Blind Dog Training

[chay]

Hello again lovely Postively-ers!

It's been a while since I've posted, my little Gypsy dog (7-ish year old PomXChi rescue) has been going swimmingly and settled into our family like she was never anywhere else. Our newest challenge is that she has been diagnosed with SARD (sudden acquired retinal degeneration) and so is quickly losing her vision, and will very soon be totally blind. We're obviously compltely cool with this but would love some advice/discussion from anyone with blind dogs as to how we can best ease her transition and help her get along when she's settled as a fully blind dog.

We understand the basics such as not moving furniture, calling to her when approaching before touching etc, but i'd love some more in depth advice on some more specific things, namely:

- the info pack we got from the vet said to use scented oils to mark corners / walls to help her find her way around in the early days. My gut tells me this is not actually a great idea - surely she already can tell which room is which by the smell of the room, surely oils would only overwhelm her already over-working nose?

- carrying / picking her up: i've read conflicting things about picking up dogs that are blind (some say don't do this as it causes them to lose their orientation - others say this can be okay if you pick them up and put them in a 'home base' from which they can find their way). is there a right/wrong way to do this or is it down to the dog?

- helping her when sh'es lost: the accoustics of our house are proving problematic for the little one, if we call to her the sound seems to bounce off the walls causing her to look/run in the opposite direction of where we actually are! even when we walk right up to her and try to guide her with our hands she tries to run in the opposite direction. how can we help her find us by sound/touch and how do we break her out of the frantic circles when she gets lost or can't find us? is it best to keep standing next to her or to continue on our way and let her realise that we're not there so she goes looking elsewhere?

- walks - we've been told to walk her the same route every day so she gets to know the route by feel instead of sight, however she is still hugely freaked out whenever outside and simpy puts the brakes on and won't budge. I've been carrying her to a quiet enclosed laneway where she seems to feel more comfortable and will happily weave her way down the middle but knows there's walls on either side to sort of 'guide' her, which seems to work well for her. am i right that this is just a 'go-at-her-pace' thing and to keep checking if she wants to walk the normal route, and if not go to the quieter place?

- outings other than walks - Gypsy used to regularly come with us to our local pub and hang out with us in the beer garden. Is this something we could reintroduce to her in time, and if so how would we go about it in a way that is least overwhelming?

sorry for the mammoth post! any and all advice is very welcome. we're fully confident that she'll adjust in time but we just want to make it as easy and less stressful for her as we can in the meantime. thanks!

[CarolineLovesDogs]

I could answer some of these questions but only with what I THINK, I don't have any experience with this. But I just want to wish you guys luck and commend you for your positive attitude and the way you want all the advice you can get to make your dog's transition easier and take the best care of her! You're doing a great thing!

[Sweetie's Human]

- carrying / picking her up: i've read conflicting things about picking up dogs that are blind (some say don't do this as it causes them to lose their orientation - others say this can be okay if you pick them up and put them in a 'home base' from which they can find their way). is there a right/wrong way to do this or is it down to the dog?

- helping her when sh'es lost: the accoustics of our house are proving problematic for the little one, if we call to her the sound seems to bounce off the walls causing her to look/run in the opposite direction of where we actually are! even when we walk right up to her and try to guide her with our hands she tries to run in the opposite direction. how can we help her find us by sound/touch and how do we break her out of the frantic circles when she gets lost or can't find us? is it best to keep standing next to her or to continue on our way and let her realise that we're not there so she goes looking elsewhere?

Good on you for thinking about these things. I also don't have much helpful info, as we are in a similar situation (maybe not quite as far along as you guys tough), and I wonder about some of these things myself. Sweetie's sight was rubbish when we got her and has deteriorated more in the last few months.

On the first of the two points I've quoted above, I would imagine it depends on the dog, their level of vision loss and knowledge of their environment. I think you yourself would be best placed to answer that question for your dog.

On the second point, I'll be very interested to read the responses you get as you've described exactly what happens with our girl. We call out to her, we can tell she hears us, but she seems to have no idea which direction the sound is coming from. It's heartbreaking when she trots off in the opposite direction, desperately trying to find us. If we can get ourselves right next to her, she's OK, but that's not always possible.

- walks - we've been told to walk her the same route every day so she gets to know the route by feel instead of sight, however she is still hugely freaked out whenever outside and simpy puts the brakes on and won't budge. I've been carrying her to a quiet enclosed laneway where she seems to feel more comfortable and will happily weave her way down the middle but knows there's walls on either side to sort of 'guide' her, which seems to work well for her. am i right that this is just a 'go-at-her-pace' thing and to keep checking if she wants to walk the normal route, and if not go to the quieter place?

This is a tough one because IMO half the reason dogs need a walk is for the different smells and for this reason varying the route is a good idea. However with a blind dog it's not going to be as straight forward as that. I often walk Sweetie from my mother's house when we're visiting and she loves it. On Saturday we went in a different direction, which she was happy with, until we reached the little set of 12 or so shops nearby. She FREAKED out and I had to carry her a little way.

I imagine that when Sweetie's completely lost her sight we'll be limited to just a few familiar routes, or a trip to the park.

What happens with your girl at the end of the laneway she's comfortable with? Is it possible to continue on from there, maybe with a few treats as encouragement?

I do agree that losing her sight needn't mean her life changes completely, and I think you sound like you're giving it enough thought to be able to give her a nice life once her sight does go entirely.

