exceptionally well trained, and he is, but he was also perfectly suited to the way we live – everyone except Grace, and she had seniority.

What does that mean for all of us? Not a whole lot. Gus’s new family is working on training him with hand signals, Grace is still being the head dog, and we’re wondering if our search for our next dog (once Grace’s time with us is done) might just have “deaf” on the wish list.