Living With Blind Dogs: A Resource Book and Training Guide for the Owners of Blind and Low-Vision Dogs, Second Edition

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE this book thank you so very much Caroline Levin!!!If you have BLIND DOG and you're looking for advice/ideas/training/the works then this is your book!!! Don't delay BUY IT NOW!I am sooooooooo glad I did. I'm a prime member and this book once I ordered it, couldn't get here fast enough for me. I was so frustrated, scared, and depressed. And so was my furry gal !!!I started reading it right away, and started putting the ideas and suggestions to work. Let me tell you, what a GODSEND!!!! This book is awesome and as far as I am concerned, is everything you need to get going helping your newly blind or partially blind dog. In my case, my girl went completely blind overnight. It was awful. Don't despair. Help is right here at your fingertips in this amazing book.A critical piece of advice I'd offer is that you also get a pet water fountain pronto!!! I was devastated when my girl couldn't even find the water bowl. I sat there and cried! It was just so sad! The simplest things became so difficult and it was overwhelming to watch her be so helpless. Now about 6 weeks later, we're doing great, she's enjoying life again and we're still learning "new things" and new ways to play and do stuff but we're so much better than when the blindness first struck. With this book you will see there is life and happiness after doggie blindness !!! Don't give up, don't put your beloved furry down! Dogs are so resilient and smart, my girl caught on so fast to commands and the things suggested and shown in this book. And due to her brain tumor she had almost 2 years ago, she's not in the best of health so to speak, and she's doing awesome! Blindness is NOT a death sentence. Don't give up!My other immediate urgent suggestion is that you purchase a doggie water fountain. I bought the Drinkwell Ceramic Avalon pet fountain bowl as it MAKES SOME TRICKLING WATER NOISE that your dog can follow the sound to find the bowl, it's easy to clean and refill too !!!!My story.......Recently my 6 year old Vizsla/Aussie mix rescue a.k.a. my "soulmate furry" that was treated and doing well after radiation for a brain tumor 2 years ago suddenly went blind, diagnosed with SARDS (could be from the tumor coming back, but docs don't think so). Well all of the sudden our world, her world especially, was turned upside down on July 8th.Very depressing for us both, I was so sad to watch her stumble around, she couldn't even find the simplest of things, namely the WATER BOWL !!!!In my frustration and struggling with her new sudden complete blindness, I jumped into action and ordered from Amazon and immediately started reading this very blind dogs book and then searching for a pet fountain that would MAKE NOISE so she could find the water bowl in the house.30 seconds after filling it up and turning it on, she got up out of the kitchen and followed the sound to the water and found the bowl !!!! Imagine my excitement watching her find the bowl on her own!!! Priceless!See my review on the water bowl too for more info. Not all of them make the water trickling noise, so be sure to buy one that does. Silent ones are great if that's what you want for non blind pets......but in my case silence was not what I was seeking.I give this awesome Living With Blind Dogs book by Caroline Levin 5 stars! We thank you Ms. Levin, you rock!!!

