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October 23, 2021 8:23 AM Subscribe
What can I do to help prepare my dog for when she goes blind?
My 6 year-old dog, Zelda, has just been diagnosed with glaucoma. She's now blind in one eye, and the ophthalmologist has told us it's just a matter of time until she loses vision in the other eye as well. We're giving her treatment to try to forestall it, and it could very well be years before she loses her sight, but we've been told to work under the assumption that it will happen.
What can we do, now, to help make the transition to blindness the easiest for her?
The ophthalmologist told us to work on certain verbal cues ("stair-up" and "stair-down"), which will help her navigate the world later on. Are there other really useful verbal commands we should work on now? Are there ways we can change how we play with her, so it'll be easy for her to figure out how to play once she's blind? Any other sorts of things that, now, would make things better for her, later?
My 6 year-old dog, Zelda, has just been diagnosed with glaucoma. She's now blind in one eye, and the ophthalmologist has told us it's just a matter of time until she loses vision in the other eye as well. We're giving her treatment to try to forestall it, and it could very well be years before she loses her sight, but we've been told to work under the assumption that it will happen.
What can we do, now, to help make the transition to blindness the easiest for her?
The ophthalmologist told us to work on certain verbal cues ("stair-up" and "stair-down"), which will help her navigate the world later on. Are there other really useful verbal commands we should work on now? Are there ways we can change how we play with her, so it'll be easy for her to figure out how to play once she's blind? Any other sorts of things that, now, would make things better for her, later?
Oh, she's adorable! Our little terrier went through this, and my main piece of advice is not to assume any level of vision, especially when you go into unfamiliar surroundings. The way it was explained to me, the middle stages of going blind are tricky as the dog is adapting. She will misjudge stuff because the effect is like having a dusty windshield with the sun suddenly hitting it, or similar. At home, you don't notice the progression because your dog has the place memorized.
Good luck with this! Seconding DarlingBri, I found that my dog adapted really well.
posted by BibiRose at 8:43 AM on October 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
Good luck with this! Seconding DarlingBri, I found that my dog adapted really well.
posted by BibiRose at 8:43 AM on October 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
If you've been thinking about moving to a new home sometime in the future, maybe do it now.
Try to make her a low-stress dog (i.e. make her world less stressful and her more healthy and relaxed) so that dealing with things "sneaking up on her" won't upset her so much.
Start associating sound cues with positive experiences. Maybe play Mozart or babbling brook nature sounds when you are petting her or brushing her.
posted by amtho at 8:44 AM on October 23, 2021
Try to make her a low-stress dog (i.e. make her world less stressful and her more healthy and relaxed) so that dealing with things "sneaking up on her" won't upset her so much.
Start associating sound cues with positive experiences. Maybe play Mozart or babbling brook nature sounds when you are petting her or brushing her.
posted by amtho at 8:44 AM on October 23, 2021
I'm so sorry for you and Zelda, but very glad she has loving owners who will look after her. A few suggestions:
- Get her used to playing with noisy toys (squeaks, bells, rattles) so she starts to learn what different sounds look like. This will form memories she can use to find the toys when she's playing.
- Decide on how your furniture needs to be, and don't change it. She will learn that the sofa is 3 steps from the table, which is 9 steps from the door, and so on.
- You may want to consider getting a younger dog now that can be a companion for her and help her when she does eventually lose her sight. This will be especially useful when you're not home, because it will lower her stress and fear when you're not around.
- If you think there is good chance you'll have to put her in kennels/leave her with a friend or relative at any point, try doing this now while she has her sight. It will be much less scary for her if she's going to a place that smells and sounds familiar, even if she loses her sight.
As others have said, dogs are very adaptable, and as long as she gets plenty of love and support she'll adapt to this condition, but nonetheless this internet stranger is very happy to know that Zelda is being given all the love and care that you are obviously providing for her.
posted by underclocked at 8:46 AM on October 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
- Get her used to playing with noisy toys (squeaks, bells, rattles) so she starts to learn what different sounds look like. This will form memories she can use to find the toys when she's playing.
- Decide on how your furniture needs to be, and don't change it. She will learn that the sofa is 3 steps from the table, which is 9 steps from the door, and so on.
- You may want to consider getting a younger dog now that can be a companion for her and help her when she does eventually lose her sight. This will be especially useful when you're not home, because it will lower her stress and fear when you're not around.
