The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMy dog is a Jedi...
My rescue pup, Jack, has Type 1 diabetes and has lost his sight because of it.
However, this am, as I was playing fetch with my other rescue pup, Logan, I threw the ball and, inexplicably, Jack jumped up and caught it in mid-air!
Did Obi-wan tell him to "use the force"?
(PS - that made my day )
tblue37
(65,340 posts)Dogs are amazing.
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)My Jack, despite going blind, never ceases to amaze me with how he's adapted to his blindness.
tblue37
(65,340 posts)their other senses, especially smell. Just as we use to some (far lesser) degree smell and tactile awareness (air pressure, air movement), and sound, too, but mainly our vision, dogs use their vision, but to a much greater degree their sense of smell, which is at least 100,000 times more powerful than ours.
Dogs have 2 billion olfactory receptors, compared to 40 million for humans! A wolf can smell prey almost 2 miles away. Dogs also hear way better than we do. Your pup probably could both hear and smell exactly where that ball was.
Remember how Magic Johnson used to successfully pass the basketball behind his back, through multiple defenders, and to a specific teammate, while moving rapidly in another direction and not even glancing in the direction of his targeted receiver? He was using a highly developed sense of visual awareness. Once he saw where everyone was, as well as how, where, and how fast they were moving, he instantaneously and without conscious calculation predicted where the opening and his target would be, and at what moment. He then could deceive the defenders chasing him by looking and moving in a direction completely unconnected to where he would send the ball.
Your dog pulled off the same feat, using his sense of smell and his hearing rather than vision. Probably both Magic Johnson and your dog also unconsciously let their awareness of air movement and pressure reinforce and clarify positioning as well.
I am severely hearing impaired. I am far more aware than most people of how sensitive we are to air movement and air pressure, because I use it to inform me of when someone is moving around me--entering or leaving the room, approaching me from outside of my visual field, etc. I can usually tell, too, whether the person is large or small.
Vision is, if you will excuse the counterintuitive metaphor, loud in humans. It drowns out our awareness of the input from our other senses, even when we receive and respond to that multivalent input.
You could train your pup to be even more of a Jedi by playing catch with progressively more difficult tosses, so he can gradually build up his awareness of variations in the smell, sound, and movement of the ball as it is rolled, tossed low, tossed higher, etc.
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)Recently, I bought a liveaboard boat that I'd planned to spend the summer on, but my biggest concern was how Jack would adapt to it. A friend at work suggested putting a blanket on the couch in the salon that smelled like him. It worked very well since it gave Jack a "smelly" target from which to mark other points in the boat (stairs, etc). Obviously, he wears a life jacket throughout.
tblue37
(65,340 posts)training him so we can watch how his game develops.
In fact, if you collect enough videos of him learning to play catch and also doing other cute, clever doggie things while blind, you can start a FaceBook page for him, make him an internet star and sell "Jack the Jedi" merchandise. (I assume you know about Oscar the blind cat.) Jack could maybe end up supporting his own kibble and toy needs.
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)Stellar idea!!!
tblue37
(65,340 posts)Maybe call it "Jack the (Blind) Jedi."
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)But will certainly post it here.
Maraya1969
(22,479 posts)Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)...but rejected for whatever reason. I met him in a shelter near the puppy mills and fell in love.
Danascot
(4,690 posts)After her eyes were removed due to cataracts and painful swelling we figured her bug stalking days were over. We were shocked to see she could still do it blind! The mothed-avenger lives!
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,683 posts)I know of a blind cat who's like that. She can jump onto and off of high tables and shelves, pounce on toys that you can't figure out how she knows where they are, and generally behaves like she can see perfectly. She never bumps into anything.
Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)BarbD
(1,192 posts)a fascinating phenomenon. It is something that in my 80 years I have explored with many dogs and am still in the process of learning.
Duppers
(28,120 posts)with me. She knew when I was upset even before I could take a breath. She must have sensed my BP and hormones? She'd come to my side to comfort me. I loved my dogs and cats, more than most people.
procon
(15,805 posts)My niece fosters dogs and she had a blind Cocker last year who could play fetch with a noise making ball as good as any sighted dog. There are sound balls for blind people, and now you can buy balls and toys that make sounds for your blind dogs and cats, also toys with flashing LEDs for deaf pets.
I have a Giggle Ball for my dog, she's not blind but it makes funny giggling noises when it rolls or moves. There's also a Babble Ball that makes animal sounds that I want to order from Amazon, those might be a fun way to stimulate your dog's play activities.
https://www.amazon.com/Pet-Qwerks-Animal-Sounds-Babble/dp/B000PCF1MK/ref=pd_sim_199_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000PCF1MK&pd_rd_r=6KNDQNC42MRJKWZXZ621&pd_rd_w=TWcuU&pd_rd_wg=JVajX&psc=1&refRID=6KNDQNC42MRJKWZXZ621
https://www.blinddogtoys.com/category/blind-dog-toys/balls-that-make-sound/
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)VANCOUVER Canadians can sample the Beyond Meat veggie burger made to look and taste like beef at A&W restaurants starting today.
The burger chain partnered with California-based Beyond Meat to create a plant-based burger that it is now serving at its more than 925 restaurants across Canada.
The company, whose investors include Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio, makes its Beyond Meat burger with beets to mimic beef's red colouring, and coconut oil and potato starch to give it a similar juiciness and chew.
.........
Beets instead of blood...
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)...and I love me burgers! I hope they come to NY!
eppur_se_muova
(36,261 posts)apparently there are two pathways to the visual centers of the brain, and sometime only one of them is damaged. If the one that is more important for sensing movement is undamaged, the patient can catch a thrown ball but cannot consciously perceive it or describe it. That may be an oversimplification due to lapsed memory. Pretty sure I read about it in V.S. Ramachandran's "Phantoms in the Brain", although it *might* have been one of Oliver Sack's books.
Laffy Kat
(16,377 posts)She amazes me every day. Compensation is a wonderful gift of nature.