I adopted ( Rio ) now Eccho, from Protected preloved border collies after getting to know another deaf dog Summer and helping her owner with training her with hand signals,
I asked to adopt a deaf dog, and was told about Eccho who was actually deaf and partially sighted, this is due to his breeding his parents were both Merle collies and this is the result of double Merle breeding,
I thought long and hard about this and decided I would give him a months trial to see how we got along,
After one day I was smitten with him, hes adorable,
After a week, there was no way he was going back, we are inseparable,
We trained using hand signals and he learned lots of tricks, from the simple things like sit, paw, lie down, up to more complicated things like wipe your paws, leg weaves, take a bow, and also fun things like say your prayers, peek a boo, put your toys away, stick em up ( as in the picture ) and more,
But he then started to bump into things, so a trip to the vets and we discovered his sight in his good eye was deteriorating, we didn't give up our training we started touch training and hes soon picked this up, in one weekend he learned sit, both paws, and lie down,
His best friend is my sons dog Betsy another rescue dog who he sees every day as we own a doggy daycare,
He's had lots of issues but we have overcome them together,
he comes to work with me every day does trick training twice a week and also goes to a doggy swim centre weekly.
So hes a tribute to all disabled dogs, they can live a full life if you just give them a chance.
Eccho has his own facebook page and lots of followers, hes not even one year old yet and has had a lot to contend with, but hes now in a forever home and will stay with us forever no matter what.
OLDHAM, United Kingdom
