Deaf Dog Responds to Sign Language Communication

It was a match made at the dog pound, but seldom has a dog found a more suitable home.

Juliette is a deaf Dalmatian. Everyone in the Eisenman family can hear, but they all know American Sign Language. Now that includes their dog, who was taught to respond to nearly 30 signs. And it happened almost by accident.

When the Eisenmans went to the animal shelter and came back with Juliette--then about 9 months old--they were apprehensive about how to control the rambunctious pet, who had already gone through several owners.

“When we first got her, she really was unmanageable,” Jody Eisenman said.

Then the Eisenman boys, J.J., now 9, and Aaron, 7, taught their pet ASL.

Jody Eisenman learned sign language preparing for her career working with developmentally disabled people. Her husband, Michael, a computer programmer, learned sign language from her while they were dating in order to expand his linguistic skills.

Their children learned ASL too, so maybe it was inevitable the youngsters would try it out on Juliette, now 4. Besides, they had found conventional obedience training was limited.

“We wanted to have her function in the home as a family pet more than teach her tricks,” Jody Eisenman said.

The boys began with the ASL sign to sit--two fingers placed in a chair position over the other hand.

With repetition, and a gentle downward push on the dog’s haunches, Juliette learned to sit simply upon seeing the sign.

The dog has since learned nearly 30 other signs--induced by dog biscuits when necessary.

Now when someone makes the sign for “out,” Juliette heads to the door. When they sign “Where’s your bone?” she looks for her bone.

To “I love you,” the dog snuggles her head against the signer.

Experts say many deaf people use sign language with their pets.

And Terry Ryan, a dog obedience trainer in Pullman who has written books on the subject, said she wasn’t surprised to learn of Juliette, because hearing dogs learn standard obedience commands primarily by relying on visual cues.

“Dogs are nonverbal communicators,” Ryan said. “They communicate with body language.”

Juliette’s ability became public when the dog and the Eisenmans attended a Spokane clinic in December that tested dogs with suspected hearing problems.

When the experts saw the Eisenman boys signing and the dog’s response, they were awe-struck.

“Dr. (Jeff) Watkins and I just looked at each other in disbelief when this child started signing to the dog, and she understood completely,” said Michael Moore, an associate professor of veterinary medicine and surgery at Washington State University. He ran the free one-day clinic with Watkins, a local veterinarian.

“I was amazed,” Moore said. “But then I asked myself, ‘Why not? Why can’t a dog learn to understand sign language?’ ”

The Eisenmans proved that owners need not give up on deaf pets, Moore said.

Juliette’s deafness is relatively common in Dalmatians because of inbreeding.

The typical reaction to the birth of such dogs, Moore said, is “ ‘Poor Fido is deaf, we’ll have to put him to sleep.’ That’s just not true. You can teach the dog.”

Allen Gardner, an expert in animal communications at the University of Nevada-Reno, said that he needed to see the dog in action to know whether it really understands American Sign Language.

Animals sometimes seem to understand signing but may be responding to other visual signals, such as facial expressions, he said.

However, scientists have long known that dogs respond to both verbal and visual signals, Gardner said. And many deaf people communicate with pet dogs by signing.