If you've just had your dog diagnosed with SARDS, my suggestion is to buy this book immediately. There is a protocol in this book that vets are unaware or unwilling to try that "could" bring back some of your dogs sight. I wish I had discovered it sooner, but it was too late to help recover my dog's sight (it had been over 2 months), but the protocol has kept my dogs healthy and I'm pretty sure it's kept my other dog from going blind like her sister.My 5 year old, mini-dachshund went blind in the middle of a walk (crazy, right?), November 13, 2009. I immediately took her to the emergency vet who diagnosed her with SARDS, which was confirmed by an electroretinograph (ERG). The ophthalmologist suggested having an endocrine test within a few months, but I had one done right away. Her numbers were beyond Cushings results, 'off the charts' high cortisol - my vet diagnosed her with Cushings and suggested having an altrasound done to determine any abnormalities of the adrenal gland (it was normal looking). I'm so glad the internal medicine vet didn't want to start her on the cushings meds right away, because after reading this book, she fit the profile for Atypical Addisons, also known as Adrenal Exhaustion, which is the opposite of Cushings. This book was dead on and my vet had never heard of the correlation of Adrenal Exhaustion with extremely high cortisol and high estrogen numbers (the book explains it). Because I owned this dog's sister (same litter), I started noticing some of the same physical changes her sister went through before she lost her sight (weight gain, veracious appetite, and sagging teat sac), so I had an endocrine test for her as well, and sure enough, she had Atypical Addisons numbers. Needless to say, I tried to convince my vet and even had the author, Caroline Levin (you can contact her directly for a private consultation) call him and he finally agreed to the protocol for both of my dogs. I've had both of my dogs endocrine tested every six months and their numbers are moving back into normal ranges and they've both gone back to their original weight. It's been 3 years and my SARDS dog's sister STILL HAS HER SIGHT and both dogs are doing very well physically and emotionally.My blind dog is so well adjusted no one even knows she's blind unless I tell them. We hike every weekend, off leash - she follows either me or her sister, and crazy enough, leads most of the way on the back end of the trails. She negotiates really rocky areas like a pro - I just tell her "easy does it", or "rock 'n roll" and she kicks it into gear for rough terrain - SHE LOVES TO HIKE! This dog is my hero!Just some encouragement - your blind dog will adjust and SO WILL YOU! This book will help immensely. Just don't panic - your dog will pick up on your stress and it makes it worse for them. LOTS OF AFFIRMATION and attention! And after the first 3 months or so, try not to coddle. Training them to do difficult things, SAFELY, will help them to be more independent and self confident. Oh, and make sure they know the word "STAY" or "STOP" first and foremost!

Gave ideas on what a blind dog needs to learn to stay safe. Good photos.

This book helped me a lot learning to live a a dog that went suddenly blind in less than 3 days. There were a ton of great ideas I didn't even think about--wearing a bell so your pet knows where you are. Most of the ideas you can do cheaply if you just use your imagination. To mark doorways I used an old sheet cut into strips and tied BIG soft knots so the dog touched these before bumping her nose. For training treats, hot dogs sliced very thin are cheap and warmly welcomed by the animals. My Golden is learning to get around quite well, and I don't think this would have been nearly as easy without this book. And I didn't even consider the depression that might set in. Being forewarned by this book, I caught it in my dog and began immediate steps to let her know she CAN still play with her softer toys, play tug-o-war, and even start to search for things (hot dog scent rubbed on her toys help too!) This book was invaluable in so many little things you don't even think about. Finding her way back inside from the back yard was a problem until I used cedar oil dropped on the bottom steps for her to find her way back. Now I'm using different scents to teach her the different rooms of the house (basil for the kitchen, sweet orange for the bedroom, etc.). That way she can come find me when I call to her and tell her what room I'm in. We haven't worked up to the car rides yet, but I can tell with this book we will learn to live a better, fuller life than I ever thought possible when I first discovered her blindness. Thanks for a great book.

When your dog goes completely blind it is devasting, especially at first, and especially if he or she is not an old dog.Our labrador has Progressive Retinal Atrophy a hereditary disease, even though she has an excellent pedigree.She started going blind three years ago and lost her sight in February this year, she also has cataracts as well.There is very little information on how to deal with this and we found this little book very very helpful, at first they do not know where they are but it takes about three to six months to get very very clever, and their noses and ears play a very big part in what they 'see' We need to know they are not human and our vet says all they think is that you have put the light off!!! We wish we could explain to our lovely dog what is really wrong, but they do seem to accept it.It is a very reassuring book and well worth purchasing with lots of helpful tips, at a time when you have so many questions to ask.

Its good book ,but to expensive for black and white print ! Its robbery ! I newer bay again ! 0 stars

I bought this book as a gift for a friend who has a blind puppy and she is really grateful for the useful information and, particularly, the useful tips and ideas for helping her pup.

very good book

Just what I needed at the moment