02/03/2006: "This Lovely New Face!"
Who is this new canine coming into my house!
Once again, so many things have happened since Christmas
Naturally I found the Christmas tree for Mei Mei the Pei Pei ......
now more things.
Where to begin again!
Human left for an entire day not long ago , and came home with a stinky, skinny, ugly, bag of bones shar-pei that for sure has seen better days. Human calls her a "RESCUE"... not sure what that means really, but boy this girl looks like heck!
Pee-ewwww did she stink to high heaven. Why does Human always have to come home with strange things in the car? What can't she come home with cookies, toys and more cookies, just like other humans do.......
The last thing I need is another shar-pei !
You can read about Rescue Sassy's new transition into my home at:
Sassy - Sassafrass Girl comes to roost in Montreal
In the meantime, our morning and evening walks have taken on an entire new twist. There more paws everywhere now. and YOU THOUGHT I was blind? Well this new Sassy girl is blinder than a bat!
This is the new Blind person in our house
More Walking Together
Even More Walking Together
======================== HUMAN NOTES========================
Please check out Merlin the Blind chow who is leading his "girls"... He is
very aware of where Sassy is at all times. You can see his head turn into
her direction whenever she changes sides of him. Sassy finally learned this
morning to stay on his left, on my left on everyone's left. She's trying
amazingly hard for us.
The milder temperatures and abundance of snow is a blessing for Sassy the
Blind Pei when it comes to falling and bumping into things..
We got out there early this morning to start working on some basics like
"heel", "wait", "stay", etc.
Personally, I love "long lining"... it's a wonderful way to allow the dog to
discover their own world at their own pace with the human at the "helm" for
the moments where safety or control are needed, stair edges, curbs, traffic,
voice commands, etc. This technique can be applied to any blind dog, young
or old, big or small.
I generally start with teaching voice commands,(not useful with deaf dogs of
course), then following through with physical exercises, which generally
include day to day common obstacles, (chairs, stairs, walls, sidewalks,
etc.).. The more they can be encourage to do "away", from the handler, the
more confident and self sufficient they become. This has been my experience.
You can long line your blind dog inside or outside. There are no
limitations.
Snow is particularly difficult for Sassy as she can't cheat with light and
shadow. Her entire depth perception, colour shadeing and texture differences
are completely nullified with snow, so yesterday and the day before, Sassy
spent much of her time banging into snow banks, and not seeing the edge of
patio stairs and walking right off. By this morning we do have her
"feeling" out with her front paw for the edge of things. Gosh she's a smart
girl. We really enjoy working with her. I hope to take a movie of this to
demonstrate to new blind dog owners, just how a dog "feels" with their feet.
Yesterday, Sassy got to meet everyone on the street, who she finally let
pat her, hug and kiss her even give her tummy tickles.
Socialization is more than important for Sassy right now, and she's not fond
of being touched. No kidding... blind dogs cannot see the human hands
coming... all of a sudden they "feel" something, so this can be very
startling. Her tail is still up in the air and not between her legs so we
know she's feeling more and more comfy. This morning she even showed a sign
of wanting to play....
For those of you not up to date, Sassy is a rescued Chinese Shar-pei from
MAINE who we are fostering. Until we get to the vet tonight, we
are not quite sure about the gravity of the blindness or if it will be
permanent. Naturally, we are keeping our fingers crossed that it can be
corrected.
Sassy is truly a very special girl and the Maine rescue crew have truly
honoured us, by entrusting us with her safety, welfare and growth! I know
Sassy was very special to them. We won't let them down. We'll have Sassy
jumping through hoops and saving kids from burning buildings anytime soon!
Then we'll change her name from Sassy to SUPER SASS!
We are really happy with her progress in just two little days!
We're off the work with Sassy in tow!
====UPDATE JAN 2006===========
We've adopted Sassy - We are now known as FOSTER FLUNKIES!
Just TRY to take this doll away from us...... just try !!!!
Sassy gets to live here forever!