Hi

[mydogisblind]

Hey, I'm new here and I am trying to just cool down & chat about dogs of course. So if ytou like to talk about Male German Shepards & stuff just reply to this. I also need help My dog is blind. What should I do? [i][IMG][/IMG]

[Pugdawg1]

Hello there and welcome aboard. I've known some blind dogs. I know of one pug in particular that has no eyes at all. He gets along fine, knows the various smells around their home, they put different smells on different furniture, that helped him. He has his favorite toys, has licking contests with the other pugs they have, goes out to sun himself (there was this one picture, I swear it's a classic) - he's on a garden chair, facing the back. Looks odd and funny, but for him, the view is all the same. Did your dog just recently become blind? What happened?

[Lil'Paws]

Welcome aboard. Glad to have you. How old is your dog?
btw, I love you signature...

[minpinsrock]

Welcome to Gp. Im happy your here! Its a great forum.

[flyndog]

Hi!
How did your dog lose his sight?
Kit

[PitBullie09]

Welcome to the Global Paw.

[sheltiepups]

welcome to the forum!

[oc_spirit]

Hello and welcome!!!! Blind dogs can get along fine in life and their quality of life is not hindered at all with a little help from humans...

First off you must find a way you like all the furniture in your home arranged and stick to it, no more rearranging the furniture because your dog will have a mental map of your house and if furniture is being changed places and such then this could stress him out as he'd be constantly running into things.

Make sure his whiskers are never shaved, some groomers shave a dog's whickers off because it "Looks cleaner" but a dog, especially a blind dog, needs his whiskers to feel for something before he runs into it.

A very handy thing to do that your blind dog will love you for is to use "scent markers". Choose as many different extracts as you can put up with. Common ones are cinnamon, peppermint, lemon, apple, etc. Choose one scent and mark all his toys with it, this way he can find them even if they're not in their usual spot and you can play fetch with him too! Another will mark where his food and water bowl are, this way if you're on vacation somewhere with him you can mark the bowls with the scent and even though he's somewhere new he can find his food and water without a problem. Another scent is for the bottom of stairs and a different one for the top of stairs. This way he can locate where the stair case is from the bottom, and from the top if he's playing and he catches the scent of the top of the stairs he knows to be careful so he doesn't fall down the steps. Another good one is to mark each entrance/exit of the house so he can locate them easily if he needs to ask to go out. You could even go on to mark which furniture he's allowed up on if he's not allowed on some of them. Use your imagination and look at your house from his perspective. If there's anything you think he'd need his eyes to locate then scent it. In the end it'll be like colour coding peppermint for toys, lemon for the top of the stairs, apple for the bottom, cinnamon for the doors etc. It's good to "update" the scents about every 1-2 weeks depending how often you clean your house.

Cheers!

[LabLuver22]

Another thing you can do is teach your dog verbal cues such as, "Watch it," "Stop," "Step up," and, "Step down," so you can alert him of obstacles.

[flyndog]

Toys can be marked with sound, too. Watch out for sensory overload with too many scents. http://www.blinddogs.com/support.htm

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

Hello and welcome to Global Paw!

You've already been given some wonderful advice on things to help your dog; I am curious as well about how your dog lost it's sight or was this something the dog was born with?

No matter which your pup can still be just as active, loyal and loving as any sighted dog and with a little bit of help from you can remain a wonderful member of your family.

[oc_spirit]

Watch out for sensory overload with too many scents.

A dog can get that??? I wouldn't think so since they locate most of their things through scent as it is whether or not they have their sight.....marking with specific scents just helps them locate things better and also if their squeekie is in the bedroom and their stuffie in the basement they can still identify it as their toy, not to mention mixing up their stuffies with a child's stuffie.

Cheers!

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

Yep, sensory overload can happen fairly easily, especially if the dog is newly blinded, too many scents or sounds can really become an issue.

[mydogisblind]

Hey, Kit my dog lost his sight. Hmmmmm well one night we were eating supper and our family dog, Bruiser, kept on bumping into everything. My dad saw that and he called ''Bruiser whats wrong''. Of course we all thought he was just playing but the next day he still did it. My dad checked his eyes and they were bloodshot and translucent. They were bluish like in the middle. My cousin looked it up on the computer and the article said ''If the dogs eyes are translucent(like cloudy sorta}& bloodshot he was blind''. Thats how we found out he was blind. But we think he got blind either from the smoke in our house(everybody except me, my brother, and sister smoke} or from old age. He is 49 in dog years.
But he's good in health! Tjis is what I wanted to do .

[DarknessDivine]

Have you all had him to the VET to confirm the blindness?