Removing sight might enhance other senses

12 Feb 2017

This is part two of ‘Knee injuries and changes in the brain’.  See last week’s blog on the subject.  In last week’s blog I discussed that the same findings and suggestions for humans (i.e. at end stage rehab following a knee injury, we need to retrain the brain to help with positional awareness / proprioception of joints) that we could do the same for dogs in rehab.

Since writing last week’s article, it has come to mind that the following will be good suggestions for recovering Vestibulitis cases as well.  So here are some things I played with at home on Friday!

I used a blindfold acquired from an airline when travelling overseas some time ago.  I put the fabric over my dog’s eyes, the straps over her ears, and then clipped the straps together, using a tiny hairclip, under her chin.  To my surprise, she was amazingly compliant!!!

Then I simply had her balance on flat land, then I lifted one leg, and then I added a displacement force.

She’s very food motivated, so I had some pieced of kibble to keep her focused, rewarded, eager to please!

Because she did so well, I then went on to have her balance on an unstable surface.  It’s important to note that not all people have fancy balance equipment at home – especially pet-dog people, so I looked around my basement and decided to use two pillows and have her stand on them while blindfolded.

She wanted to sit, and if I wasn’t doing double duty, with the camera & cookies, I would have likely had one hand under her tummy just to let her know that I expected her to stand.  (Providing as minimal support as I could get away with and still have the exercise be challenging but safe.)

She was a Rockstar at these exercises, so I tried her out with moving over an obstacle.

She went up, on, and over… all blindfolded!

And then lastly, I thought, what about getting her to follow a cookie, blindfolded, walking through the snow?  Voila!

So, these were just a few things I tried.  You could make it more difficult, using inflatable balance equipment, or a treadmill.  As one person had remarked last week, any kind of backing up would be an advanced proprioceptive skill / exercise as well.

Okay folks, so see what you can come up with as well… (And take photos or videos… and share with me if you would!)

That’s it for this week!

Cheers!  Laurie