- If you think there is good chance you'll have to put her in kennels/leave her with a friend or relative at any point, try doing this now while she has her sight. It will be much less scary for her if she's going to a place that smells and sounds familiar, even if she loses her sight.
As others have said, dogs are very adaptable, and as long as she gets plenty of love and support she'll adapt to this condition, but nonetheless this internet stranger is very happy to know that Zelda is being given all the love and care that you are obviously providing for her.
posted by underclocked at 8:46 AM on October 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
When my dog started losing her sight and hearing, I felt really sad about it at first— but I realized she adapted well to routine. I found unfamiliar spaces scared her a little more, to the point I worried there was dementia going on— but she just needed to figure out the smells and space a bit. Mine still can see some, but I notice she skitters off when unfamiliar shadows pop up— going through hallways or if I leave things on the floor sometimes spooks her. She doesn’t try to jump up much anymore because she’s not confident— if Zelda likes sitting on a couch or chair, you might look into ramps she can get used to now or get good at picking her up. You might even play with treat dispensing toys more— I’ve noticed that ours still has a powerful nose to hunt for treats, even if she can’t see the ball!
We’ve worked out bigger hand motions for ours to catch onto in the meantime— to be honest I think I would rather blindness to deafness if I had to pick one. The advice about noisy toys, commands, etc is a good one— I took for granted how much we communicated through vocal commands so it gets a little trickier. But I think you will do a great job giving Zelda all the love, and you’ll all find your footing together. Blind pups have their quirks (a little clumsier sometimes, and I’ve noticed ours will flinch in the sun out of sensitivity sometimes despite loving to sunbathe) but they still have a lot of life in them.
posted by actionpact at 10:16 AM on October 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
We’ve worked out bigger hand motions for ours to catch onto in the meantime— to be honest I think I would rather blindness to deafness if I had to pick one. The advice about noisy toys, commands, etc is a good one— I took for granted how much we communicated through vocal commands so it gets a little trickier. But I think you will do a great job giving Zelda all the love, and you’ll all find your footing together. Blind pups have their quirks (a little clumsier sometimes, and I’ve noticed ours will flinch in the sun out of sensitivity sometimes despite loving to sunbathe) but they still have a lot of life in them.
posted by actionpact at 10:16 AM on October 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Any other sorts of things that, now, would make things better for her, later?
A Stevie Wonder blanket for her favorite sleeping spot
posted by BadgerDoctor at 1:04 PM on October 23, 2021
A Stevie Wonder blanket for her favorite sleeping spot
posted by BadgerDoctor at 1:04 PM on October 23, 2021
People always mention not moving your furniture, but you should also think about the nature of that furniture - coffee tables/hearths with pointy corners, anything that sticks out, stuff on low shelves that will easily fall over if bumped into, dangling cords.
If this is going to be a decline situation where she will have some vision but not good vision, think about how to make light and dark that helps a poorly-sighted dog navigate. We leave low lights on in the rooms where our mostly-blind dog spends her nights (in my office and the living room, she doesn't like being in our dark bedroom), and we use light-colored rugs and runners on her walking paths with accompanying nightlights where needed. When she comes in from bright sunlight and can barely see at all, she jumps over the dark spots in the floor, poor pumpkin. She jumped over a shirt I'd tossed in the hallway this morning, because she can't tell if it's a hole she's going to fall into.
She does come and visit in our bedroom and needs the hallway lights on to see, so we have Hue lights in the ceiling fixtures and home automation we can tell to turn the lights to a bright-enough but not full-lit.
I also use a lot of strategic solar lighting outside, so that her nighttime potty path is well enough lit to follow but not shining into her eyes, which means I use a combo of solar spotlights pointed at obstacles and bounced off the side of the house, plus the smaller down-lights for paths.
If you have a larger residence with lots of doorways, now that Roxy's very old (and deaf, so that's something to keep in mind) she tends to wander into rooms thinking they're a hallway I guess, which means I periodically find her in our walk-in shower confused and upset, or in the hall bath, or down my side of the bed trying to get around my nightstand (and recently in that last case she also got tangled up in my dangling phone charger cord and completely freaked out). I bought specifically this exercise pen that has lightweight but sturdy panels that are held together with a pin down the edges - one of those panels turned sideways will block an interior door, two of them with a pin holding them together will make a freestanding V-type roadblock for hallways, three or four would block off an area or a bigger open-ish pathway between rooms. I need to be able to keep most of the room and bathroom doors open for HVAC circulation and humidity, so these panels get a ton of use propped in doorways and moved around as needed to keep her out of/away from stuff that might temporarily be an issue.
