white dog lazy ear

Question
Hi,
I have a small problem with my 11 month old jack Russell, he is almost completely white except of small patch on tail and eye, he seems to only use one ear? an example would be if the door bell goes he'll look around confused then race to the door and prick up his right ear left one he seems to think he doesn't need or could just be lazy with it. I'm a little concerned because i know the odds aren't in favor of him having perfect hearing. should i bother a vet with this or could it be a problem i shouldn't ignore?

Thanks for your time,
Andrea

Answer

Hi Andrea,

If your dog has hearing loss in one ear, but he's able to hear out of the other, you wouldn't be able to test for deafness at home, since a simple test would be to make a sound when your dog isn't facing you, and watch for the dog's reaction to the sound. There is a test that your vet could run, called the "BAER test", which stand for Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response.

You may just want to have him tested, just for your own peace of mind. Even a stone deaf dog can learn commands if taught correctly, and still be a great pet.  To your dog, who may have been this way since birth, his hearing is "normal", since it's the only way he knows. Maybe work on using visual cues (which could be followed even from a distance) into your training. Here is some info on training a deaf dog:

http://www.positivedogtraining.org/article/training-a-deaf-dog

http://www.associationofanimalbehaviorprofessionals.com/training_the_deaf_dog.ht...


I hope this helps.
Best of luck,

Patti