So you have a blind dog. Now what?

First things first.  In order for a blind dog to be a normal dog (not run into things, play, etc.) you have to give them the tools to thrive.  The differences between survival and thriving are many. I won't get into that, but basically, your blind dog can sit like a lump on a bed all day, depressed, immobilized by their inability to navigate and lack of self-confidence. Or you can set their life up for success.

I chose success for Carlos. Mainly because I'm too busy to cater to his every single need. I am doing this blog on my days-off, when I don't have a fundraiser, or event, or adoption, or work, or family function, or.. Anyways. You should blind-proof your home. This post is going to focus on inside the house. Next we'll focus on outside the house. Remember, the overwhelming part is the beginning. I've had my house set up for a year now. It took me about a month to get the details down pat but I eventually got it situated. I can even move furniture with no injury and very little confusion on Carlos' part.

Step 1:  Blind-proof your home.

Blind-proofing your house can cost anywhere from no-cost to several hundred dollars. It just depends on how much you want to invest on the life of an animal in a house that both have an unknown termination period. Sometimes ripping the band-aid off just has to be the way to go! Carlos is 10-12 years old, we say 12 because he's not super active, but he could pass as 10 if we brushed his teeth and if he moved faster. Because Carlos has such a short time left (maximum of 5-6 years, minimum of a year or two) I opted to ignore the whole build-a-ramp/install new flooring, etc. I have 3 types of flooring in my house already. If you don't then that's ok, there's other ways of navigation. I'll go through all of the senses and what house-hold adjustments can help your blind dog know exactly where he/she is in a room, what direction they are going, and what room they are in.

Sight:  Some dogs aren't completely blind. If yours is, this does not apply.  If your dog can see shadows then here's what you want to do. Go buy the cheap childrens night lights, one to two for each room. You know the ones? They are oddly shaped, Disney characters, dolphins, flowers, footballs. These will help your kind-of-seeing dog know which room they're in.  Use different brightness of lights, at different heights, on different walls or hallways.  For example: lights in the hallway can be very low, even line the floor (theater style!) if you want to get extravagant. This helps the dog to realize they are in a narrow space.  Lights up high on the wall can help a dog realize how big the room is that they are in. Brighter lights for dogs that only see light and dark might cast better shadows in rooms that have a lot of sharp cornered furniture. You get the idea.

Sound: If you're reading this then you are in a country that has technology. Your computer can be set on low sound, playing a loop of noise, playing your itunes or playing radio station online. Keep the computer in the same area though- if it's a laptop this isn't as likely to work unless you put it in the same spot every night and play it at the same volume. Your dog will learn that the noise from the computer in the north east side of the house is ten steps away from the water bowl. They do have a good memory, they will learn.  My house: I have a fishtank with a noisy filter. I actually messed with my filter to make it noisy on purpose (don't worry, it still works)!  The fishtank is in my dining room which is central to my home. Carlos will turn an ear to the fishtank and know where he is in reference to the tank. It works similar to sonar and echolocation, minus the feedback. Don't have a computer/radio or fishtank?  You can put wind chimes up in one room, make sure they're in front of a vent or a fan. The chimes will act similarly. Pet stores sell devices that are meant to "scare" away wildlife from people's yards by creating and unpleasant noise. If the device works (doesn't scare my dogs!) then you can put it near a danger-area such as stairs or open doorways that may pose a threat to cross. If the device doesn't work and just creates that irritating buzzzz. Then you can turn it on while you're away, and your dog will know what room it's in by the buzz when they pass the threshold.

Smell: Every home has at least one different smelling substance per room. Whether it be your laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, spices, candles, sprays, plug-in. It's easy to find smells.  I love Scentsy (no I'm not trying to advertise, no I did not get paid to say that or the following sentence).  Scentsy is non-toxic to animals, requires no fire- it works off of a lightbulb, and it's easy to clean if it spills. I use a different scent in each room. My kitchen smells like cinnamon, my living room smells like ocean or some "blue" smell. My bedroom is one of the pink smells, my bathroom is Mediterranean spa, my other two rooms are some dark blue color that Carlos doesn't like the smell of. These are both rooms I don't want him in. Be mindful that cleaning supplies, detergents, spices, etc. can cause harm to your pets and children. Make sure you read your labels and if you are ever in doubt- ask your veterinarian or call the manufacturing company!

