How to Care for a Blind Dog

Caring for a blind dog is not much different than caring for sighted ones. However, you need to ensure the safety of your blind dog who is more vulnerable. If you are worried about how to care for a blind dog, we have got you. The article provides essential tips on how to help a blind dog and raise a happy and confident family member. 

Living with a Blind Dog

Living with a blind dog can be challenging for a dog parent, especially when you see the decline in their sight and then changes in their behavior. It also affects their quality of life, and coping with that can be tough, but dogs adjust well with support, and you can provide a fulfilling life by following the tips provided.

Home Environment Adaptations

The first step to making your dog comfortable is adapting to the environment of the house that reduces their anxiety and keeps them safe. 

Maintain the indoor arrangement

It is critical to keep the home environment consistent. Avoid moving your furniture or your dog’s items from their places because dogs can map their environment, and making adjustments in the house can become difficult. 

Use textures to guide your dog

Dogs use all the other senses when their vision is lost. While your dog must have created a workable map of their environment, you can help your dog navigate and protect them. You can use textures to guide your dog through the different places around the home.

Put textured mats in front of their food bowls, entryways, and furniture to help your dog know where they are. You can use carpet runners and regularly used paths to show your dog the right direction. 

Use smells to define areas of the house

Using smells to define areas of the house is a great way to guide your blind dog through the house and protect them. Dogs have sensitive scent detection, and they can smell anything. Thus, you can put scent on the home’s main features. Use essential oils to mark obstacles, entryways, and paths. 

Daily Care Tips

Keep a Consistent Routine

When caring for a blind dog, keep their routine consistent and predictable. This way, you can raise a confident and independent dog. Maintain a fixed schedule for your dog's feeding, playing, walking, and grooming to ensure that they are aware of what is going on.  

Let Your Dog Move on Their Own

While you may want to help your dog move about by doing everything for them and carrying them around, this won’t benefit your dog in the long run. To raise a confident blind dog, you need to guide and train them to do important tasks for themselves. Leave them to explore and know their surroundings on their own. This way, you don’t have to be by your dog’s side always. 

Encourage the Use of Other Senses

When dogs lose their vision, they can adjust because their sense of smell is strong and can be used with sharp hearing and touching to examine their surroundings. You can use that and encourage your dogs to use their other senses. But how do you do that? 

You can use fragrances, such as essential oils on objects and paths, textures, and leave the radio or some sound on where your dog is to let them know their surroundings. This way, your dog won’t feel vulnerable and will stay out of trouble. 

Offer Toys That Use Smell and Sound

Blind dogs can and should also engage in playing and other exercises. You can use their other senses, such as smell and sound to fulfill their need for play. Getting toys for blind dogs that use these other senses is a great way to engage them in play. You can offer squeaky toys, which are easy to localize. However, food-stuffed or scented toys can also be used, which they can find with their nose. 

Training and Communication

You can train and communicate with your blind dog using verbal commands and a positive reinforcement approach. 

Using Vocal Cues

You can use verbal cues to guide or protect your blind dog. They typically become more susceptible to verbal commands because they help them move around unfamiliar places and keep a distance from harm. 

Teaching your dog verbal cues like “lift” will help them in handling. You can say “touch” before touching them to keep from startling them. Some essential verbal commands you can train your blind dog on include “left” or “right” for direction, “step” to help step up or down, and “stop” to keep them from running into obstacles. 

Positive Reinforcement Techniques

When training your blind dog, use positive reinforcement techniques where you reward your dog when they obey. Clicker training is a popular and practical technique for training blind dogs that uses a positive reinforcement approach. 

Common Challenges and Solutions 

Some typical challenges that may come along the way and their solutions include:

Behavioral Issues

When a dog suddenly loses vision, it can often lead to behavioral changes, such as fear, depression, or aggression. It’s essential to be understanding during the initial stage of it. 

Anxiety and Stress Management

Blind dogs get stressed and anxious whenever surrounded by unfamiliar people or present in an unfamiliar place. To ensure your dog is comfortable in their surroundings, you can use additional voice commands, talk to them, and keep their environment and routine consistent. 

Socialization with Other Pets and People

If your dog socializes with other pets and people, you must educate your family members and friends, especially children about your dog’s condition. Ask them to approach the dog gently. 

Regular check-ups

Regular check-ups with your veterinarian are crucial to keep your dog’s eye health in check, which helps immensely in caring for them properly and keeping them out of trouble. So, take your dog to the veterinarian frequently to keep them healthy. 

Therapeutic Activities

To keep your dog happy and enriched, you can do fun activities with them, such as:

Scent-Based Games

Why not use your dog’s most valuable natural power, their nose, and engage them in fun activities? Scent-based games may include a game of fetch with food-stuffed toys, hiding treats, and asking your dog to sniff and find. 

Gentle Touch and Massage

Since your bling dog cannot see you approaching them, gently touch them so they don’t get scared. Also, to reduce their anxiety you can gently massage them to let them know you’re there.  

Provide Exercise and Enrichment

Exercise is essential for your dog’s mental and physical stimulation. It also helps keep them enriched. You can take them for a walk outside and use a blind dog harness to keep them on a leash while you stroll the neighborhood. You can also play games like hide-and-seek with them and include their favorite toys and treats to keep them engaged and happy. 

Conclusion

When caring for a blind dog, you must remember that they can lead a happy and enriched life with only a few adaptations to their environment. Living with a blind pet requires patience, and you can raise a confident canine companion.