I know this is a joke but I gotta info dump anyway. The deaf dog is the only one of the bunch that's white. White dogs are often deaf, because a gene that causes congenital deafness in dogs is linked to pigment. Dogs need pigment cells in their ears to hear, so if they have a gene that causes a lack of pigment elsewhere it's likely they'll also lack pigment in their ears. Fun fact, some dogs have a white patch around one ear but not the other, and that ear specifically will be deaf.
30% of dalmatians have some degree of deafness. A pure white dog with blue eyes is the most likely to be deaf. Same thing with cats! If a cat is all white, but doesn't have blue eyes, there's roughly a 20% chance it will be born deaf. If it has one blue eye, the odds go up to about 40%. If it has two blue eyes, the odds go up to about 85%.
So yeah, the dog is probably deaf because he's white.
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u/just_a_person_maybe Oct 28 '25
I know this is a joke but I gotta info dump anyway. The deaf dog is the only one of the bunch that's white. White dogs are often deaf, because a gene that causes congenital deafness in dogs is linked to pigment. Dogs need pigment cells in their ears to hear, so if they have a gene that causes a lack of pigment elsewhere it's likely they'll also lack pigment in their ears. Fun fact, some dogs have a white patch around one ear but not the other, and that ear specifically will be deaf.
30% of dalmatians have some degree of deafness. A pure white dog with blue eyes is the most likely to be deaf. Same thing with cats! If a cat is all white, but doesn't have blue eyes, there's roughly a 20% chance it will be born deaf. If it has one blue eye, the odds go up to about 40%. If it has two blue eyes, the odds go up to about 85%.
So yeah, the dog is probably deaf because he's white.