You can lead the blind, but can the blind lead you?

A game of trust, skill, and maybe a bruised shin or two.

Once Carlos memorized my house and stopped running into door-jams or tripping on new surface changes I tried this game.

Prior to the game  I worked with him on getting him to trust me and building his confidence, this is by letting him off-leash at a local park with big open spaces. I would praise him for venturing on his own, and get super excited happy get-a-treat voice whenever he went faster than a slow pace. I then leashed him up in the same space and directed him to follow me a bunch of places, all over, around invisible obstacles. Then I took him to a less-open area of the park, with more trees and roots, and we practiced on leash there, me leading him.

Once Carlos trusted me I decided to play this game, with the roles reversed. I got him ready for the game by playing with the lights on. I would put my hands on his hip bones and walk behind him while verbally directing him (to go to bed, which was in another room). He walked, without faltering, to his bed in my bedroom and led me there.  After multiple nights of doing this I decided to take the plunge into total darkness. I guided him over to the light switch and was blinded by the absolute darkness of my home at 12am with all the blinds closed, all the lights off, all electronics unplugged. No light really escaped the blackness that hit my eyes for those few minutes. I set my hands on his hips and said "go to bed".  The first time we played I hit my shoulder once and my shins twice. The second time we played I only hit my elbow. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth time went without any injury and I noticed that Carlos didn't rely on the walls as much (I'll get to that below). Instead he went completely by memory when he would lead me. The game was a challenge for both of us, but our bond grew stronger and I got to experience first hand how much he relies on me. I also knew my house layout. But it is a lot harder to judge space when you have only memory of things in your head. I realized when I guide Carlos, he's not relying on me to see for him, he doesn't need to see, he needs me to tell him how much space he has so he can make a correction quick enough to avoid injury.

Carlos relies on the walls to guide him. He cuts corners often (hence the shin/elbow/shoulder pain I briefly encountered) and since he has long hair he uses his hair as a "white cane" to know how far he is from the wall.  Many animals rely on these natural sources of space-identification, the most popular known that do are rats and cats, dogs also rely on their whiskers but sometimes they let their other instincts override and get stuck in places.

My cat Spookie relies on his whiskers a lot, he has horrible depth perception due to brain damage. His whiskers are often fully extended.

If you take anything educational from this then at least try to understand this: What you think your pet needs from you, and what your pet actually needs from you are similar but definitely different.