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 […]
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 […]
Being a retriever, I could see that Radar wanted to play fetch but we needed to figure out a way for him to track the object after it was thrown. We started with a rope ball hoping it would have more scent and he could track it. That worked pretty well rolling it but Radar […]
Although this is not specifically related to being blind, it is an issue/stage that blind puppies can experience and present its own unique challenges. For the last few weeks, Radar has been more barky than usual. We started attending obedience class thinking it would help socialize him. While he barked a little less than last […]