How to teach a blind dog to be comfortable with a harness

Blind dogs can’t visually and instantly recognize the situation they are in and what is going to happen to them. It’s disturbing to them. It’s natural that some dogs become overly sensitive and reactive to be touching and/or sounds after they have eye trouble or lost their sight.

If you ignore your blind dog’s feeling of anxiety and/or forcibly do something she hates or feels fear, it would be success only then and there, but it can make things worse because of increasing a feeling of dislike, evoking a feeling of distrust in you, and causing undesirable behaviors.

How to teach a blind dog to be comfortable with a harness

The keys to success of teaching a dog to be comfortable with a novel/ an uncomfortable thing:

  • Breaking the whole into small components and steps, and practicing each single component, step by step
  • Setting up a relax and comfortable environment and carefully adjust distance and intensity of stimulus. Staying calm and relax is needed to think and learn. Keep in mind that you are a part of your dog’s environment. So you should calm and relax first.
  • Offering opportunities to appreciate a blind dog’s voluntary behavior as much as possible. It can develop her self-confidence and self-control.
  • Respecting a blind dog’s feelings. You need to learn dog’s body language and stress signals.
  • Giving choices and enough time to think and decide

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