Quote:The energetic young “pit bull”-mix loves to play and loves the attention of her owner, Angi Holt-Parks, who lives in the Point Place neighborhood of Toledo.
But Rudi has a disability: She’s deaf. Ms. Holt-Parks and her husband, Don, are learning American Sign Language — the same used by and with deaf people — and teaching it to the dog to communicate with her.
So far, she has learned the hand signals for “potty,” “no,” “good girl,” “love,” and “sit,” she said.
The couple adopted the dog from the Lucas County dog warden, where Ms. Holt-Parks is a volunteer. “After working with her and walking her, I saw she had a lot of potential,” she said. “She just wasn’t given the chance by anybody because she was deaf. She kept getting looked over. I was constantly thinking about her and even did some research online about deaf dogs and sign language before I got her.”
This woman has such wonderful patience. I don't know of many people who would work so hard to care for a dog like this. And, I'm glad to see pits in a positive light in the media - such a surprise!
I love this story, cmdr-apollo, thanks so much for Posting it!
Puts me to mind of Koko, the gorilla that learned ASL & has been documented & reported on many occasions. This is fascinating & this dog has a full life now! As you said, what patience of this woman; more than most people have, but good for her ! Many would have given up on this dog, sadly, so this is a wonderful story of a Ms. Holt-Parks' love for dogs!
02-21-2014, 01:30 PM, (This post was last modified: 02-21-2014, 01:36 PM by emilyrose93.)
This is so clever! I think dogs are a lot smarter than some people give them credit for. One thing that fascinates me is Epilepsy Assistance Dogs - sometimes they can apparently detect the seizure before it even happens! You know, I love my cats, but I'm not sure they'd be able to do that for me. Even being able to hear, cats will not sit just because you ask nicely!
Re: Koko the Gorilla, she is actually still alive and well at age 45 now! Isnt that amazing? Apparently she is living in California still.
I also have a deaf rescue dog, an Australian Shepherd. She's considered a "lethal white" which I think is a pretty horrible name for something so sweet and loving and smart. She's deaf because she was a result of breeding two aussies of the blue merle coloring that sometimes results in an all white dog. Often these all white dogs are blind, deaf or both. Luckily she's just blind, but otherwise completely healthy and happy. A lot of puppies in her position would have been put down as a baby because they aren't easily sold.
I try to tell people about how awesome and normal she is all of the time so that others will be okay with adopting deaf rescues. Because, unfortunately, a lot of them are euthanized, even as puppies by breeders.
