Dear Lisa: We have a five-year-old deaf Bulldog that my daughter adopted when he was 17-months-old from a rescue group. He is very close to my daughter, who taught him sign language. He has been a very good member of our family up until a few months ago. Because my daughter began working longer hours she took him to doggie day care. Shortly thereafter he started to poop in the house and nip at people when they tried to take things away from him. He is a good guy and has never done anything like this before. Why is he starting now? —A Befuddled Bully

Dear A Befuddled Bully: You offer several clues about his change in behavior in your question. The dog belongs to your daughter and he is obviously very attached to her as his "pack" leader. In addition, he depends on her to be a main source of communication through sign language. I'd be interested to know if anyone else knows the sign language your daughter taught him. The correlation between her longer working hours, his day care attendance and his misbehavior is striking.

Deaf dogs become very comfortable in their surroundings and thrive on an established routine. Any dog will begin to show behavior changes if his routine is disrupted. If the change is drastic and stressful enough, the dog may begin to "act up" in response to his loss of routine or usual attention. Your dog got a double whammy with less time with your daughter and then being thrust into a very different and strange place.

Canine Communication

While he may enjoy playtime with other dogs (or he may not), he may also feel anxiety at loosing his pack leader who "speaks" his language. Dogs rely more on body language than verbal language to communicate with each other and with people. Back at home his behavior is changing. Since he has no vocabulary for "Hey, what the heck is going on here! I'm not happy with this stressful change in routine." One of his methods of communicating requires you to use a pooper scooper. I think his message is clear!

The other "nipping" behavior may be his way of expressing his fear of not being able to keep track of his possessions, namely your daughter. Because he is feeling a loss of routine and pack leader, he wants to "protect" what he feels he has some control over at his home. He is becoming more territorial.

Plus, if you look into the breed history of the Bulldog, you find that they were originally bred for bull baiting and dog fighting in England. However, that fighting trait has been bred out of them over the centuries and what remains is a very courageous, resolute dog with a dignified demeanor. These proud dogs take their role as protector very seriously.

Try to look at it from his point of view. He's just doing what comes naturally. It might help to investigate further how he spends his day at the day care facility and if someone there is able to learn his sign language. Do a little detective work and see if you can identify a pattern with him as to when he acts up. Finding out what triggers his "acting up" behavior might lead you to clues as how to avoid those triggers in the first place.

A great resource is the Deaf Dog Education Action Fund (DDEAF) website can be found at www.deafdogs.org. In the meantime, have each family member, especially your daughter, spend some extra quality time with him and you will see immediate improvement.

©2003 Lisa Peterson