GreytMom

Thanks for the agreement with re to the muzzle. I was rather nervous to walk him yesterday, but tried to curb that so he didn’t pick up my discomfort. I hate to do it to him but just can’t control all the outside situations. And it may give other dog owners a visual cue to stay away. 😁

Thanks for the referral. I think you gave it to me before but I solved that issue and forgot about it. 🤦‍♀️ We went on a walk in a muzzle. He was trying to rub it off and paw it off initially, but gave up fairly quickly and got with the walk. Of course we didn’t need the muzzle today, but I felt safer.

I’ve been here before asking for help and advice re my blind hound, and here I am again. Dune has PRA and we have been managing but as his vision has worsened, and at this point he sees very little, he has become more aggressive/protective. Understandable I guess because he can’t read doggy body language. Very people friendly, not so dog friendly. Here is the current issue. He is only 4.5 yrs and needs and loves his walks. But, if we encounter a dog who basically makes any noise - a bark, an excited whine, anything - Dune gets very reactive and aggressive. Two days ago I had crossed the street when I saw a dog approaching, as I always do, but that dog was whining, pulling on his leash, and making a fuss. Anyway, Dune started snarling and biting and almost got my other hound so I stepped in the middle to protect her and I got bitten. Luckily I had on sweatpants (I know, it’s cool here where I am still!) so I have a huge deep bruise on my thigh but just a scratch from his teeth, no puncture wounds. I have always said to him “You’re safe, I’ve got you.” So, while maybe he doesn’t see me as a strong pack leader, I’m not a novice to dogs nor greyhounds. I’ll take the blame if necessary, yet I think he is feeling the need to protect himself against an unseen/unreadable potential threat. I tell people to talk to him so he knows where they are, and he has not met a person he doesn’t adore. But dogs are different. I am looking for any suggestions - training thoughts, medication suggestions, anything. He is aggressive if disturbed when sleeping but I have that worked out. The only solution I see to my current problem is to walk him in a muzzle. I need to protect my other hound and myself if he lashes out. I can handle him physically and hang onto him as he loses his mind, but I can’t control the fear and barking and biting. Thanks in advance.

Wait is a good idea. Unfortunately what comes out of my mouth is “careful!” Except with the slider in which case it’s “closed.” Time for some “wait” training. Wish me luck. He’s not dumb. Just stubborn. 🐾 But I think he is better with closed since last weeks crash into the door.

Interesting about Nate’s awareness of objects or bulk. I think Dune has the same, but he may actually still see them given he still has some vision. I forgot in my synopsis above to say he ran at high speed smack into a wall last week also. Maybe his vision is worsening and he isn’t taking it into account yet. He survived that accident also. Poor boy. I would think eventually he will learn to slow down so he doesn’t get hurt. And I think he is learning “closed.” On leash, once the jumping is over, he is very good. I usually give him only a foot or two if on neighborhood streets so he doesn’t get a stick in the eye or something, but at the beach I give him longer lead yet he stays pretty close. Poor pups. I feel so badly for them. But he is a happy boy despite this.

Given his speed I wonder if something that close to the door would help - but some type of alarm sure might. If he is out I am either with him or the door is open so coming in from outside isn’t an issue, luckily.

Good ideas Rob. I do think he still has a sense of light and dark because he uses me as his guide much more when it is dark, and I think he still senses some motion. Sadly those will only last a while longer. But the idea of blocking off the bottom part of the door is worth a try since I do think there is some detection of light/dark on his part. And I think a sensor of some type was what was rattling in my brain as an idea but I couldn’t crystallize the thought. So thanks for that idea. The halo I’ve read helps esp if they are scared of running into things, something he is not at this point. But I can’t see having him in one of those all the time. Would interfere with stuffy tossing and fetch. Amazingly he does play fetch by sound and smell. Sometimes he thinks my arm is the toy 😆 but luckily it’s generally a light chomp.

Interesting that it happened again - kids behind us were yelling so he was going to go straighten them out. But I was sitting where I could grab him and stop him. He still wanted to go to the door but I had stopped him maybe 10 ft from it. I said “closed” multiple times then allowed him to go to the door. (I should have taken him but I didn’t. 🤦‍♀️) He trotted over to the door and stopped on the rug I keep just in front of it. And “looked” out the back door. Poor sweet boy. So I think he gets what closed means, but sometimes greyhound guard dog brain/there might be bunnies brain seems to override mom yelling closed.

My blind 4 yo male greyhound with PRA does not know slow gear. Can’t see? 100 mph still seems like a good idea to him. I’m concerned he is literally going to break his neck someday. He has run into my yard and run smack into a tree. But today he ran into the sliding glass door pretty hard. 2nd time he has done that. I actually still have the painters tape X’s on it I put on glass whenever I get a new grey, but he clearly can’t see them at all. If he takes off and the door is closed I’m usually yelling “Closed! Closed! Closed!”. (I often leave the door open when the weather is nice so the greys can come and go as they please. So sometimes it’s open and sometimes not.) Anyway, I think he kind of understands “closed” because he seemed to try and brake and managed to not hit head on but was slightly turned. He seems fine. Thankfully. But how can I stop him from doing that? It’s an open concept house, no way to put a gate, which he would probably run into anyway. I put a very thick pillow in front to try and cushion things, but when he’s off to bark at something outside it doesn’t help. Any ideas or suggestions on how to keep him safe? At a core level I have decided to let him be a dog and if he hurts himself and his life is shortened because of his blindness then that’s a consequence I’ll have to live with (e.g., I won’t leash him to me at all times), but at the same time I’ll do what I can to keep him safe while letting him be a greyhound. Thoughts on some way to train him, cue him, to know whether the door is open or closed? Thanks.

