Barking

Ely has never been much of a barker. I think those days are over. When she barked in the past, it's been very directed. There's a evangelist at our front door and she's staring out the window at them, barking like she'll eat them if she gets a chance (I swear I didn't teach her that). This morning I came out into the living room to investigate her barking. Standing in the middle of the room barking up towards the ceiling. Our doggie house guest, Tobey, was just looking at her, then to me and back.

Everyone in our household dogs and humans have relaxed and are working on acceptance of the huge change that's happened. Tobey seemed to be really impacted and nervous around Ely last week (I'm sure that had NOTHING to do with the human anxiety) but is just fine now. All dogs and people actually slept through the night! Ely seems to be getting more confident and comfortable maneuvering the house daily. Yesterday she was running out the back door without pause! I can still hear her running into various things in other rooms, but it's less walls and doors and more chairs or Tobey.

I've ordered a stack of books about how to train blind dogs, blind dog health, and of course blind dog inspirational stories. I contacted a local dog trainer and am thinking about taking her to obedience classes. As many of you may know, she's not really trained. Luckily she's a good dog, so it's worked out, but let's hope you can teach an old dog new tricks. Yesterday Tobey's mom got treats out for them and told them both to sit and shake and Ely did that just fine! Of course, she was about to give herself whiplash moving her head around so much trying to find the treat. We all got a good laugh out of that.

I also ordered a harness for her that has a handle so I can help guide her. Dr. McDreamy was trying to sell me on Doggles (http://www.doggles.com/) to help protect her eyes. I'm not sure that's going to go over so well with the little Beastie. For now, we'll just keep to open spaces.