or… how we came to now have a deaf, smelling, lumpy, old dog.
A couple of years before getting Nicodemus (aka Nicky) we had another dog – Beauty. She was named for Beauty & The Beast. A more appropriate name would have been Beast. She was a pup and we got her from an animal shelter. One issue I had with her was she would pee whenever she got excited. That meant any time anyone came into the house. As annoying as that was, that wasn’t why we got rid of her. It turns out she was psychotic.
The kids were young at the time. Theresa must have been 5 & Steve 8. Beauty didn’t like Theresa. It wasn’t anything Theresa did. Both my kids were used to dogs & knew how to behave around them. Psycho Beast would just look at Theresa from across the room and growl at her. When Beauty… uh, I mean Beast, went to bite her, that was it. The dog was out of here.
2 years later, one of our writer friends got a dog – a black lab. I love labs. We had the sweetest yellow lab growing up. Whenever anyone came into the house, Sammy would go to the door to greet them – carrying a sneaker. He had to greet everyone with a gift & it was usually my brother’s sneaker. Sammy was also terrified of thunder and fireworks. During a thunderstorm, he once managed to climb into the bathtub to hide.
Pam lived in Delaware & she got her pup from a breeder in Pennsylvania. She was going on about this dog so much. Phoebe was the smartest dog ever. And adorable. Phoebe’s parents & grandparents were fine specimens and with no hip problems & her father was Amish. (The dog being Amish has nothing relevant to add to the story. I just think that it’s cool.)
Pam was a self proclaimed expert on everything including being able to tell how healthy a dog line was. Because I am an idiot and believe people, I figured she wouldn’t be saying it if it wasn’t true. (Now that does have something relevant to the story.)
I innocently asked if there were any more pups from the litter. Before you knew it, our family was heading out in a car to Delaware to meet up with Pam. Then off to Pennsylvania where we watched Phoebe run around with her siblings. And there was Nicky. He was the only one out of the litter that wasn’t pure black. He has a patch of white on his chest. He also had the longest ears I ever saw on a lab. Seriously long. As in long enough to trip over.
He has been a dream dog. Great disposition, smart. It did turn out that Pam was wrong about the hip thing, though and we had to shell out some major bucks for hip surgery when he was a pup. Other than that, Nicodemus has been a great dog.
He still views Theresa as his playmate. Now that he’s deaf, they can’t play one game that they used to, though – hide & seek. Ever since she was about 7 or 8, she’d tell him to sit & stay. She’d hide and then yell out, “Ready!” and he’d go looking for her. When he’d find her there would be a lot of tail wagging and licking. When she comes home, he still will greet her with a toy.
For some reason I always thought Nicky was a small dog. No idea where I got that from.
We had a dog that became deaf and blind in his old age. He was an awesome dog with a fabulous disposition. He always barked when the doorbell rang unless it was the pizza man…then he begged at the door. When he stopped barking, we realized he was becoming deaf. We knew he was blind when he’d walk into things like the garage (a little too big not to notice) and poor pup would just back up, turn left a little bit, and try again eeyore style. No idea why I’m telling this.
Lanny and Monk,
I’ve had experience with dogs with bad eyesight, but not totally blind. What happens when the dog is in familiar grounds. Can the sense of smell and hearing keep it from bumping into things? Did the dogs seem fearful when they lost their sight?
Hi Dave,
For the most part, my dog was fine inside the house. We did have to make an effort not to move furniture or leave a stray box around because that would cause trouble for him. He had more trouble outside. He did not really seem too scared, but if you approached him when he was asleep, it did startle him. He never got aggressive or mean though.
I hope that helps some.
Thanks, Lanny. It just seems that dogs have more capabilities than they are usually given credit for. I’m just trying to figure out how dogs navigate when blind. I realize they rely on their vision much less than most animals, but still, it’s pretty impressive to me that they can learn how to maneuver so quickly after losing vision.
Dogs are supposed to have a lousy sense of time, but they seem to be able to figure out short-term versus longer-term situations. For example, I was just at my friends’ Uday and Laura’s house. They have a great dog, who is usually well-behaved, but he goes into hyper-mode when Uday is away, as he will be for ten days. Even on the second day, he started barking every time anyone got off the elevator or he heard a strange sound. It’s pretty clear that either he thinks he is the alpha-dog now (Uday is the taskmaster) or else that he has become primary watchdog know that only the wife and daughter are home. But how did he know that Uday was gone for a while instead of just for the day?
None of our dogs ever became deaf or blind so this is all new for me. It’s an adjustment realizing we can’t call Nicky. He actually does know a few hand signals although he still won’t listen to Theresa.
I can’t imagine dealing with him if he were deaf AND blind. I was singing Pinball Wizard yesterday. He didn’t seem to notice.
You need to run out right now and get a new lab puppy to help
Nicky stay young and so you won’t be alone when he is gone…LOL
I know, no more dogs.
My little dog Koko is starting to lose her sight. One eye has turned white but she still has some sight out of it. I dread the future if it she goes blind. She is a little nervous dog anyway.