Xena's Two States of Consciousness

Usually the first question I get from people when I mention Xena is deaf is "how can you train her?". If not that, it's usually them wondering if she can bark (the answer is yes and very, very loudly when she desires). When I respond to the training question I tell them using hand signals and a specific hand signal in replacement of a clicker (will go into this in later blog posts) and tend to follow that response with the fact that I think our bigger challenge with training is the terrier in Xena versus her inability to hear.

Xena has two states of consciousness. Bouncing off the walls and sleeping. That's it. She shies away from any happy medium and just goes full throttle until her eyes can't stay open any longer. Evidence is to the left.

When she is firing on all cylinders it is nearly impossible to get her to focus thus my concerns with training. She is smart, sometimes too smart for her own good, but getting her to sit still to try to teach some commands is a challenge especially if the cats are nearby daunting her or she spots one of her favorite toys from the corner of her eyes. 

We have learned in her short time in our house that she is extremely food motivated which we hope to use to our advantage during her training. Unknowingly she does an action we want her to eventually do on command (stand on her hind legs) when she thinks you might have a treat for her. Even though she loves food she hasn't quite grasped that she needs to not be zooming around the person with food if she hopes to munch on the item.

Our first private session with a dog trainer is this coming Thursday so my boyfriend and I hope to kick start Xena's training, and keep you all posted, soon!