The dogs here at Windhaven are driving me nuts. Haha. There I said it. It’s the truth. Two senior geriatrics and one hyper yearling. I love them to death, so this is just a little random bit of whining on my part, but I have to say, they are not exactly fitting into the dream farm vision at the moment.

First up, we have Dingo. Old Dingo is now officially blind. Pretty much he was loosing his sight when he first came to live with us, but now, he’s blind. Totally. So he is bumping into things and falling down stairs and just pretty much disoriented a lot of the time. He didn’t have enough time here to get a good lay of the land, so the old dodger is really having a rough transistion time.

Now you should know us well enough that we are not giving up on him at all and are trying our very best to help him out. We belled Evee, which really did help. He and she were having these nasty little fights because I’m pretty sure, he wasn’t picking up on some of her little bitchy dog moves and she would launch into him for his disrespect of her status. Poor Dingo wouldn’t have a chance and it was getting a little annoying on Evee’s part. So by putting a bell on her, he knows to get outta her way and the fights have dropped away to nearly none. And he can follow her around in the yard somewhat.

And we are super careful with him around stairs, guiding him gently to his landing points so he can start to learn what to do. His food and water are ALWAYS in the same place so he can find them and we are crating him at night so he behaves with the potty factor. He will get disoriented when he wants to go out and will just give up and pee whereever he is! Ugh!

We read a bunch of websites about blind dogs and are trying to impliment as many ideas as we can. I’ve never worked with a blind dog before, so any suggestions would be wonderful! I just want to make sure that his quality of life is as good as we can make it.

Gypsy is doing fairly well, her hair is all grown back and no more skin ailment. But she’s moving so rough, and hardly ever gets up much from her bed. She only have two steps down to go outside, but often she panics and then ends up sprawling on the landing or getting all anxious and weird. Trying to get all three out the door is like a real circus. If any of Gypsy’s rugs are moved, she freaks out. She doesn’t like to walk on wood or laminate floors so we’ve had to make this trail of rugs for now, and she uses them as carpeted stepping stones.

Once outside, she doesn’t like to go very far in the dog yard, so she’ll pretty much just sit at the door and whine. I try and take her with me on walks every day, to help keep her moving but she really would rather be in the house, on her bed snoozing. I guess I understand, she’s 14 and a half now, almost 15. Very very rare for her breed to go that long. She’s ancient!

And then there is Miss Evee…. oh my gosh. She is a bundle of energy trapped at a canine retirement home! She runs circles around the old dogs and just keeps us hopping with her endless energy. And when she is not being entertained, we have to watch her carefully, because she’s started to chew on things in frustration now. Can’t leave her out in the dog yard for long because she thinks every other animal on the farm is evil and barks constantly at them. Birds, hens, sheep, anything. And if she’s not barking at livestock, she’s barking at cars, trucks, trains or anything that passes the house.

We’ve tried and tried to introduce her to the livestock. Taken her out on the leash to meet the sheep. That was a trip, Lilly took one look at her and ran and head butted her before we could see it coming! So of course, then Evee had her suspicions confirmed… sheep are evil. We have brought hens over and showed her that they were ours and such and still she can’t stand to see them. She watches us with the little chicks in the house or the bunnies and just can’t stand it, starts to bark and we have to end the session. Not really sure what to do to stop her from wanting to protect us from the livestock. I believe it is a protective thing, she will be fine as long as they stay a certain distance from us or the house. As soon as a sheep is too close to the house, Evee springs into panic dog. Ugh…

We’re going to be signing Evee and Jessy up for some fun dog classes, and I’m hoping that will help a little bit to open up Evee’s social circles and acceptance of other animals. Part of me thinks that she needs a youthful companion of her own species to ping off and hang with, perhaps something a little laid back… haha… but the idea of adding another dog to the pack is just well, I dunno… too much for me! I know that both Gypsy and Dingo are on their last legs, just getting very elderly and it’s only time before we loose one or both. And I know that the last three months have been a lot of mental overload for Evee… lots and lots of changes, so we’re patient… still… I’m definitely needing a little advice on the barking thing. Anyone have any good suggestions? I’m not afraid to ask and admit training failure in this one… I’ve had pretty good luck training our dogs over the years, it’s just this little Aussie girl is pure energy, brains and gumption! And I thought Belgians were hard to train!

I’ve thought about getting one of those citronella spritz collars to help with the barking. I’m sure she will wear it out at first, but at least we’ll get the benefit of mosquito control as she works the yard for us. Just put it on when she is outside. See if that helps some. And we’re going to start building a few of the dog agility props to work her on, see if we can change her focus a bit when she is outside. I know she’s still young, only just turned a year at the end of March. She still has a little more growing and wisdom to learn. Still… she’s developing some distasteful habits that I’d like to see slowly eased out…

Sigh… okay, I’m done. Just thought I’d share my less than wonderful bit of my life at the moment, so you know that everything is not buttercups and rainbows here at the farm! When folks think that the hens and sheep are a lot of work, I think, no, they are EASY… it’s the dogs that are a LOT of work lately…