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Sunday, December 27, 2020

Black Dog Sunday

Despite congenital elbow dysplasia and being blind, our Black Dog adored sprinting through the snow, and he loved it most of all when he was racing his sister.


As many probably remember, R had a number of elbow surgeries, including an elbow replacement called "CUE". After his CUE surgery, I did a ton of rehab with him. It turned out that his rehab exercises were something that both of us loved doing. I'd been close to R prior to that surgery but our daily rehab games brought our bond to a new level. I think that he felt the same way.

By the last year of his life, many of the exercises were getting harder for him because of his blindness. We stopped some of them but continued doing the ones that he loved most. His favorite of them was a chair game. I called it "doing chairs", and R would started barking as loud as he could when I asked him if he wanted to "do chairs". I wish that I'd kept the barking part of the videos but, alas, I did not.

To play the game, I lined up a bunch of chairs on the deck. R crawled forward and then backward through them. It was utterly amazing to me that he could still do this game when he was blind.

Here's is a video of R playing this game just about a year ago. Enjoy the video and smile for our Black Dog today.

16 comments:

  1. I remember seeing that chair game for the first time and he did it so well. R was always the happiest boy♥

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  2. Hari OM
    I remember this very well - he was such a trooper!!! YAM xx

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  3. he was truly an amazing dog, before he lost his sight and after. i remember the chair video and it is as good now as then.

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  4. So amazing that he was happy to reverse as well as go forward.

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  5. Wow, watching him reverse is pretty darn impressive. Knowing he was blind at the time is inspiring.

    Take care, stay well!

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  6. Hey was such a sweetie guy and so smart.

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  7. Happy Black Dog Sunday. the chair game was my favorite too. So amazing how well R did almost like he had curb feelers he did it with such ease
    Hugs Cecilia

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  8. R sure did his exercises with such joy. He sure was a special boy.

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  9. That exercise is quite remarkable! And he did it so incredibly well!

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  10. looking at this again, I can see that R was the MOST amazing Black Dog ever, And what a memory to hold forever.

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  11. I remember how dedicated you were in training R and firmly believe that his life would not have been the same without you by his side. What a team!

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  12. I remember seeing him doing this, but not after he was blind! He was such an amazing dog! ♥

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  13. Agree 100% with Nancy J. What a guy (and what a gal!)! The countless hours of rehab you did with R sure paid off, in both improved mobility and that special bond.

    Cheers,
    Chris from Boise

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  14. And I will remind Obi that he is, in fact, NOT too tall to go under our patio chairs...

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  15. That's almost like going through a tunnel. But the blind part and the backing part and the part where he backed in open space to one more chair...amazing.

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