Any Hope for Training a Deaf Older Dog?

Hello, all,

I have a 9 year old, deaf albino chihuahua/dachshund mix. He has trouble seeing from a distance but is fine up close. My parents owned him his whole life and they have trained a lot of unwanted behaviors or rather he has never been trained in any way.

He is very antisocial and only likes my parents, me, and three other close family members. He dislikes children especially because when he was a puppy they always would touch his face or wouldn’t back off when he needed it. So now he doesn’t tolerate them well at all. He has never bitten anyone on purpose but he will snap if you catch him in a bad mood.

He also does not like most dog food or treats because he has been fed from the table (despite my many protests over the years) his whole life.

In a lot of ways, I know I have left him down. He is a very happy dog so I cannot say that he is living a bad life. I just want a lot better for him. He is intelligent, and has a lot of attitude. I love him very dearly.

In particular, the older he gets the worse trouble he seems to have with resource guarding and tolerating other people, and I would like to help him with these issues.

I know the odds are stacked against us in a lot of ways, and I have tried to train him in the past several times without much results. I think I’m just a little overwhelmed with how to go about it given his particular situation.

So is there any hope of training out some of these unwanted behaviors? Or even just starting to train more good ones with a dog that is deaf, older, and not motivated by treats?

Any advice or thoughts are appreciated. Thank you all for your time!