Advised reading for anyone owning a Blind Dog

[tall grass pugs]

Website for blind dog owners: blinddog.info, blinddogs.com, blinddogs.net

GREAT book on living with blind dogs: Living with Blind Dogs by Caroline Levin.

[Denika]

Wow, this is great!! Thank you!!

[Jazz]

my retriever who died a few weeks ago was blind, and my sheltie is nearly blind.
dont be afraid to take on a blind dog. if you dont move the furniture, and keep doors open or closed, they get to know where everything is very quickly. I taught her to open her mouth for a treat, so she didnt take my fingers off lol. she was taught to stop, turn left and right on the lead. they are a delight.

[Bellas_momma]

When I had my pugs several years ago we were given a 5yr old pug by the breeders son after she passed away. He said "here, find her a home or keep her for yourself. Nobody will want to buy a dog this old" I couldn't believe he said that. Well long story short, we kept her and she ended up going blind. I read somewhere that if you have stairs to use different scents to mark the stairs. I did that and it really worked and after a little bit I didn't need to use the scents, she navigated that backyard as if she could see every inch of it.

[UglyPugsHK]

I have one full blind and one on the way so any additional reading will help. Hopefully I can find on ibooks so can read on my ipad!

[BuggyPug]

My friend is a blind dog owner. Normal people should be thankful that they can see but they should be also envy because the blind can see life more than a 20/20 visioned person can. :)

[jdm11]

My pudgy went blind when he was about 3 1/2 (2008) and ubelievably we went about a month of him being blind and didnt notice cause he could navigate his way so well. My dad finally brought up the subject when he notice pudgy walk into an object, so we took him to the vet and found out the new and my wife and I were so saddend about it and cried about it and it was funny because we were sitting there crying just thinking he'll never be able to do the activities he used to do and pudgy jumped in arms and it was like he told us, "dont worry im still the same great dog and happy". Now we have a pretty good system down, I walk infront of him and snap my finger constantly to get him to follow, I put bells on the other dogs so he knows their surroundings, when I play with him i scratch the carpet and smack my hand and he will bite at my hand and chase my hand around. One thing about having a blind pug is its really amazing how STRONG their sense of smell and hearing gets! Many people try to tell us to put him down he is suffering just cause he is blind, but they have no idea how wonderful a dog is wether he has his vision or not, I wouldnt change it for the world. Pudgy being blind has taught me alot and I will assist him til his time comes!

[jphillips]

Dear @jdm11

Thank you so much for your post...you don't know how much hearing some of your tidbits helps....I'm facing possibly having to have one or both of my pugs eyeballs removed so hearing that your pug is doing so awesome is amazing....love the tidbit about bells!!

[Bagginsmom]

My pug is blind and has been barking a lot more recently. He is 15 years old and sometimes we are able to figure out why he is barking and sometimes we aren't. Has anyone else experienced this and, if so, has anyone found a way to soothe them?

[Ron]

We had a Bichon that went blind when we lived in Michigan in a house with a large deck off a slider and a dog door leading to the deck onto a large fenced in back yard. There were two steps leading off the deck to the yard. We also had two Pugs at the time.

When our Bichon first went blind, we were amazed and tearful to watch our Pugs literally lead the Bichon to the dog door and then carefully off the steps to the yard. We could not then believe it when they led him around the yard, back to the deck, onto the steps and then back through the dog door. They did this several times until the Bichon had imprinted the way.

So, nobody can tell me that dogs don't have compassion. Our Pugs certainly did.

Diane will, I think, remember them from our days with the Pug Dog Club in Mid-Michigan. They were our fawn male named Chinto, and our black female rescue named Marriis.