Thanks for the ideas also phall. My female grey is so great she just moves away from Dune and doesn’t even growl when he steps on her. He is careful to sniff beds to see if she is there but if she is unexpectedly sleeping in the middle of the floor somewhere look out. Although if Dune’s front foot brushes her he does leap to try to avoid her. Sounds like my situation is about as good as it can get. My guy just is too fearless. Not sure what he was doing outside in the dark this morning but I heard bushes rustling in an odd way and then hear him crying. Yikes! I run out and he had gotten his rear leg hung up on a faucet somehow. No damage, well some bruising but nothing more. Silly boy. He just won’t acknowledge he can’t see and so goes places he shouldn’t. The jumping on people is getting better as I’ve gotten firmer about pulling his collar down, but I don’t want to hurt his neck either. The short leashes near doors is a good idea. And most of all I’m just happy to hear about the greys who have lived and thrived despite PRA. Hopefully my guy will too… as long as he learns to slow down a bit.

Eesh. My initial reaction was I wouldn’t really want to do that to my beautiful boy, but I’m an organ donor so why not? As long as UCD paid whatever additional cost. They need the gene info to develop treatment. They have it for… is it a papillon? Some small dog breed. But it is breed specific, unfortunately.

LBass - thanks for the encouragement. It does sound like Nate went blind far younger. Advantage for Dune because he has had some vision for the past year, sufficient time to get a cognitive map of my house and yard in his head before his vision/retina disintegrated nearly completely. And he learned how to jump in my Jeep. I am impressed that he will continue to jump blindly in. I noticed him become a bit disoriented the other day but he and I were quickly able to help him do a reset. My yard has a decent sized rectangular area of grass with river rocks on 3 sides and concrete patio on 1 so Dune can play safely in that area and he has the tactile cues to (hopefully) slow down when he leaves the grass. But if he hears something in the bushes - it could be a bunny after all, he is off at 100mph. 😆 He has also had one corneal scratch so far from a leaf in the yard. I may have to consider some doggles for him, which I’m sure he will hate. Have you had problems with that? I was hoping for a hiking buddy and surprisingly he is quite good as he will go wherever I lead and he stays right by my side. The bigger problem is other ppl who let their dogs approach - he loves ppl but is a bit fear aggressive with other dogs. Makes sense as he can’t read the dogs body language. And if I tell ppl he is blind and can’t see their dog or read the cues they just say “oh” and let their dog approach anyway. 🙄 Then they read my body language! 😡 It’s nice to hear Nate is doing well, has developed a sixth sense, and is loving life because I was so distraught for Dune initially. Nate is lucky to have you. I would not have volunteered to adopt a blind greyhound but I adopt for life and quickly discovered I had adopted a going blind greyhound. So here we are. 😎

Apparently Dune knew I wrote this about him because he was angelic today. Actually I think I was quicker on grabbing his collar before he was sure the leash was coming, so stopped the jumping before it started. I need to use his blindness to my advantage and keep the leash silent until I have hold of him. LBass - thanks so much for the referral. I’ll looked them up, sounds like a good resource. And Spirit made it to 14.5? Wow! Definite sainthood for him. 😇 My first two died due to osteo just before their 9th birthdays - one after 3 yrs of treatment and one after 6 mos. My current girl is 9 and I celebrated big time her making that birthday. She just had a soft tissue sarcoma removed but they got it all and low likelihood of recurrence or metastasis. So yay!! She is good at trying to stay out of the Dune’s way. I think she thinks he’s a pushy clutz, who hogs the jeep space, but not that he is blind. Glad Nate is doing well, because the PRA diagnosis devastated me. I’ll certainly give Dune the best life I can, but I’m in, for me, uncharted territory. I’ve had dogs go blind in old age but a young greyhound- yikes. He still likes to run but it’s scary knowing he can’t see where he is going. Ran right into a tree in the backyard once. And the slider. Scares the heck outta me. It would be different if he sauntered, but he’s generally in a hurry. But I can see him learning to pay attention to the feel/texture of things. (Was kind of funny yesterday he was in the backyard, I knew right where, suddenly I look up and he has vanished. Call his name and I see a greyhound butt backing out of a very narrow space behind my shed. Think he took a wrong turn but wasn’t sure how to course correct until I called him. Poor guy.) Jerilyn - good to know we aren’t alone, eh? Yes, in that state of mind all reason seems to be gone. Silly hounds. Palmettobug you have a good point - I have said many times it’s a good thing I’m not a petite thing because he’d knock me over if I was. I’m 6’ so can keep my balance, at least so far! 😆

I know this is old, but I just wandered back to GreyTalk after a few years away so just saw it. Kiowa Mon Manny is my dog’s grandfather and my 4 yo pup (raced as Deal Master) has PRA. 😔 UCD was a bit unresponsive when I contacted them. Too bad as an answer to this devastating diagnosis would be nice. At the very least stop breeding his offspring. Maybe I should contact UCD again, esp since I have a grandson of the identified dog.

Probably a minivan. I have a Wrangler Unlimited (4 door) that I love. It’s big enough for two hounds (except I have one who is a space hog, so sometimes two is a stretch), but no room for a child.