Hearing loss?

Sometimes I wonder if Co-Pilot is not hearing as well as she used to, or she just could not care to be bothered at times anymore.

She will be 6 in August and these are the changes I have noticed: some times she is in such a deep sleep I can go in and out of a room without her hearing me(well she does not get up). As long as I turn the chime off on our door, I can actually come home and work about the house while she is sleeping in the master bedroom and she doesn't get up. When we come home (with the chime on) she does not always get up to greet us, and last, when there are certain sounds she seems to over react to them, like we got a new phone and now every time our home phone rings she goes crazy barking. Kinda seems like an over reaction to me.

So does this sound like she could be experiencing hearing loss, or just normal aging. She did have a ear infection over a month ago (it was yeast) that was treated, but other than that I can't think of anything different.

If you were concerned about your dog's hearing, what would you do, is there a test I can do? I will certainly bring it up with our vet as well at our next visit.

I know all my Pugs have had hearing loss as they got older. Wish I knew how to prevent it or what causes it. Definitely have the vet check in case there is something acute which can be treated. I've always had my Pug's ears checked, but other than Imi's, nothing as ever been found. Imi is virtually as deaf as a post now.

I've mostly had dogs that came to me or were born deaf so I'm not sure if you can test for it. I try to make a loud-ish sound behind them and see if they react--but again, I'm mostly testing to see if there is any hearing at all.

I thought Bob was deaf for a while, but realized he could hear the microwave ring when asleep on the second floor. He just didn't react to sounds that he had no interest in.

I'm taking her in for a check up soon, so I will ask.

I would like to think that as she has aged, she is also just not responding to things when she would rather be sleeping. She now sleeps pretty solidly from 9pm-6am, goes potty and eats and sleeps again until noon. At that point she is up and around with just short naps.

We do keep her pretty active, and other than the one ear infection she has never had any problems. I think I will start testing her to SOUND, so often what I do has a visual with it, and THANK GOODNESS we taught her hand signals for many things.

It can be hard to tell, Sara. Pugs as a breed are skilled at tuning out what doesn't interest them which makes it harder to gauge if they won't hear or can't hear. Can make you nuts trying to figure out if you're just being ignored or not. But I think that dogs do start to lose the lower range as they age.

I'd just like to chime in here to say my Tobey is very much the same.

I never thought about it being hearing loss. I just think she doesn't care to be bothered, unless she feels like it. She can certainly hear the refrigerator door open from a mile away, and if I say "treat", she's up like a flash.

But, that being said. She is not as reactive as she used to be. She just prefers to sleep and not be bothered. Sometimes she will look right at me, and I'll be calling her over. She gives me the most disdainful look. Kind of makes me laugh. She's a loner!

Bruno is pushing 10 and we're pretty sure that he is more than half deaf. He's several clips behind his brothers for a lot of things now. But we haven't really worried much about his losing the ability to hear commands because he never listened to a word we said anyways. We've always called him the "pretty one" and figure that he now has an excuse for why he never listens.

Hope you get some answers for Co-Pilot.

smoochieface wrote:Bruno is pushing 10 and we're pretty sure that he is more than half deaf. He's several clips behind his brothers for a lot of things now. But we haven't really worried much about his losing the ability to hear commands because he never listened to a word we said anyways. We've always called him the "pretty one" and figure that he now has an excuse for why he never listens.

Hope you get some answers for Co-Pilot.

This made me laugh! Not at Bruno's hearing loss, but your take on it. I imagine though in his case he has the other pugs to hear for him.

I am not worried about Co-Pilot terribly, just wondered. Part of me thinks it is just a lack of interest in things as she has aged she has slowed down. It's just a change as she used to react to every.little.thing. But of course we will keep an eye on her.

Viv is going to be 7 soon, and if it weren't for Ruperts insanity she would sleep thru anything.
I have noticed when she sleeps now it's very deeply. I would chalk it up to getting older and living the good life on the big comfy bed.

There have been times I have been sure Hooligan was going deaf. He'll sleep through anything. But, he'll still come running if it is anything food related, so I figure he's just ignoring us as usual.

Otto just turned 9. I don't think his hearing is diminishing, but I know he reacts less to sounds than he used to, and seems to sleep more deeply, so sounds don't waken him as easily if he's sleeping.

However, he can hear the refrigerator door open from any room on any floor of the house.

Imon wrote:Otto just turned 9. I don't think his hearing is diminishing, but I know he reacts less to sounds than he used to, and seems to sleep more deeply, so sounds don't waken him as easily if he's sleeping.

However, he can hear the refrigerator door open from any room on any floor of the house.

LOL at Otto, I think CP is like this, but we have always done hand signals with our commands, so I have been "testing" her lately to see if she is reacting to what she hears, or what I am doing. And she definitely sleeps deeper, I am SO jealous.