[Nettle]

the info pack we got from the vet said to use scented oils to mark corners / walls to help her find her way around in the early days. My gut tells me this is not actually a great idea - surely she already can tell which room is which by the smell of the room, surely oils would only overwhelm her already over-working nose?

IMO your gut is correct. I wouldn't do that either. In any case, scented oils are volatile and won't stay in the room but instead perfuse the whole house.

I have seen long runner mats of different textures used to help the dog go across each room to the doorway.
I know of dogs trained to respond to 'careful' when out walking, so they know they are facing an obstacle.
And I do suggest to people that they (not their dog) wear a tiny bell e.g. a budgie toy attached to their coat so the dog can hear where they are.
You can have more than one familiar walk. Dogs' scenting powers are so awesome they know where they are just by smelling the scenery.

[WufWuf]

I would wonder if tapping your foot on the ground might be more effective for helping the dog locate you than calling them would be? I'd teach it first by dropping a smelly treat on the ground and then tapping my foot gently when they locate it. You'd need to start this your dog close to you and build up the distance gradually.

It would probably depend on what type of flooring you have as to whether or not this would work for you as obviously it's not going to work on thick carpet.

[chay]

Hello all, thanks so much for your replies and apologies for my tardy response! With a few more weeks under our belt I feel we've got a better sense for how Gypsy is progressing and have had a chance to incorporate some strategies and can report back with our progress.

CarolineLovesDogs: thank you so much for your lovely thoughts! We are thoroughly a dog-centric family so it wasn't even a factor for us going into this other than to do it with G-dog's best quality of life in mind. It's an adjustment for sure, but one that we just want to get right for her sake!

Sweetie's Human: thank you and best of luck for your own little blind-dog journey too! A few weeks on and I have to admit Gypsy's in-house location skills are not getting better very quickly - she is still just as quck to trot off in completely the opposite direction even when we're standing right next to her! We've taken to just taking it as it comes - sometimes we give her quite a lot of leeway to get 'lost' in the wrong direction then throw a party when she finally makes it to the right end of the house. However if we can see she's getting distressed (rather than just 'bumping' around finding her way sort of thing, even if it is the "wrong" direction we are in) we have found that she actually reacts best to just being 'rescued' and picked up, taken to where we are sitting and being able to chill out knowing that we're right there. It's hard to explain and I thinkyou're right in that we just need to read our dogs, but the more I'm getting on with interacting with her blind the more I'm feeling like picking her up and taking her with us si actually the right thing to do (for us) oftentimes because she is so connected to knowing what we're doign/where we are all the time, if that makes sense? Best of luck for you and your lovely girl finding your way(s) too!

Nettle: Ah fantastic, thank you for your insight - I've stuck with my gut for most of this and it all seems to be working out for us, non-essential-oils included! We have started with repurposing our old original "uh-UH" interupter / stop-what-you're-doing signal into what is basically becomign the "careful" sign - whatever she's doing she stops it and waits for further instruction (i.e. what used to be a "hey, don't you take another bite of that cooked chicken bone!" is now usefully a "hey, don't take another step or you're going to go ***-over off the edge of the couch!")

WufWuf: GREAT idea - and I have started this with more of a 'sledgehammer' approach - tapping my foot wasnt working so we literally get down on the floor and noisily scratch the carpet until she wanders her way towards us, where she's finally rewarded for finding us with a treat. The carpet's not thick but she just honestly seems so confused by the bouncing of sounds off our weird accousitics that it's only getting down on the floor and scratchign like a maniac that seems to make any sort of pinpoint-able noise enough for her to locate it. slowly but surely!

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Just in general I also wanted to report that we had our first walk this morning where Gypsy actually walked by herself for a part of the way, which I was so thrilled about. Up until now she has still be extremely overwhelmed with the idea and will just plant her bum on the ground and refuse to move for love or chicken. I've been carrying her around the block in my arms just as a way to get her oustside and at least sniffing some different sniffs, but today was the first day she actually wanted to walk by herself and took a very careful path between the laneway wall on her one side, and me making sure to keep my leg RIGHT next to her head so that any time she turned towards me, she literally could not help but realise I was right there next to her. We made it all the way to the end of the laneway before she opted out (butt-plant, non responsive to "come" calls or treats) and I carried her the rest of the way home - so I'm thrilled that we've made that progress!!

One of the other things I wanted to sort of mention and wonder if any other blind-dog families had experience with, is her total abandonment of her toys - Gypsy has an assortment of small plush/toy type teddies that she sometimes favors over others but since losing her sight she has completely abandoned all of them, even her most favourite friend a plush Gromit (of Wallace & Gromit fame) that is actually bigger than her entire body mass but that she loves carrying around in an awkward sort of BFF/comfort blanket sort of style. I've tried both presenting her toys to her deliberately (no interest) or just leaving them strategically around sort of in her bed or in her favorite beanbag but she just literally acts as if she doens't even register their existance. I wonder if this will change as she gets more comfortable in her surroundings and so has "extra" attention to pay to other things (rather than literally spending all her energy on just orienting herself in the space) or if she just won't have the time/energy to play with her friends any more?

ANYWAY~! Thanks again everyone for your insight and ideas. I'll check back as much as I can and try give a bit of an update on how we're going - take care everyone!

[Erica]

With the difficulties you're talking about re: orienting herself/locating y'all, I wonder if she can hear properly or if she might be going deaf or be deaf/hard of hearing in one ear? You might want to ask your vet about the possibility.