Nate and I took in a foster dog last week. Sooner Golden got a call from the shelter a few weeks ago saying they had a Golden, and asked if the rescue could take her in (since her time at the shelter was up, and no one had come to claim her). When I heard that the rescue had taken this particular dog in, I knew I had to foster her. She is at least 10 years old, but probably closer to 11 or 12. She has severe allergies, inflamed ears, and a skin condition, all for which she has to be medicated every day, several times a day.
But the challenging part is that she is disabled. She is both deaf and blind. We have named her Helen (as in Keller). Despite her disabilities, she is the sweetest dog you could ever meet. We just LOVE her. She hasn't made a peep since we took her in, she doesn't whine or bark. She came to us already house trained and crate trained. I don't think she has ever been on carpet before. She is constantly wallowing on our carpet. :) Not sure she has had toys to play with in a long while, but she loves toys, especially puzzle toys (the ones that make you work to get the treat out of). FYI - She hasn't always been blind and deaf, those both came with age.
I called around to about a dozen different dog training businesses in the greater Tulsa area, trying to find someone that was equipped to train a blind/deaf dog. Most people had only trained a blind dog, or only trained a deaf dog. No one had trained a dog with a double disability like that. Finally, I was SO thankful to finally get ahold of Tiffany Talley, owner of All Things Canine. She has experience training dogs with disabilities, and generously offered to donate her services to the rescue in order to give this poor dog some training. Our first Obedience session is tomorrow night. Obedience is critical for a disabled dog. See, if Helen cannot see a car coming, hear a horn honk at her, or tell if she is in any other sort of danger. So this training will be vital, especially when we take her out in public. A little training will also do her well (I hope) because she is SO stinking stubborn! When she doesn't want to get up, she will stiffen her body and will not get up, forcing us to have to lift her to get her up and around. So I hope the training will help ease her stubborn side. :)
I am so excited to have this dog. I always love a challenge. In fact, all of the dogs (Helen makes #8) we have fostered have been "special needs" in some form or another, but never to this extent. I am excited to see how she will perform in Obedience. I bought her a special bandana from a website last week. The bandana is yellow, and in giant red letters, it says "I am deaf and blind". That way, when I take her out in public, people don't reach over and try to pet her, startling her. She startles very easily.
We will be taking Helen to the Dog Dish this Tuesday for an Ice Cream Social Event they will be hosting for the public. If you have a dog, or if you love dogs, you should come! They provide ice cream for humans and special doggy ice cream for all of the fur-kids present. Helen needs that socialization and stimulation. She misses out on visual and auditory stimulation, so she has to make up for that with scent and taste. What better way than to indulge in a little doggy ice cream!
Anyways, here are a couple of pics of Helen (Nate calls her Stevie... as in Stevie Wonder). The first one is her shelter pic. The second, third, and fourth ones were taken at my house. By the way, the red thing going across her face is called a Gentle Leader. It's a facial harness. It allows us to control her head movements so that she doesn't run her face into the wall.
Helen, sleeping on the livingroom floor.
Don't tell Nate, but I think I'm going to keep her. :)
Better go. Cami is lying here staring at me, waiting for me to feed her.
