He is a special boy indeed. You see, Jake was diagnosed by a specialist as being blind due to Progressive Retinal Atrophy, but is not in pain or any discomfort due to his condition.. Aawwww, poor boy...right? Nope, wrong! :) Jake is so well adjusted that he had his foster family, well, ‘in the dark’ regarding his condition. There was just something about him that we could not put our fingers on. There were signs that he could be losing his sight, but for him to be diagnosed as 100% blind by a veterinary ophthalmologist was a shock! Don’t believe me? Take a moment to check out his video...go ahead, we’ll wait! If you saw the vid, then you saw a dog that is blissfully happy in is reality and is capable of getting around just as any other dog would. In fact, this boy does not lose a beat!

Jake LOVES to be by his human’s side. He is a bit unsure when meeting new people. You must understand though...being that he does not have the luxury of sight, Jake has to rely on his other senses (mostly smell). So when he encounters a new person (or new scent in his case) he cannot tell by seeing their body language what their intentions are. He is OK once knows that this new scent doesn’t equal a threat. At home, he likes to be either sitting by you with his head where you can pet it, or laying right next to you on the floor. He likes the resident dogs and likes to play with them, but because he can’t read their signals, he might seem as pushy and get corrected. He is taking it all in stride and learning which ‘dog scent’ he can play with best. Jake really likes toys and has no problem playing by himself when there is no one to play with. It is amazing to see him play and have the notion of his disability disappear from your mind.

Jake is housebroken and lets you know when he needs to go out. He does well on the leash but doesn’t like the cars (the upcoming noise scare him). He can get a bit mouthy, but we think that this is because he is overcompensating for the loss of vision (we’re working on this). He loves his crate, is neutered, up to date on shots, and is a very endearing boy. Like I said before, Jake is a love...and after all, isn’t love blind?

Click on Jake's picture for more photos.