Our newest dog Stevie is blind. He and his two sisters were dumped at the county shelter at five weeks old because they were all blind. Probably the result of inbreeding. His gray color is somewhat rare and coveted among pit bull owners, and someone was probably breeding dogs they shouldn’t have been to make a buck off that gray color.
In spite of his disability, he’s an amazingly confident and well adjusted dog. He walks on leash. He plays at the dog park. He loves a good chew toy. He can find a warm spot on the couch all by himself. Occasionally he bumps into stuff, but all in all, it’s a pretty normal canine existence.
That said there have still been a few challenges. Initially he would chew anything that was in front of him. It could be a toy, but it could just as easily be the coffee table or a shoe. That problem was pretty easy to solve with a firm “No,” followed by handing him an appropriate chew toy, and rewarding him for taking it.
A more difficult challenge was walking on the leash. When we tried to walk him outside the house, he was very reluctant to follow and held back on leash. As a 20 pound puppy, it sometimes just seemed like it would be easier to carry him. But 20 pounds quickly became 30 pounds, and 30 pounds became 40.
To encourage him to follow, I filled a plastic container with kibble and shook it. After getting his attention, I would give him a piece of kibble. Once he got to know the sound of the kibble, he was pretty eager to follow the noise. I just hooked him up to the leash and headed out. Over time, he just started to follow.
Now he’s so confident on leash that he likes to get to the end of the leash and navigate around me in a big circle. Probably a signal that we need to start working on heal.
The other issue was stairs. He got the grasp of our doggy door quickly, but the back steps at our house proved a big barrier to house training. That too just took a lot of coaxing with kibble and physically helping him to see that the drop off wasn’t the massive chasm that it appeared. He’s still not always sure about stairs he doesn’t know, but he’s getting there.
He does have the come command down. Here’s a video of us at the park today:
If you want to find out more about blind dogs, there’s an informative site over at blinddogs.com.
Jenny and Brian – Julia and I were so sorry to hear about Boo….we fell in love with him when we first met him in NY. We hope he is running around enjoying himself in doggie heaven. KC and Julia
Boo was (is) such a beautiful wonderful creature. The first time I saw this stocky brown gargoyle pig with a huge head he smiled at me. I was instantly smitten. He was a constant during a period in my life that seemed to change locations and jobs every year. He put up with 7 house moves and 2 car trips across the country. He loved adventure and I think going new places and meeting new people for him were worth the times he got carsick.
He was so full of life for so long it has been hard to see him as the shell of the dog he used to be not that long ago. The last year he lost coordination in his back legs and with that the abilities that brought him joy in life like running and hiking or lounging around the backyard on a sunny day. Simply getting up was no longer a guarantee for him and I would have given anything to allow him more time doing the things he loved.
It feels as though his spirit is always with me but I miss seeing him and holding him. He will always be my first and I am sad that we will never sleep next to each other again he inside arm and chest. We have 5 more wonderful dogs at home now but it does not lessen the sting of realization at seeing Boo’s bed stacked in the corner or the empty spot on the bedroom floor where it used to lay.
I hope he knew how much I loved him and that the decision to euthanize him was a difficult one that we grappled with long before we were really faced with doing anything about it. We promised him that he would never suffer unnecessarily.
In my selfishness I wonder what another day, week, or month with him would have cost us. Cleaning up after him and carrying him around the house seem like such a small price to pay to spend time with one that I loved for so long. Then I remember how peaceful his last vet visit was and know we did the right thing.