Mr. Golden is in the midst of a ten day vacation at our house while FM takes some time off. We wanted to test how he would do in a home without his brother Sam but with another dog. We also wanted to be able to see how he would do in a household with cats. We’re about half way in and it’s been a fascinating experience.
As we have never had any experience with a blind dog, we’d like to share with you what we’ve seen and learned. When Golden arrived, after a careful outside introduction to our resident dog (a mellow senior boy), we walked him slowly (several times) through the main areas of our house. It only took two trips through before he had mastered the main pathways. Once he has been in a location he absolutely remembers the main features. We don’t have a fenced yard so we also made sure we took him around on the route we would be using for our short walks when we took him out to do his jobs. The same thing happened. He absolutely knew the route by the time we had covered it twice.
The cats were a different story. We have two, 13 year old cat sisters who are pretty dog savvy. Golden was absolutely fascinated with them. Unfortunately he is way too intrigued with them. He will spend enormous amounts of time standing next to them, following them around the house, and generally making a pest of himself. They are not at all afraid of him but they are very annoyed with his constant presence. We are recommending that Golden not go to a family with cats.
With the exception of the cats he has been almost the perfect dog. We walk him frequently. He is great on a flat (Martingale) collar. We are using simple, one word commands to help him navigate. “Step” means stop, there is a step up or step down coming. With a little exploration he figures out what is required. “Right” and “Left” means we’re changing direction and that he should start to slide in the direction indicated. “Door” means that there is a temporary obstacle that will soon open up if he stops and waits a second. “Stop” means that Temp Foster Dad hasn’t been paying attention and an obstacle has suddenly appeared and immediate action is required. We don’t know whether he had any prior training but in any case he learns incredibly quickly. People we meet on walks can’t believe that Golden is blind. His hearing and sense of smell are so amazing. We’ve read that blind dogs learn to sense minute temperature changes and wind shifts as well that can indicate to them where objects like fences, walls, and trees are located. He and our resident (Harley) walk well together and at least half the time Golden will take the lead.
Two days ago we took Golden to a public swimming beach near our home. He navigated the people, the noise, and other dogs like a champ. Again after a first walk through he grasped the basic beach layout. He headed right into the water (on leash) with our grandkids and even did a bit of swimming.
Click here if you want to see a short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ2X09d0C7U . We think that if you have a resident dog who likes the water that Golden will follow him or her right into the water.
We and Golden’s FM have changed our thinking about his need for another dog. While he would clearly enjoy another mellow dog in his family we believe that he would be fine as an only dog in a family where someone was home a good part of the time. He isn’t at all clingy with our resident but he is very comfortable when he is around and he does take some cues from him on what’s going on around him. Golden and Harley have their choices of three dog beds in our bedroom and they seem to take turns using each of them. We have not crated him as he settled in so quickly. He pretty much sleeps through the night. We’ve been awakened occasionally by a wet nose but after a few pets he will head back to his bed. We had a thunder storm the other night and Golden nuzzled us for reassurance but headed back to bed when the worst of the booming was over. One night he went to bed early after a long day and slept through for 11 hours.
Each day we see him expanding his mental map of our house. He now is exploring the corners and nooks and crannies. Today’s find was the toy pile. He brought a tennis ball, an elk antler, and a rope toy over to his living room dog bed and had a great time playing with each.
He has made no effort to play with our resident but then Harley is not one that has ever had much interest in playing with other dogs so Golden may simply be reading his signals correctly.
We’ve also been experimenting with free roam for Golden while we are out of the house. He has been ok with us being gone for 2 hours and today he and Harley were just fine for 5 ½ hours on their own. We don’t allow dogs on our furniture so we blocked off our couch before we left as Golden would dearly love to climb aboard. When we’re home we can tell him “NO” and he will get right off but it hasn’t stopped him from trying again.
Golden is such a sweet, loving dog. He would give doggie kisses for hours if you gave him the chance. He has the “golden lean” down pat. He leans in with his whole body too, not just his head! We think he would welcome a fenced in yard but he does just fine with us as long he can take some walks each day. We have done multiple short walks (from 1/3 mile to 1 mile) each day. We will be trying some longer walks later this week. He is a mellow boy (with the exception of his cat fixation) and at 69.5 lbs. he is easy to handle for us (we are both retirees). He loves to be with you all the time and, being a great car rider, would probably be a great dog to take along on errands as well.
