Norma – MO

Norma is a 5 month old blue heeler puppy looking for a loving forever home with a older children or adults only. Our original plan was a to get a dog that could help work our cows. After having Norma for a few days, we knew something was different about her. She didn’t seem to [...]

Norma – MO

Norma is a 5 month old blue heeler puppy looking for a loving forever home with a older children or adults only. Our original plan was a to get a dog that could help work our cows. After having Norma for a few days, we knew something was different about her. She didn’t seem to respond to any noises including our other dog barking. She would sleep with her face against her crate bars. When we mentioned this to the vet, they confirmed that it was highly likely she was deaf since her parents were a red heeler and a blue heeler. Norma also has a small piece of blue in her right eye. These things pointed to the fact that she was most likely completely deaf. At this time, we changed our training approach and did research on training a deaf puppy. We started using hand signals and a vibration collar to communicate with her. She is a very smart girl and picks up on things very quickly!

We continued to work with Norma over the past few months. She knows the hand signals for “come” and “sit”. As time went on, we suspected there was something even more unique about Norma. We suspect that Norma also has some visual issues as well. She usually responds to very dark things by alert barking until she realizes who/what the thing is. We have a black lab that she sees multiple times a day, but if we are more than 10 -15 feet from him, she alert barks like she doesn’t know who he is. This is the same for pretty much anything in the dark. She barks at trees, shadows, lights and plants in the dark. We do not have a canine ophthalmologist in the area, so we have not gotten confirmation on her visual issues.

I have talked enough about her limitations, now I would love to share her personality! Norma is such and adorable and fun puppy!!! She is so loyal, funny, smart and playful. Her favorite thing in the world is just being close to her people! She also loves playing with other dogs (but can tend to be pretty rough as she is still learning puppy etiquette). She will chase literally anything that moves (those heeler genes are strong). When you “call” for her to come to you, she comes full force running with a big grin on her face so excited that you would want her to come to you. She loves to find any and all sticks, wood, or other things to chew on. She loves to tear off and chew pieces of dog toys. She is getting very good at distinguishing between her toys and other random items in the house. Norma is mostly potty trained. She rarely has accidents in the house. She is used to being in her crate when we are not home and during the night. She does great in her crate during the day, but at night if she sees any shadows or movement, she barks until she knows who/what it is.

Our family absolutely loves Norma, but we have realized we do not have the time and experience to devote to her. We have three young boys at home and her instincts make her want to chase them and herd them. With her not being able to hear, it is very hard to stop her or call her back to you. She is always on a leash to prevent her from getting to the boys while they are playing. I would recommend that her future home does not have small children.
Please reach out if you have any questions at all as I would love to find the perfect home for this sweet girl.