Don't Be Sad...The Future Smells Great!

The news that your pup is going or has gone blind is terrifying. We think about it as it would affect us. Vision is the primary means of collecting data about the world for us humans, so the thought of losing this major source of data is devastating. For dogs though, it's not the same. Dogs primarily view the world through their noses, with hearing and sight as secondary and third senses. It would be similar to us losing our sense of taste. We would certainly be losing something and parts of our lives might not be as rich, but we could certainly make that up in other ways and have a fantastic life. Similarly, since dogs vision isn't as important to them, they lose some data, but are still able to have lots of experiences that provide a rich and full life.

Losing their vision will certainly be hard on them and they very well may experience some depression and some clumsiness. Remember, though, that they are losing one small part of their data collection abilities. Also, without visual data taking up bandwidth, they'll be able to analyze other sensory data. They don't lose a lot, in the long term, they just get it differently. Humans learn to echolocate by rewiring so the visual-processing parts of the brain process auditory data. It's kind of like a laid-off coal miner being taught to write computer code. They can't do what they used to do, so let's teach them a totally new skill that they can excel at.

Your dog will adjust, it is just dependent on a lot of factors: health, personal resilience, age at time of loss, how quickly they lost sight, quality of their support system. If you have an old, not-super-healthy dog that lost their vision suddenly, all is not lost. It might take them longer to rewire their brain and they may not do so as well as a young dog or one born blind, but with you as their cheerleader, trainer and friend, they will also adjust. Don't give up. The future smells great.