How do I get my deaf dog's attention?

I have a Springer Spaniel called Molly who is coming up to 12 years old. I've had her for nearly five years. Over the last few months I have noticed that she can no longer hear the doorbell or people entering the house. Due to other health issues, which she takes medication for, she is on a special diet to control her weight.

Because of this weight issue, I have been told by the nurse at the vet's to keep her active, which I have been able to do for the last five years. But unfortunately it is now getting harder to let her off to play with her ball and run around due to her losing her hearing. The vet agrees that her hearing has nearly gone, if not completely gone.

I am teaching her hand signals and she now knows how to come back, but the problem is getting her attention when she is looking away from me. I'm considering a vibrating collar to get her attention, so that I can give her a hand signal to come back when she turns to look at me. Because of the lack of proper exercise due to her deafness, she is slowly putting the weight back on. This worries me as she has hip and leg problems, so she can't afford to pile the pounds back on.

What also concerns me is that every collar I've seen with a remote vibration setting also has a shock setting. I am completely anti shock-collar and I need one with just the vibration. The only one I ve seen is totally out of my price range - does anyone else have other recommendations?

Molly hasn't had a very good seven years prior to me having her, and it's great that she has a new lease of life. But this deafness is now affecting her life.

Please, please can you help with some advice, as I also worry about Molly's safety.

Tracey Topham and Molly Moo, by email

I wonder whether the collars with both remote vibration setting and shock setting can be used on vibration only. Then you would not have to use the shock setting.

It is so sad when a dog goes deaf. When my dear Border Collie Nan began to lose her hearing, I found it really upsetting that she might think I was no longer talking to her. There are of course other ways of showing how we care for our canine friends, and for the dog it must simply seem that the world is going quieter until it is a silent place. They do not, I hope, appreciate that the noisy world is ongoing as a human going deaf would.

For any dog going deaf, their safety is of paramount importance. We all know how deaf a dog with normal hearing can be when in pursuit of a rabbit, for example, and may have no regard for a danger which is fast approaching. With Nan, she did train up to hand signals when I realised that her hearing was failing but, as you say, they only work when the dog happens to be looking in your direction. Eventually, I did have to resort to an extending lead – I really dislike these leads with their clonky handles, but they are invaluable in those instances where you cannot let your dog off the lead for whatever reason but they still need exercise.

Molly’s weight problem is my major concern. To my repertoire of questions for owners of overweight dogs, I have recently added “… and is that hour’s exercise on or off the lead?” This is because an owner proudly told me last week that his overweight dog went for two hour-long walks every day. I could not understand why the weight reduction diet was not working (unless the owner was not admitting to titbits and other food sources) until the owner let slip that all the exercise was on the lead. There is a world of difference in energy output between an hour’s exercise off the lead (which for an overweight dog is realistically no more than a trot) and a plod at your owner’s walking pace, if not lagging behind. I am also an advocate of short frequent walks during the day for older dogs rather than a single long walk.

This is where an extending lead could really help you because Molly can feel as if she has freedom to explore but she would have the security of being on a lead still, and you would know that she was safe.

Depending on Molly’s other health problems and the medication she needs for them, it should be possible to keep her at a healthy weight but it will need constant vigilance on your part. Use your vet practice’s weight clinic – the nurse is running it to help you keep Molly at her ideal body condition, by taking into account the limitations on exercise because of her deafness and orthopaedic problems. As you quite rightly say, with her hip and leg problems she does not need to be carrying more weight than necessary.

Alison Logan, vet