Seeing Eye Goose for a Blind Dog. Seeking Advice

[Cluckcluck1215]

Another option-

If you can't handle with having a goose in the house, or the hassle of a puppy peeing on and ruining the carpet, or chewing on chair or table's......
Try getting a kitten.

Kittens don't need a companion(they should growing up, but are mainlysolitary)
Very easy to care for
NO MESS

And she/he will bond with your dog. If you have ever read the book "Unlikely Friendship's" you would have seen the Blind Dog and the Seeing Eye Cat.

If you can handle a cat, Go for it. And a plus side, the cat can help your dog, Inside or out.


(I understand that cat's are very easy in care, but there diet has to be very carefully selected for a healthy and happy life. For more cat nutrition information, shoot me a PM, I know quite a bit about the do's and the don'ts of cat foods )

 

[ChicagoDucks]

Another option-

If you can't handle with having a goose in the house, or the hassle of a puppy peeing on and ruining the carpet, or chewing on chair or table's......
Try getting a kitten.

Kittens don't need a companion(they should growing up, but are mainlysolitary)
Very easy to care for
NO MESS

And she/he will bond with your dog. If you have ever read the book "Unlikely Friendship's" you would have seen the Blind Dog and the Seeing Eye Cat.

If you can handle a cat, Go for it. And a plus side, the cat can help your dog, Inside or out.


(I understand that cat's are very easy in care, but there diet has to be very carefully selected for a healthy and happy life. For more cat nutrition information, shoot me a PM, I know quite a bit about the do's and the don'ts of cat foods )

We can't have cats. 2 people in the family with allergies. Thanks though.

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

We can't have cats. 2 people in the family with allergies. Thanks though.

Ah. That's a problem.

Unless you want to get one of those hairless cats *shudder*

 

[Rickba]

We can't have cats. 2 people in the family with allergies. Thanks though.

My wife and I are lucky, the way we love animals, it would be a curse to have an animal allergy. We have to have all kinds of animals around us. Now that the kids are grown and gone, they are our children now.

 

[MrsMistyReal]

In my opinion anything is possible. Your fur baby is so blessed to have a thoughtful, caring, being..Wishing you the very best. Please keep us posted

 

[Ruralhideaway]

I love geese, they are smart and emotional animals. That being said I have a blind dog. I have no geese at the moment so haven't seen them interact.

The thing with blind dogs that I'm seeing is that as time goes by and she's getting older theres developed some tendency for the dog to snap first and explore later to see what she just snapped at. She's always sorry, it's usually a cat she snaps at and they are friends, but a little defensive/startled biting is likely to occur. They just get a bit jumpy. A kitten or gosling could easily be injured.

This dog does everything she's always done, explores the yard, tries to chase barn cats that run, runs up and down stairs. She can handle me rearranging furniture no problem. The other senses really have taken over. I'm not sure she'd do well with a foreign species though. A goose would know your dog from hatch but the dog wouldn't speak the same language as the goose.

I'd think a young collie would make a great friend if you'd consider another dog. Collie females are truly fantastic caretakers by nature. Just a thought, I think any of the herding types could do it.

 

[ChicagoDucks]

Here is our dog. She is a 6 year old female mix breed that we adopted as a puppy. She was raised her whole life around ducklings, ducks and little kids. She is adapting well to blindness, and she is getting better every day and is as goodnatured as ever. She isn't aggressive, and has never snapped at the kids, the ducks or ducklings.

We have wanted to raise a few geese anyway, so we are going to give this a try and see if I can get our dog and gosling to bond and work with one another. If it fails, we'll still have other geese and ducks for gosling(s) to flock with.

Here is gist of the plan: We will hatch a few goslings in mid-May. We will select one or two goslings and try to get them to imprint on the dog. By early June, the kids and I will be spending most of our time outdoors. We will outfit the goslings with bells, so the dog can hear them. We will have the dog and the goslings on the same feeding, training and treat schedule (with separate bowls of feed and different feed and treats, obviously). The goal will be to have the dog and the goslings move around the yard together and learn to pick up queues from each other. If that goes well, then in July we'll work on some basic obstacle training. I don't really expect the goslings to be trained, more like they would be acclimated to moving with the dog around the yard.

That's the plan. If anyone's got constructive feedback, I'd like to hear it. Otherwise, the next update will be at the end of May.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

Good luck, hope it goes well.

Just to make sure I made sense, our blind dog never bit at the house cats she was raised with, they've always been here, she knew them prior. This is my daughters childhood dog, very good natured. Nor did she snap at them the first approx 2 years she was blind. She's 9 or 10, been blind over 3 years now. Being startled into biting has slowly developed into an issue that our vet says is common. A minor issue because she's not chasing things down, its a quick snap followed by apologetic tail wagging.