Shortly after we got Delilah, Hubby and I both thought she had trouble seeing. When I mentioned it at a vet appointment, the vet took a scrap of paper and let it fall down in front of Delilah and Delilah watched it fall, and that was that.
Now that Delilah has been diagnosed with a degenerative cornea disease, I know I should have pushed it farther, and perhaps taken her to an ophthalmologist right away.
My philosophy of late has been, “When we know better, we do better.” I’m not beating myself up over this, but I am taking mental notes for the future and will be more diligent in paying attention to things with my dogs.
While the ophthalmologist says Delilah will probably not go blind from this disease, Hubby and I can both tell there are areas where she has trouble seeing.
She’s ‘looking’ at me, but I’m actually more towards her right.
We think her eyesight is one of the reasons we’ve never been able to teach her how to NOT SNATCH food from your hands. Well….she is a lab, and labs love food, but she does take it to the extreme. You have to be super diligent with her, show her the treat, bring it down in front of her mouth and say, “Easy” and you’ve got a 10% chance of keeping your fingers. If you don’t (which most times we don’t even think of it,) all bets are off.
I know if I have a light colored treat and put it on a dark background (or vice versa) she can easily find it, but put dark colored treat on a dark background, and it takes her a very long time to find it.
We have a strict rule in the house, “No rearranging of furniture!” 🙂
Walks can be challenging, especially as the days shorten, and more of our walks are taken in the dark. I mean, there are any number of obstacles that can present themselves.
I have seen her walk into a branch, jump when our friend on a bike approached (even though she called over to us and Delilah turned, she didn’t know she was on a bike), jump when a sewer was suddenly there, not see animals in yards or roads, and there was that one time when she walked through a bramble bush, and got the vine stuck on the bridge of her nose.
I decided the best way I can help her, is to be a seeing-eye person for her.
The way I’m doing this is naming objects on our walks so she can easily navigate around them.
Here are the things I’m naming (when I remember to do it.)
Trash Can – This usually only happens on Wednesdays, which is the day our trash is picked up. But sometimes it’s on Thursdays and Fridays too, because we do have some lazy muther-fuckers in our neighborhood who don’t bring their trash bins in right away.
Car – This might seem like it’s silly to name, but really, if it’s a dark walk and a dark car….the combo could be ugly.
Sewer – The smell alone should warn her, but still, we can’t have a dog panicking because her leg went down a sewer grate.
Person – I was going to say jogger, but then what if it’s a walker? Or just a person standing there? I decided to not make this any more complicated than it is. Things are complicated enough inside my head, remembering person is hard as it is.
Branch – Once, she walked through a small branch/stick that happened to be shaped like a Y. She walked a few paces with that shit balanced on her nose before I was able to take it off. And yes, I did contemplate taking a photo before I removed it.
Bike – I don’t know about you, but the bikers in my area always seem to ride with traffic. I don’t get it, but because we are usually walking against traffic, we run encounter these peeps. A startled dog can do any number of things, and I’d just as soon as not have to write about that here.
Dog – Truthfully, most of the dogs in my neighborhood announce themselves, but on the off chance we encounter a slacker, I’m teaching her this.
Dog! On your left! There’s a dog!
Cross (for cross the street) – She’s usually pretty in tune with where I’m going, but if her snooter is caught up with a smell and she’s not paying attention, I’m teaching her what cross means.
I was going to just keep it general and teach, Object, a general term to encompass all things, but let’s face it, walking around a car is a little different than walking around a sewer, and a person is much bigger than a dog…
I suppose with winter coming we’re going to have to learn ice, snow bank, plow truck….
Did I miss any? Can you think of something that should be named on a walk?
Thankfully, we can all see just fine, but Mom has still named lots of things to let us know to step aside, like jogger, bicycle, car, and obstacle to keep us from wrapping our leash around a tree, pole, etc. We use crossover to cross the street, and of course, the all important words like squirrel, and wabbit. They are all helpful and will come to you as you encounter them. You will know which ones are worth teaching, which are not.
We don’t name objects–we just name directions. I have “up” to tell them to get up on the curb if we have to move over while a car comes by. I have “in” to tell them to come into my side if we have to go around something and we use “are you ready?” to get their attention if we’re changing directions. Delilah is luck to have someone so committed to helping her navigate her world!
I can see just fine, but I am DYING to fall down the sewer to see what’s up down there. Mom just says, “Watch the hole.” and “Look out.” and “GET AWAY FROM THERE!!!” She’s the opposite of an overthinker. I think D is in good paws (I mean hands) with you looking out for her seeing eye needs. Just keep moving forward, D. Your mama got this.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
We are always amazed at how well dogs adapt to losing their eyesight. We have seen totally blind dogs play fetch with some adjustments.
Garbage? Given that you have some lazy neighbors, perhaps they’re missing the trash can and letting garbage stay where it lands?
I sometimes wonder if Shadow is losing her hearing, or if she’s just sleeping more soundly or intensely focused on something. I sometimes have to almost “yell at” her to get her attention. I might ask the vet next time we go for an exam.
It sounds like you’ve got it pretty well covered, and learning all that should keep you both pretty busy on your walks! Luke isn’t real good with words, so I wonder if he could learn all that. He does better with gestures. Now it occurs to me that won’t work very well if he ever loses his eyesight (only if he loses his hearing), so maybe we’d better work harder at that.
Poor Delilah. And poor you. Good luck being the seeing eye person. I know you’ll be a great one. That looks like a good start with naming objects.
She is a sweetheart of a dog that is obviously well loved and cared for. Thank you for sharing.