Living With Blind Dogs: A Resource Book and Training Guide for the Owners of Blind and Low Vision Dogs

"Living With Blind Dogs" is the first and only how-to book published on this topic. It embodies helpful hints from dozens of blind-dog owners, as well as years of ophthalmic nursing, veterinary, and dog-training experiences.

From Chapter 5: If you have ever owned more than one dog, or if you have known several dogs, you've probably realized that they each have personalities of their own. Like humans, dogs are individuals, and as such they respond to hardship and stress in a variety of ways.

In general, dogs that go blind gradually, young in life and are not the pack leaders make a faster and easier adjustment to blindness. Older, frail, dominant dogs, and those that lose their vision suddenly, can sometimes experience more difficulty. Blind dog owners report this adjustment can typically take three to six months, but certainly there are instances where it has taken much longer. It is possible for you to help ease this transition.