New to AIHA, dog in trouble – Page 10 – Second Chance AIHA Dogs

Rick

Guest

Hello again everyone.
Yesterday was a bit of a better day. I was able to close out a number of Brandy related issues and her toys, beds and dishes went to the local shelter though her favorites are packed away for later.

I cannot thank you enough for the support. I know all of you have been through so much and it really pained me to bring the sad news about Brandy.

I wish you could have known her. I have been thinking about how to quantify what made her so special. She had an immense personality and huge intelligence.
It wasn’t intelligence like you see with Border Collies that are capable of being trained to do anything but much more human.
She absolutely knew what you wanted but that really had no bearing on her behavior. She also had a unique knack for bending human will to her bidding :)
We called her belligerent but it wasn’t just being stubborn. She had free will and was fully aware of it. If she wanted, you could see her as the sweetest little pup on the planet (all the doctors and vets absolutely adored her ) but if she wanted you to do something, you really didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t about us training her (for the most part training bored her since she picked everything up easily) it was much more about her training us.
We got her from a rescue shelter in Bellingham WA at 6 months. At the shelter she appeared to be timid but she immediately went to work establishing herself as alpha.

I previously told you about some of her health issues, but I wanted to make it clear that her personality would never tolerate sympathy. It was quite the opposite – she took everything thrown at her and owned it.

Brandy went blind at age 5 (Progressive Retinal Atrophy). It didn’t really slow her down.
Really she just became focused on scent and sound instead of sight, and everyone who met her would not believe she was blind (until she ran into them).
She knew she was blind, but she believed everyone else was also blind and that she had a better idea than anyone where we should go. She of course learned sound commands very well and I had a series of words and noises that she actually followed to avoid running into obstacles.

Researching her blindness led me to the Addison’s diagnosis and her health was massively improved after she started low dose Prednisone. Other than one incident she was 100% healthy from age 5 until the last few weeks.

I am finding that almost all of my routine centered around her. Avoiding obstacles like blackberry bushes on the trails, keeping an eye on her at all times so she doesn’t run into trees, soccer goalposts, curbs, making sure that kitchen drawers, dishwasher etc are never left open, moving obstacles on the floor.
I continuously feel like I should be doing something.

Yesterday was all about Ripley (the Weimaraner). I realized that Brandy’s brother hasn’t been given much attention, and not just over the past month due to Brandy being so high maintenance. So now he gets special attention. We did some training, went on several long walks and played with his toys.
He has always been quite aloof so I’m not sure he likes it. Oh well…

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