How do you know that your dog is blind?

Answer 1

Having first had a blind schnauzer puppy (that died at 4 mos.), then a sighted schnauzer puppy, I can tell you my observation of the behavioral differences between the two. All puppies are different, but if you suspect yours is blind, it might be helpful to compare him to these two puppies.

• Our sighted puppy climbs over and around obstacles; our blind puppy would stop and give up.
• Our blind puppy bumped his head on the wall and on furniture often; our sighted puppy does this rarely.
• Our sighted puppy runs to his bed to nap, no matter if it has been moved; our blind puppy would lie on the hard floor unless placed in his bed.
• In a large space, our blind puppy walked in circles; our sighted puppy sees things of interests and heads straight for them.
• Our blind puppy walked with his nose to the ground, smelling as he went along; our sighted puppy looks straight forward.
• Our sighted puppy looks at us in the face; our blind puppy looked at us at our legs or torsos.
• Our blind puppy would sit or lie down in seemingly random positions, often facing the wall; our sighted puppy positions himself to see the goings-on.
• Our blind puppy would stumble upon his toys then play with them briefly; our sighted puppy finds his toys, picks them up, carries them around, then invests more time in playing with them.
• Our blind puppy walked along the sides of the hallway; our sighted puppy walks in the middle.
• Our sighted puppy actively explores all parts of our apartment; our blind puppy appeared to get lost behind the couch, under the bed, etc.
• Our sighted puppy looks directly at objects, even if they are motionless; our blind puppy appeared to look at general areas when sound came from them.
• Our blind puppy engaged people and other dogs by standing still, barking, bowing and touching them with his front paws; our sighted puppy walks up the them and examines them visually.
• Our blind puppy would often try to engage people or dogs after they had already left; our sighted puppy follows them or watches them leave.
• Our blind puppy would step unknowingly off edges of the vet table, off the top step of stairs, off the couch, etc.; our blind puppy stops at the edge and looks down.
• Our blind puppy encountered the bottom step of the stairs and acted as if it were a wall. When his front legs were manually placed on the step, he never made an effort to go up, never thinking there was anything beyond that step worth exploring.

It may seem hard to believe that a pet owner would not be aware that a puppy is blind. Our puppy was blind since birth, but not diagnosed until 3 months of age. We did, however, suspect he was klutzy, dopey, dumb, retarded, mean, antisocial, aloof, etc. because of his behavior. We were embarrassed of his behavior. Once we found out he was blind, everything made sense. We compensated and accommodated. We told people and interactions went much more smoothly. We were deeply proud of our brave blind puppy and totally devastated when he passed away.

• Our sighted puppy seems more clingy and emotionally dependent upon us than our blind puppy was. The sighted puppy cries to be picked up; the blind puppy did not.
• When you know your puppy is blind, you will love him more. Your human instinct to protect those you perceive as weak and vulnerable will kick in.

Answer 2

I would hold something in front of his/her face just to see if he/she could follow it,something that has no smell if he/she could not follow I would take him/her to the vet as soon as I could.

Answer 3

Well, bumping into things, moving more carefully would be one clue.
It will run into things If his/her eyes or black or... if he's makes contact with objects constantly. if he runs into stuff and if his eyes seem foggy.
Just like a human that is having vision problems your dog will begin to bump into stuff and have a hard time finding things. You may notice that your pet is no longer alerted to things moving by if sound does not accompany them. Often times you will notice cloudiness in the eyes usually with a blue tint. Sometimes, you may get a Red-Yellow tint in the cloudiness. Blindness is common in Dogs developing mange. Be careful not to let him/her bump into things, as this can cause a vain/artery to break on the back of the eye, causing a red colour in the eye, which is very noticeable. It is useful to give them a collar with tags that bump into each other, because they can use the sound that bounces off of walls to help them "see" their way through your house.

Trick I learned from the vet: bounce a light ball on her nose if (s)he blinks, (s)he can see, if not (s)he cannot see (:'() See the Related Links for "Pet Place.com: Cloudy Eye in Dogs" to the left for more information. Check out the support group site for blind dogs and their owners. There is a poem there that almost made me cry. Also see link for Board Certified Veterinary Ophthalmologists: You can enter where you live and get a list of local Veterinary Ophthalmologists. After all if you suspect your dog may be going blind you should seek a professional opinion. Here is a link to the blind dogs forum and Diabetes forum, dogs with diabetes can get blindless after years of having undiagnoised diabetes http://blinddogs.yuku.com/ http://k9diabetes.com/forum/index.php
It may begin to run into walls, or run toward your voice and be unable to find you.

Since most dogs can find their food by smell, they usually have no trouble there.
They bump into things.

but they also have wierd eyes, by wierd i mean they can be gray or turn gray.some dogs can be born blindness or turn blind while growning up.

Answer 4

put a wall in front of it adsay here if he hits it its blid

Answer 5

Get something colorful and see it he/she follow it if not tke to the vet and they can tell

Answer 6

well try to see if it can see where it is going and if it cant see take it to thevet right away