Woman struggles with troublesome rescue dog until she discovers it’s deaf

A lot of rescue dogs are misunderstood, some more often than others. Acorn, the beautiful white Pit Bull, had a hard time adopting because of its breed. But beyond his looks, he’s also a troublemaker.

Both in shelters and foster homes, Acorn will not listen to human commands. It frustrates everyone who tries to help him until one woman realizes the story is much more than that. She knows that Acorn doesn’t refuse to listen – he can not to listen! Poor Acorn was born deaf and no one knew, so now he’s campaigning for deaf dogs like him.

Happy shelter dogs

The American Staffordshire Terrier was introduced by Cleveland Animal Care and Control (also known as City Dogs Cleveland) after he was found wandering the streets. Like most dogs, he didn’t handle shelter life well, and he became one of the biggest troublemakers at the organization. With only a small space to explore, he quickly got bored, but he found unique ways of entertaining himself.

“They filled his water bowl and he would wait for someone to pass by and he would pick it up and swish water at them. And then he would bang his stainless steel water bowl against the concrete crib wall 24/7,” said Mary Motley, a longtime volunteer.

Acorn’s antics drove the shelter workers and other dogs crazy. So the shelter’s manager reached out to Motley to ask if she would be willing to take him out of the shelter for one night to help calm Acorn and give everyone else a break.

At first, Motley was excited to have a temporary foster puppy, but her attitude quickly changed. Acorn acted in Motley’s house just like he did at the shelter, and he wouldn’t listen to a word she said.

It’s all just a misunderstanding

Motley wanted to bring Acorn back to the shelter almost immediately, but she knew she should at least follow through overnight. It was difficult because Acorn had chewed on everything, including seat belts, air horns, comforters.

“He came in, he was spilling everything. He’s crazy. I’m shouting at him,” Motley said. “I’m trying to catch him and I can’t catch him and he won’t stop no matter what. I yelled at him, he wouldn’t stop. So ended up exhausting myself. I put him in the crib and I was thinking, ‘You’re going to be back in the crib at 8 a.m. because I can’t handle this. “

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But when Motley arrives to release him from his crate, she notices something strange. The puppy did not react when Motley entered the room or opened the crate. He didn’t acknowledge her until she touched his shoulder. So Motley realized that Acorn wasn’t intentionally ignoring her. He probably can’t hear her at all!

Motley took him to the vet, and the staff confirmed that Acorn was deaf. Suddenly, Motley’s opinion of Acorn changes, and she decides to help train him.

Acorn stopped being a trouble maker

Motley worked with Carol Peter, founder of Train a companion dog with a cold nose, to train Acorn. Acorn attended the “terror of teen” class. He was a man of few words at first, but he quickly learned that he was trained with hand signals instead of sounds.

“A deaf dog is actually not much different from a hearing dog. You just talk with your hands instead of your mouth. And I still talk to him orally,” said Motley.

Some aspects of training a deaf dog are easier than training a hearing dog. For example, Acorn is never distracted by sounds, such as dogs barking and cars passing by. Motley used a series of signs to teach Acorn basic commands. Some signs were used by the American Kennel Club while others were created by Motley and Peter.

Now, Acorn recognizes more than 30 signs. All signs are easy enough to do on one hand so they can be completed while holding a lanyard. Motley has shared the signs with other families to help advocate for deaf dogs to reduce their risk of death. After much training with Acorn, Motley adopted him.

Give Like Acorn Dogs a Chance!

Sadly, deaf dogs like the Acorn are often misunderstood. Their hearing loss sometimes goes unnoticed, so people mistake them for being aggressive or unintelligent even though they can be trained with the right methods. Many wonderful deaf dogs have been killed by misunderstandings about them.

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So Acorn is now an ambassador for misunderstood dogs, especially those that are deaf. He has his own book called Incredibly Amazing: Acorn’s Story. He is also the face of Project Acornis a toolkit to train deaf dogs to increase their chances of adoption.

“I mean, I’d say 50 dogs were adopted because people would write to me all the time and say, ‘I adopted my own Acorn,’ Motley said.

Acorn has gone from being a stubborn puppy no one wants to deal with a dog celebrity. He will continue to campaign for “lesser-raised” dogs to show the world that all dogs are great if given the opportunity. You can follow me Acorn on Facebook for updates on his journey.

Featured pictures: Facebook