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Anyone care for a blind dog?


Rob PMFF
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My 5 year old shelter dog suddenly went blind about 2 weeks ago. S.A.R.D.S. It can't be predicted, prevented or corrected. Apparently its idiopathic and genetic...

 

Anyone ever had to care for a special needs dog before? Particularly a blind one?

 

What accommodations did you make? I'm interested to hear from anyone.

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My mom's dog went blind over a year ago. Dogs are so wonderfully resilient, he'll learn his was of orienting himself. Just try to maintain a familiar environment (furniture placement, clutter, etc) and maintain familiar routines. For the most part treat him the same as before and try not to pamper him too much (or he won't learn). Teach a few new verbal commands to help him out with obstacles like "step" or "jump" (that'll likely come naturally to you). And be aware of how he'll use his other senses to orient himself if he becomes "lost", such as feeling textures under his feet, or listening for sounds like a television, or smelling for his food bowl, etc.

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  • 1 month later...

My dog recently went blind in one eye.

 

One thing I had to change was not letting him offleash in crowds.

 

We went to the beach and he got disoriented and thought someone else was me and was chasing her down the beach.

 

He couldn't hear me yelling behind him! I had to chase him.

 

He's 13, but he can move when he wants to. I guess he panicked. Poor baby.

 

Not sure if you ever do that, but just a warning

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Our dog is losing some vision due to glaucoma. I also have a friend whose dog is totally blind. Not moving any furniture helps and I got some tips from www.blinddogs.net. My friend's dog kept wrecking into things so so she made her dog a collar equipped with "feelers" for lack of a better way of phrasing it. The plastic feelers hit the obstacle first and her dog has learned to slow down since using the collar. I hope this helps. Good luck with your dog.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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