Blind from birth puppies and dogs present a different and little discussed or explored topic in training, socializing and living. Blindness is often associated with age or disease and results in a formerly sighted dogs adjustment to a blind world. This blog focuses on the training, socializing and life of a blind from birth Chesapeake Bay Retriever. The puppy was acquired at the age of 5 months with little socialization or training.
Blind dogs are amazing at mapping out their space but no matter how good they are, poles and posts are often a problem. I am not sure why but I suspect because they do not have a very large diameter and so are hard to lose track of in the grand scheme of things. I […]
Radar happens to be tactile and depends a lot on his paws for finding his way. Although he knows the layout of my house and yard quite well, I use different textures to help reinforce his mind map. Indoor Textures I have all hardwood and tile floors in my house. This enables me to use […]
Living with two dogs that suffer from anxiety, one who is also extremely noise sensitive, I decided it would be best to have them spend the roofing days at daycare. Radar, the blind dog, I would just keep with me as noise doesn’t bother him as much and he travels well. I had purchased all […]
In mid May, I was leaving on a trip for a week and had a dogsitter come and stay with my dogs. I was departing early in the morning and my dogsitter spent the night to become more acquainted with the dogs. I decided to change the sheets on my bed and have her sleep […]
When we got Radar, he was 5 months old and did not know even basic commands. I struggled to find basic commands for a blind puppy. I could only find commands for dogs that had gone blind, none for dogs that were blind from birth. So I had to figure out what commands to use […]
Radar was born blind so immediately we assumed his nose skills would be excellent – not so. Yes, he could smell something or someone in the room or area but he could not find the object with his nose. I referred to Radar’s nose as being global but not targeted. He needed nosework; he needed […]