Bella Star

Update

“We did try the halo out and Bella Star doesn’t seem to mind it at all.  She was excited to have a harness on.  The grass is still very damp but I am hoping I can get some better pictures of her later this evening. Here are a few pictures that I took this morning.  Her halo was a little crooked.  All of the stores are closed here so I am going to try to fashion a t-shirt for her to eliminate the harness from sliding.
I am delighted with how well the Muffin’s Halo is constructed.  The Velcro is the strongest that I have ever come across.  The parts really hold together perfectly and the halo extremely simple to put on.  I also love that the wings alert people that she is blind.   Although I am confident that she would never snap at someone, it does frighten her when people, especially strangers, come at her suddenly from above.  I have to constantly remind them that she is blind and educate them (especially younger people). on how to properly introduce themselves to dogs.  As soon as people see her, they just want to rush her.  They don’t know any better.
I left the halo on Bella Star for about 30 minutes just to see how she would react to it. She didn’t struggle at all when I was putting it on her.  I have the halo adjusted just above her head because she tends to put her head downward and cross-cross, using her nose as a guide. I am hoping that in time, she will learn that when she is wearing the halo, she cannot run smack into things and will begin to raise her head when walking/running.”
Thanks again!
Bella Star and her 2-legged Mommy!

Backstory

We had been hoping to adopt another dog as a companion to our other rescue, Bruce, who was aggressive both towards people and dogs. During his obedience class, our training instructor brought in Bella Star. She was only 6 weeks old and I was afraid Bruce was going to hurt her. He barked and nudged her a bit at first. Then, all of sudden, he started playing with her and she with him. We took her home that day!

Until about 2 years ago, Bella Star was pretty active and always very lovable. Except for allergies to all things chicken, she has been pretty healthy. All of sudden, she began walking in circles and tilting her head sideways. A trip to our vet revealed she was blind and could only see shadows. Our vet treated her with antibiotics and steroids hoping more of her sight would be restored. Although the treatments didn’t restore her sight, our vet assured us that Bella Star would adapt and encouraged us to try getting her to lose some weight.

We tried assembling some home-made gadgets like the halo to help her navigate the yard and our house but they fell apart. As our vet said, she has adapted very well. As she has lost weight (in the last year, we have worked to get her down from 46lbs to just under 35lbs), she is able to run faster and tends to run into things more often. We want her to be able to play and run after her partner in crime (Bruce) without hesitation, but we worry constantly that she is going to run into something hard. We have done our best to safeguard our house and the yard but one wrong turn and she can still run smack into our house or fence. We play with her daily as does Bruce, her seeing-eye dog.