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Just want to chime in with some of the challenges you may face with a deaf dog. I have a congenitally deaf English Setter. She is 6 years old and we've had her since she was 10 weeks. Everyone told me how easy it would be and that dogs pick up body language better than voice anyways, but I just wanted you to realize there can be some challenges that come along with having a deaf dog. You should be prepared that it very well might not be like owning a dog that has full hearing.

Also, as a note, my dog was born deaf. This is typically very different than a dog that becomes deaf with old age.

1. Most deaf dogs either never bark or bark incessantly. Unfortunately, my dog is the latter. She virtually never stops barking and never grows tired of it. At 6 years old, we've yet to figure out a way to efficiently control this. And believe me, we've tried every type of training, bark collars, muzzles, sprays, excerise routines, etc.  I feel bad for my poor labrador who has to stay home with her all day. At this point, we're just amazed at her stamina. She will literally be laying next to me by the couch and just barking. She doesn't even act like she knows she's doing it. We're constantly telling her to "shush."

2. Deaf dogs are typically really needy. Like never stops following you, must be touching you at all times, needy. Since she relies on me to feel secure, she is constantly under my feet. This might not bother some people, but it really can get old sometimes. We didn't realize she was extra needy for a long time, so we didn't try to nip this in the bud early enough. If she isn't with me, she's following our lab around, taking cues from her. I think the lab gets tired of it sometimes, as well. 

3. This neediness often turns into separation anxiety. I did catch this really early on, thank heavens, and with some training got this under control pretty quickly. This is a huge one, because separation anxiety is no joke. She will always have the tendancy to revert to separation issues, though. It's tough for her to be alone (or even with the other dog) when she only truly feels safe with me. 

4. A lot of deaf dogs tend to exhibit obsessive compulsive behavior. Mine has this big time, though we've gotten it a lot more under control over the years. If we let her get away with things, she'll spiral out of control quickly. The most common problem is shadow chasing/light chasing, from what I can tell. This is also my dog's biggest OCD behavior. During her little episodes, I have to physically go over and get her away from whatever it is she's chasing/staring at to break her out of the behavior. It's like I become completely invisible to her and she's in her own little world. It gets really bad near water or puddles where she can see her actual reflection. When we go to the lake, she spends the entire day on the shoreline staring at herself in the water. People constantly ask what's wrong with her at the dog park.

5. She does not play very often with other dogs. In fact, a lot of other dogs want nothing to do with her. She has been attacked a couple of times. We once went to the dog park where she was attacked by a great dane that had just gotten there. it wasn't like they sniffed each other and then decided they didn't like each other. He literally walked into the gate and ran straight for my dog, pinning her to the ground. The owner came over, apologized profusely and told me the only other time her dog had acted aggressively towards another was when she tried to adopt a deaf puppy. She didn't know mine was deaf, as well. It makes sense since, in the wild, she would be detrimental to the pack. Some dogs literally cannot be around her without wanting to hurt her. 

6. We don't have any problems with this, but there are a lot of people who deal with very nervous deaf dogs. These are the ones that aren't safe to wake by touching since it can startle them so badly. 

With all of the challenges we have with her, I will say she is the absolute sweetest dog in the world. She would be content just laying by side all day or attempting to sit in my lasp and kiss my face. I hear this about most deaf dogs. But, my husband and I do know that we will never adopt a deaf dog again. I've never had such a difficult time training a dog nor have I ever gotten as frustrated with an animal as I get with her some days.

As a side note, some of her behavior issues became exaggerated after her spaying. We both feel that she was given too much anesthesia, which actually jump started her OCD behaviors. Therefore we may never know if her issues would have been as severe as they are currently, had she not been been over-drugged (which we obviously can't prove). I know plenty of people have had great luck and absolutely adore their deaf dogs. Plenty of people also have had awesome training results and dogs who you cannot tell have any disability at all. We just are one of the cases where it's been pretty rough. That said, she'll always be our dog. We have no plans of getting rid of her even though I'm pregnant and have had so many people suggest that we do. Can't give up on her this far in the game. :)

I"m the proud owner of a deaf dog, and I would adopt another one in a heartbeat!

Having a deaf puppy makes a few things harder, you can't just say "no" when they do something bad, you actually have to get up and get their attention and give them whatever sign you have for "no!".  After a while with constant training you dog will probably "check in" with you when they do something to see what you are going to say (my dog does this constantly, it's really kind of cute).  Other than that we haven't had too much difficulty having a deaf dog over a hearing, and we have let him off leash on hikes a few times, once you have your dog for a while you will start to trust them and they usually (depending on their personality) won't go far and will check in with you often.  We didn't invest in one of those collars it just wasn't necessary, although we did use crate training and he has a bedroom that he sleeps in at night and when we aren't home, he feels safer that way.  Oh and make sure you socialize your puppy with new people constantly through out their lives, being deaf they tend (at least mine) to be shy of new people (he doesn't know if they are nice people or not) so he gets really defensive, but if new people just ignore him he settles in really quickly.

