So Helpful

AP here:
My last Pyr and other dogs that have lived with me were always very eager to "help" in the yard whenever there was work to be done. Tonka has never really cared much what you are doing in the yard unless it involves digging or sticks then he wants to "help".
 http://blinddogsrule.blogspot.com/2009/07/july-26-2009.html.
This past weekend it was nice enough to finally pick up the zillions of sticks and branches that the ice and snow storms had brought down. I had been picking up the big branches and storing them in the top corner of  the yard in a pile (you can't leave big branches for a blind dog to get hurt with). I got out the rake, some big trash bags and a ball of string to tie up the big stuff in a bundle.
Tonka came outside but stayed at the bottom of the yard while I raked up two bags worth of little sticks. I measured out enough string for the first go round for the pile of sticks and laid it out on the ground. I piled the branches onto the string and pulled the ends up, tied a big know and started measuring out string for the second go round a little further up the pile. All of a sudden Tonka was beside me pulling at a branch and trying to drag it out of the bundle. I tried to get him to back away from it but it turned into a wrestling match and it takes way too much energy to win a wrestling match with a blind 125lb bear so I broke off part of the branch and gave it to him. That seemed to make him happy and I turned back and bent over the bundle to tie the string around the top part. When I stood back up (we are talking seconds later) Tonka was no longer interested in his piece of stick and had successfully untied the first string.

There are moments when I seriously consider that he is just faking the blind thing.

Round 2 of wrestling commenced and I managed to keep him back long enough to tie the first string back and lift the bundle. I started walking to the gate to take it around front when I noticed it was getting hard to move froward. Tonka- being oh so helpful had a branch in his mouth trying to pull it out and was successfully pulling me and the bundle backwards. I dug in and continued forwards. This would have been a very funny video - the two of us playing tug of war with a bundle of sticks.
I finally won and hurried to the gate and out to the curb leaving Tonka in the back yard with a few sticks that had fallen out during the battle.

Bundle of Sticks

Walking is good

AP here - Tonka has now been here for 18 months. When he was little he was a little ball of energy and now he is a 100+ lb ball of energy. I started walking Tonka twice a day from the day I got him and from about 10 months on we have consistatnly walked 4-5 miles a day. There was one day where we could only go a 1/2 a mile and that was due to icy condiditons and 2 weeks when he was having shoulder problems that we could not walk at all. I figure if we average it out to 3 miles a day for the past 18 months we have covered 1,620 miles. We are like the post office - neither rain, nor sleet blah, blah, blah.... I have an awesome pair of waterproof  shoes and a great pair of wind/rain pants and both long and short raincoats so we go out no matter what the weather. I am sure the neighbors think I am a bit crazy but if you own a dog you know that exercise is a key component of good behavior. When he was really little he would not go out in the rain so I would have to take a golf umbrella and hold it over him when we walked or when he went out in the yard to go potty. So maybe the neighbors are right to think I am nuts, but Tonka hates water and rain is water (I think he also doesnt understand something hitting him all over). As he has gotten older he is OK with just regular rain but if we get caught in a downpour he freaks out. So we walk no matter what and it's not just to wear him out but to get him out into different smells and sounds. I figure it must get boring at the house for the blind boy since it is the same old thing every day. So we walk- and over the past 18 months he has met so many people and other dogs and been in different situations and I think that has helped him stay a confident and happy boy. Most people dont know he is blind unless I tell them - or they watch him walk into something.