Help= preparing blind puppy for adoption

The pup is a 13 week old male gsd in a non-shelter SPCA. Completely
blind, permanently, probably congenital and with possible additional
brain development problems. The foster mom is committed to placing
him, though she's probably not the ideal place for him to be because
she's got a number of other fosters (far too many). There's no other
foster to move him too and euthanasia isn't a sellable solution. So
I'm looking for training suggestions that will prepare him for
placement and make that transition easier. Redwood shavings are being
used as a substrate for housetraining and he's clicker conditioned and
I've got her started on directional commands. Anybody got suggestions
or experience training a blind-from-birth dog?

chris jung...

I know a lady in MD - Baltimore I think - who has a blind from birth collie
(I can't remember if I know her online from the newsgroups as well as
collie-l). She's done a lot with Bonnie. Since she can't show her in AKC,
she's done a lot of unusual activities - draft work, rally (adpt?), and
weight pulling. She's done obedience matches but no organization will let a
blind dog compete in a real show. She's said that many folks have no idea
that Bonnie is blind. I've met Bonnie-the-Collie at a collie nationals and
she was fine even in the middle of a big indoor show.

So Bonnie is an example of a blind from birth dog who did good. I know that
her owner's training was a big part but I also suspect that Bonnie has a
good solid temperament to start with: the kind that is not overly reactive
and can rebound positively from surprises. So the question I have is what
kind of basic temperament does this GSD pup have? Hopefully it's a decent
one. I would socialize him like a regular pup with additional work on being
touched all over (especially sudden touches) and sounds. He needs to learn
what to do (a plan of action) when he's surprised and what to do when he
needs security and reassurance. His handler needs to be his seeing-eye-human
and watch for him when going to new places. This is a big job and not
something to take on casually - if his handler tells him it's OK to go
forward and he falls into a hole, he won't have much confidence in her. I
seem to recall that blind dogs are taught "up" to take stairs going up and
"down" (or some other word) to indicate stairs going down. And I think
there's more to the stair guidance - something about how to tell the dog
when it's reached the top or bottom. I also recall that the handler gives
some sort of sound or word to inform the dog that something different is
coming up (going from concrete to gravel or that he will step into a puddle
or that he will brush against bushes).

Chris and her smoothies,
Pablo and Lucy the Silly Goose

TIA,
Lynn K.