I am willing to give you any advice or tips you want along the way, feel free to PM me or ask questions here... but I say don't let the deafness scare you.

Another great resource is deafdogs.org

@Ms Hedgehog:  I just read this, actually, my dog does REALLY well with other dogs.  If they have been around their siblings long enough they will have learned to cope, just like a deaf child does with their siblings.  They learn to read body language better than other dogs.  There will be NO problems (assuming your dog gets along with other dogs in general) having two dogs, if anything it would help, your dog would be the new pups hearing aid.

@Zouave:  haha I totally talk to my deaf dog all the time, FI will walk in when i'm talking to him and he'll say "are you talking to the deaf dog again?!" then when I catch him doing it he responds with "I'm teaching him how to hear". lol

@bree72:  wow, that seems like you really have your hands full with your deaf girl!!  My dog does show some of those things, he follows me around constantly (if i'm home alone I don't shut the door to go to the restroom so he can know where I am)... He's just getting to the point (he's 2 now) where he will stay on the couch after I get up a little bit to see if I"m coming back right away.  He doesn't have too much separation anxiety, although he does get a little panicked if he falls asleep and we leave the room so we put him in his bedroom when we leave to ease his anxiety.  He hasn't had any trouble with other dogs, but he was a rescue from the shelter I worked at so he was around all different dogs all different sizes for about a month before I took him home, maybe that helped?  he really has no idea he's deaf, and he doesn't bark much just when he sees something (or thinks he sees something) out of the ordinary... even if it's his kitty brother outside the window... But just signing him "no" and "shh" does the trick, but he also looks at me right after he does it like "did I do good?!?.... no?  oops, sorry"

Sorry, I'm totally blowing up your post, but PP brought up a good point, you really want to work with them about waking them up so they don't get startled... I used to (and still do actually) pet my boy on his shoulder when he was sleeping really gently to wake him up... sometimes stomping or clapping will work well too (since they can't hear it's just the vibration that wakes them up).  But you want to make sure you do this regularly (and then do the same thing every time, or combination of things) so you don't startle your dog which can lead to agression in some dogs.

@elle_71125:  The eye contact thing was something I wish I had realized early on. She quickly learned that if she just didn't look at me, then she didn't have to listen. I never found a good solution to making her make eye contact with me, other than keeping a leash on her at all times so I can grab it and make her look at me. She still does this when I know damn well she sees my in her peripheral vision. She holds her head down if she even thinks I am going to ask her to do something she doesn't want to do. But English setters are known to be incredibly hard headed dogs. We actually spent a lot of money with a very good trainer for about 6 months (this was after the spaying and the behaviors spun out of control for a while) who said he could not recall a dog more stubborn than she was.

@o0olibelulao0o:  Ours has been around many dogs since she was a puppy, so it wasn't as if she wasn't socialized. It's more like she's in her own little silent world and doesn't know how to spend more than about 30 seconds playing before reverting back. She doesn't play with people much, either. You just get short bursts out of her, and then it's back to her laying down or staring at the floor.  She seems perfectly happy about it, but it makes me sad for her (because it seems like she's missing out on fun), and our for lab, who could play forever. 

@Ms Hedgehog:  All I can really suggest is a trial if you're able. Most places get pretty particular about adopting out deaf dogs to the right people, so hopefully they'll work with you. Like I said, it really just depends on the dog and their personality + the disability. Some you would have no clue they were deaf unless someone told you. We just ended up with one of the crazy ones. :)

@Miss Apricot:  That was probably a good decision then, I can't imagine having my boy as a pup and having a baby... Actually, I can't imagine having any puppy (hearing or otherwise) when you have a baby... lol  We knew we were going to wait to have kids for a while so that wasn't even a concern... That said, our boy is super mellow and has no problems being woken up. :)

That said, moving won't disrupt a pup too much... deaf or not dogs seem to adjust really well to that type of thing.
 

@bree72:  haha I'm sorry, that makes me laugh because I can totally picture my dog zoning off into his own world... And just picturing your dog staring at the floor, you must get a kick out of her!! lol  I didn't mean that your pup wasn't socialized, just some dogs are more independant, but Blue is very dependent, on me or another dog it doesn't matter if he's only known the dog two seconds he would ditch me for a dog. lol I don't know much about setters, but could some of this be her breed as well?  I would think breeds and deafness could have different traits that tend to be more prominent.

@Ms Hedgehog:  What breed is the pup?  do you have a picture? :)

You sound like the perfect person for the job, I hope you adopt her!

@Ms Hedgehog:  We did teach Blue a "shh" sign so he knows when he's making noise and when he needs to be quiet... But generally he's a quiet dog.  I disagree that they don't know what they are doing whent hey bark though, they might not know that it makes a sound, but they know that they are doing something different so if you say "no" or "shh" then they should know to stop doing what they are doing... I think the breed in general tend to be a bit more vocal than other breeds though.