Taste: Carlos is 100% blind. There's no visual information being downloaded into his brain. When I first got him he had been put on a 24 hour schedule. Therefore, I was woken up every night at exactly 3am for a potty outside. I gave him egg in the morning (You can give a different flavor/texture treat). I gave him a beggin-strip at bed time. I think this helped to get him into a good schedule (along with normal dog-schedule things, exercise, ignoring his pleas at 3am) He learned to expect that taste a certain time.

Touch: Dogs can feel things. They feel with the bottoms of their feet. They feel with their mouth. They feel with the tip of their nose. Dogs have nerve endings. People seem to forget this important sense. They feel vibrations in the floor. They feel different textures from tile, to carpet, to rug, to wood, to grass, dirt, glass, marble, etc. Dogs can feel if something is wet or dry, hot or cold. You get the idea. In my house I have tile, wood, carpet, 4 types of rugs as well as individual air conditioning in three rooms with different temperatures.

My kitchen gets hot on its own. The sun is always in my kitchen window and it's just plain hot in there. Carlos knows its the hottest room in the house, he doesn't like it in there. My Living room temperature is always set on 77 Fahrenheit  I like that temperature, the cats and my other dog like that temperature. Carlos is ok in that temperature usually but sometimes gets hot (he's got that double-coat). I also have specific a/c in the other bedroom, this temperature fluxuates depending on who's sleeping in there, he doesn't go in there. I keep my bedroom temperature set on the coldest setting (I use a heated-blanket and my other dog, Moonpie, snuggles under it with me because she gets cold). Carlos sleeps awesomely in the cold temperature and he doesn't keep me awake panting. I stay warm, he stays cold. He also knows that its my room. So when I tell him "go to bed" he heads towards the coldest part of the house until he finds his therapeutic bed in front of the vents.

My living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway, and bathroom all have tile. My living room has a 8x10 rug from Ikea (again, not advertising and I'm not paid to say this but they do have good prices!) that's very flat. Its more for decoration than anything but Carlos knows where he's at in reference to the rug. My back door is a sliding glass door. I have a long runner stretched out next to it of the same texture as the rug in the living room. We have a separate textured runner in the foyer and two rugs that are different textured from the runner but match each other. Those two rugs are smaller and mark the door exits. My bedroom and the guest bedroom has carpet. The cat-room has wood flooring. The bathroom has bath mats on the floor and the kitchen has those squishy awesomely-comfy-to-stand-on mats.

When you have a blind dog and take the time to utilize all the senses that your dog has left you get a picture that looks kind of like this:

Carlos can tell what room he's in, where he is in that room, what wall he's at, what direction he is facing, how many paces away he is from a piece of furniture, how far away he is from another room, what exits there are to the house, how many rooms are in the house, what rooms he's not supposed to go in, and he can navigate all of it without me once having to grab his collar, guide him, or tell him which direction to go. Without getting stuck in corners, not hitting his eyes on corners of furniture, etc. He also has a general sense of time and space and knows alternate routes around my home if one passageway is blocked.

Note: Please make sure you protect your dog from sharp corners or other injury by close supervision and padding on sharp corners until your dog knows the layout of your home. Please keep in mind that it took us a month to finish learning the house together. It can take your dog less or more time than that. Carlos gets very confused first thing in the morning. Every once in a while he has to pee so bad that he just starts going and gets discombobulated (hey spell check didn't underline that word!). Just like any dog you would own, supervision is a must for a healthy and happy life. Dogs get frightened and bolt out the door that can see, those have to face cars, and other dangers. When blind dogs get frightened and bolt, their main enemy is stationary objects in their own house.