If you already do walks on a leash in public, I would pick maybe two or three routes and keep them consistent, so that even when she can't see she will be familiar with them. While she has some sight, you may want to wear a headlight or even mount one on the front of her harness to light the ground in front of her when you walk in the dim or dark.
For games and enrichment, definitely start getting puzzle toys, snuffle mats, tug toys, and do scavenger hunts by smell.
If I had realized enough in advance that Roxy's vision was going AND she was going to lose her hearing, I would have trained all my dogs to come to some kind of distinctive scent - peppermint oil maybe, or some kind of stinky treat. Every once in a while either she or the dog who can see but not hear get to chasing lizards in the bushes and I can't find them, but I've seen them both hunt down a mis-thrown treat behind a piece of furniture so I'm pretty sure I could have trained them to come to me opening a bottle of peppermint oil.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:12 PM on October 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
If this is going to be a decline situation where she will have some vision but not good vision, think about how to make light and dark that helps a poorly-sighted dog navigate. We leave low lights on in the rooms where our mostly-blind dog spends her nights (in my office and the living room, she doesn't like being in our dark bedroom), and we use light-colored rugs and runners on her walking paths with accompanying nightlights where needed. When she comes in from bright sunlight and can barely see at all, she jumps over the dark spots in the floor, poor pumpkin. She jumped over a shirt I'd tossed in the hallway this morning, because she can't tell if it's a hole she's going to fall into.
She does come and visit in our bedroom and needs the hallway lights on to see, so we have Hue lights in the ceiling fixtures and home automation we can tell to turn the lights to a bright-enough but not full-lit.
I also use a lot of strategic solar lighting outside, so that her nighttime potty path is well enough lit to follow but not shining into her eyes, which means I use a combo of solar spotlights pointed at obstacles and bounced off the side of the house, plus the smaller down-lights for paths.
If you have a larger residence with lots of doorways, now that Roxy's very old (and deaf, so that's something to keep in mind) she tends to wander into rooms thinking they're a hallway I guess, which means I periodically find her in our walk-in shower confused and upset, or in the hall bath, or down my side of the bed trying to get around my nightstand (and recently in that last case she also got tangled up in my dangling phone charger cord and completely freaked out). I bought specifically this exercise pen that has lightweight but sturdy panels that are held together with a pin down the edges - one of those panels turned sideways will block an interior door, two of them with a pin holding them together will make a freestanding V-type roadblock for hallways, three or four would block off an area or a bigger open-ish pathway between rooms. I need to be able to keep most of the room and bathroom doors open for HVAC circulation and humidity, so these panels get a ton of use propped in doorways and moved around as needed to keep her out of/away from stuff that might temporarily be an issue.
If you already do walks on a leash in public, I would pick maybe two or three routes and keep them consistent, so that even when she can't see she will be familiar with them. While she has some sight, you may want to wear a headlight or even mount one on the front of her harness to light the ground in front of her when you walk in the dim or dark.
For games and enrichment, definitely start getting puzzle toys, snuffle mats, tug toys, and do scavenger hunts by smell.
If I had realized enough in advance that Roxy's vision was going AND she was going to lose her hearing, I would have trained all my dogs to come to some kind of distinctive scent - peppermint oil maybe, or some kind of stinky treat. Every once in a while either she or the dog who can see but not hear get to chasing lizards in the bushes and I can't find them, but I've seen them both hunt down a mis-thrown treat behind a piece of furniture so I'm pretty sure I could have trained them to come to me opening a bottle of peppermint oil.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:12 PM on October 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Just adding to the above that there are more pet-friendly scents for associating with yourself than essential oils, which probably aren’t pleasant to dogs with their great sense of smell, and can make them sick https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/are-essential-oils-safe-for-pets/
posted by hotcoroner at 11:46 PM on October 23, 2021
posted by hotcoroner at 11:46 PM on October 23, 2021
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If you're ever going to get a Roomba, get it now!
But as long as you don't re-arrange the furniture, she'll adapt easily. You probably won't even notice when she finally loses her identifying vision.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:37 AM on October 23, 2021 [1 favorite]