Caring for a Blind Dog

We have a dog that is almost completely blind, and another dog that is blind in one eye. Our 3 year old Cocker Spaniel started going blind when he was 2, and our Chihuahua had a bad eye when we rescued him off of the streets. Maybe he was abandoned because of the bad eye.

Tiger, the Cocker Spaniel, does very well even though he can hardly see. But that seems to be how it is with blind dogs. As long as you don’t move the furniture or take them to strange places, they do fine.

When we are out in the backyard with Tiger we have to be careful or he will run into us going full-speed. We also have to be careful that we don’t leave the pool gate open. He has run into that a time or two because he didn’t expect it to be in his way.

He actually does better inside, probably because he walks instead of runs.

The biggest problem we have is he gets startled once in awhile by one of the cats of one of the other dogs. When he is startled he tends to snap at the animal as if the animal was attacking him. But otherwise, Tiger is a great dog and is doing fine even though he is nearly blind.

My mom has experience caring for a blind dog. Her West Highland Terrier mix, Maria, went completely blind when she was about eleven years old. For the next five years Maria lived in total darkness. She had a couple of close calls, but most of the time she did fine even though she couldn’t see.

My mom learned not to rearrange any furniture and to be very careful to watch Maria whenever Maria visited a strange home. One time my parents took Maria on a trip with them. The home they stayed in had stairs, and when my mom turned her back Maria toppled off the staircase to the ground four feet below. Thankfully, Maria was okay.

Another time my mom accidentally left the garage door open when she went out on errands. When she got home, Maria was wondering down the middle of the street trying to find her way home. Maria had gone out the doggie door, somehow wandered out the garage, and of course, being blind, had no idea how to get back into the garage.

But Maria lived to be 16 and died peacefully one night in her sleep. My mom thought the world of Maria, who had been adopted from a shelter 14 years earlier. The previous owners brought Maria to the shelter because she was a digger. They missed out on a terrific dog because they wouldn’t put up with a few tiny holes in their backyard (that’s what my mom says).

A few weeks ago we had a blind pug at our home for one night before he was picked up and taken to the pug rescue. His family didn’t have the time to give him the care he needed so they had called the pug rescue and we went and picked him up.

My mom got very little sleep that night he spent with us. He wanted desparately to get up on the bed, but she was afraid he would fall off the edge. And since he wasn’t ours, she didn’t want to be responsible for injuring a pug that was going to the rescue. Finally, at about 3:00a.m. he figured out how to use the doggie steps and got up into bed.

Rather than wandering around and falling off the bed, as my mom had feared he would, he laid down next to her and slept soundly the rest of the night. The poor thing was exhuasted. It must have been kind of frightening being in a strange house and he felt safe next to my mom.

Blind dogs aren’t stupid. They can figure things out very fast. Once they know the layout of the house, and where the doggie door is and how to use it, they can get along fine.

If you have a pool, that will have to be fenced to make sure no accidents happen (especially while you are away from home). Other dogs can be trained to swim for the steps, but a blind dog would have a lot of trouble figuring out where the steps are.

Besides that, keep the house uncluttered. Make plenty of room for the dog to walk around without bumping into furniture or toys. If the dog is desparate to always be with you, make sure he knows where you are.

Caring for a blind dog requires a little extra care, a little extra patience, and a little extra planning, but a blind dog is just as precious and loving as any seeing dog.