Meave recently appears to have gone deaf. The main difference is that
she is now VERY LOUD. She never really responded
much to vocal interactions, so not much difference. Fortunately, she stays
indoors pretty much all the time now, so she won’t be in danger from any
cars. We’ll know how deaf she is when the fireworks
start … in the near future. ( 
)
Interesting; our Max was the opposite, at least when he became completely deaf. He almost never barked at all once that happened.
I found out when we took in a deaf rescue dogs that dog audiologists do not exist. If I knew that in college I would have created that field and made a mint.
Canine neurologists might take umbrage at the doggy audiologist down the street. 
We had a dog that went deaf. She had been anxious, but became much calmer after going deaf. She also seemed happier. We were wondering if she had sensory issues and sound was causing her stress in the same way it does for some people with autism. I suppose some dogs are always on alert for strange sounds anyway. Gotta let everyone know about the person walking on the sidewalk! If they can no longer hear sounds, they might not feel the need to be on alert all the time.
I recently saw this video of a deaf dog who thought the football referees were giving her hand signals:
That’s so precious and a little heartbreaking.
I had a client whose home I visited twice yearly for 20-25 years (I was a Piano Technician). She and her husband had an adorable long-hair dachsund, who got so old that she eventually went blind (and deaf IF memory serves). I’d watch her wander around the house and never would have thought she had either disability. She was the dog who caused me to love Doxies.
Fun coincidence: her name was Dixie.
My mom’s dog is largely deaf. He can’t seem to hear her voice at all any more, but he does seem to hear mine (presumably, his hearing loss started at the high-frequency end, much as it often does in humans). I do wonder: Does he just think that she isn’t talking to him any more? That might explain why his anxiety, always high, seems to have been increasing lately.
Hearing loss typically happens slowly over time. A dog would gradually get used to hearing fewer and fewer sounds over a long period of time. The loss of sound would be just one of those weird things that happens along with all the other weird things in the human world that they don’t understand, like lights, cars, and TV. If it was a sudden loss of hearing, then I might think they would have some immediate confusion as to why things aren’t making sounds like before. For instance, they might be confused as to why dog food falling into the bowl is now silent when yesterday it made lots of noise. But I would expect they would adapt very quickly and not think about it at all after a while.
Heh, once you go dachshund you never go back.
Former MiL had two; of 107 recognized dog breeds they were 106th in intelligence. The one would literally roll onto its back & pee, which meant it was peeing on itself.
I’ve known many dogs of other breeds who did the same thing.
Most of those dog intelligence tests are based on obedience behavior. Dachshunds are not obedient. They were bred to be independent thinkers, so when they’re down in the badger burrows they can figure out what to do on their own without instructions from the hunter. If you want them to do something that they don’t want to do, you have to make it worth their while or they won’t do it. I’ve lived with dachshunds all my life, and none of them were stupid.
The cat that I had when I was a kid went deaf when she was about 16 years old. We realized she was deaf when she stopped running away from the vacuum and doorbell. She didn’t get any louder but her "brother” did… he would meow louder and louder when he was looking for her. She lived to be 21 years old and it didn’t really slow her down any.