Callie’s original owners bought her from a breeder when she was a puppy; as she was growing, they began to suspect that she was deaf and took her for testing, which confirmed that she couldn’t hear.  When she was 7 months old, they decided they could not handle her and took her to a shelter; the call came to GSRNE, asking if we could help this pup.  She’s active, alert, playful, intelligent, and we were sure she would learn to respond to hand signals and could have a full and happy life.  A trainer at the shelter started working with her, with hand signals, and determined that this was going to work

Our Training Coordinator, Mary Farren, took Callie in and continued working with her; and Callie has, indeed, learned to respond to hand signals.  She was also trained with a vibration collar in order to get her attention so she would look to her person for a signal.

We moved Callie to an experienced foster home where there is a female Min-pin/mix and two cats, hoping that the older female would accept Callie, who was still a youngster.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.  The older dog has been a wonderful “big sister” to several male GSDs over the years, but she seemed quite put out that we would ask her to allow another female in her domain. We did learn, though, that while Callie understood the purpose of the vibration collar, she would sometimes ignore it when she was having too much fun to stop and look for a cue.

We moved Callie to a boarding kennel where we knew she would have daily opportunities for exercise in a play area and an opportunity to continue her training with their professional trainer.  That worked out so well that the trainer asked if he would be allowed to foster Callie in his home to find out how she would get along with his male German Shepherd and his two children.  She has been doing very well, and we’re hoping that this might lead to her adoption, as the trainer has been hoping it would.