thePiperSHIHTZU

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

A Dog Named Rowan

Posted on 06:59 by Unknown
In England, in Bedfordshire, in the town of Potton, which is not far from Biggleswade, there is a dog named Rowan, who is a German spitz.  This is a pretty rare breed of dog, so that's one thing that is different about Rowan.  But what really makes him different is that he was born without any eyes!  So of course this means he is blind, because as you probably know, you can't see if you don't have eyes.

Rowan had one littermate, and his littermate has eyes and can see, just like a regular dog, but Rowan got some kind of strange genes that made him not have any eyes.  Rowan's breeder, who is a woman named Sam Orchard, found out that Rowan was blind when he was 10 days old, and she took him to the vet to find out why Rowan hadn't opened his eyes yet.

Well, okay, so you are probably saying to yourself that Rowan is not the only dog who was ever born blind, and that blind dogs learn to get around pretty well, even without using a white cane.  In fact, there is a blind puppy named Oakley at the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City, and I have told you about him before.  He was born blind, but he does have eyes.  They are just all cloudy-looking.  So if you want to adopt Oakley, I know he would be very happy to go live with you, because he really needs a home of his own.

But getting back to Rowan, the thing about him that makes him different from other blind dogs is that he uses something called echolocation to get around outside without bumping into stuff.  Bats are the animals you mostly think of as using echolocation, because bats are also blind.  The way it works is that the bat makes this little noise that goes out and hits something such as a building or a mosquito, and then the noise bounces back to the bat.  And since the bat has an ear on each side of his head, the echo sound comes into each ear a little bit differently.  So then when the sounds from the two ears get joined together in the bat's brain, he can somehow tell what's out in front of him, and how big it is, and whether it's moving, and if it might make a yummy bat supper.

Dolphins also use echolocation, and so do some whales and shrews and certain kinds of birds who live in caves.  And the reason all these animals use echolocation is because they are either blind or else they live in places where it is too dark to see the flipper in front of your face, so to speak.

But usually you don't hear about dogs using echolocation, so that's what makes Rowan so different from your ordinary, run-of-the-mill blind dog.  Because when Rowan is outside romping around, he can make little barks and bounce them off the trees in the woods, and then he knows not to bump into those trees.  Which is very clever, if you ask me.  And if you want to watch a video of Rowan doing this, go here.







Rowan's other talents are that he has learned a bunch of obedience commands, and he completed a Good Citizen Bronze award.  But he cannot be in regular dog shows because he doesn't have any eyes, which the silly old breed standard says you are supposed to have.

So Rowan is a very smart dog, and he has figured out how to do something that most blind dogs don't figure out how to do.  And he has a very happy life with his human and doggy family, and he probably doesn't even know he is different from everybody else!
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • AN OLD, ABANDONED SCHOOL
    Not too long ago, Mom went to a part of town called Blue Summit, and she had never been there before, so she drove around some, just to see ...
  • "The Meet at Blagdon"
    It's time for me to write about another one of those placemats that Mom bought at an estate sale.  You know the ones I mean:  the placem...
  • SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL'S CATS
    You've probably heard of Sir Winston Churchill because he was a famous British person who was the Prime Minister during World War II.  W...
  • BOA CONSTRICTORS
    There are a lot of snakes called "boas," and what they all have in common is they wrap themselves around their prey and squish it ...
  • THE DOGUE DE BORDEAUX
    I think these dogs look very sad and grumpy all the time, but I guess they can't help how they look.  They also drool and snore, but the...
  • AN ARTIST NAMED CHARLES BURTON BARBER
    A long time ago, back in June, when Aunt Cheryl was visiting us, Mom bought a framed print at a thrift store for $15.  This print is one of ...
  • ELIZABETH TAYLOR'S DOGS
    Elizabeth Taylor was a beautiful and famous actress who loved dogs and horses and also other animals, such as cats.  Last week Ms. Taylor di...
  • PICASSO'S DOG
    Pablo Picasso was an artist who painted really weird pictures, but we can forgive him for that because he also really loved dogs.  In fact, ...
  • THE SHAPES OF DOGGY EARS
    If you have looked at very many dogs, which I hope you have, you may have noticed that their ears come in lots of different shapes and sizes...
  • HOW MANY CATS DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE A CLOWDER?
    Well, first of all, I would like to thank everybody who said they liked my "Ode to Summer" poem that I posted yesterday.  I don...

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (92)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (11)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (12)
    • ►  April (14)
    • ►  March (14)
    • ►  February (14)
    • ►  January (12)
  • ►  2012 (177)
    • ►  December (13)
    • ►  November (12)
    • ►  October (14)
    • ►  September (13)
    • ►  August (12)
    • ►  July (14)
    • ►  June (14)
    • ►  May (17)
    • ►  April (16)
    • ►  March (17)
    • ►  February (17)
    • ►  January (18)
  • ▼  2011 (231)
    • ►  December (19)
    • ►  November (19)
    • ►  October (21)
    • ►  September (20)
    • ►  August (20)
    • ►  July (22)
    • ►  June (20)
    • ►  May (22)
    • ►  April (21)
    • ►  March (22)
    • ▼  February (20)
      • SABERTOOTH CATS
      • The New One-Dog Policy in Shanghai
      • ANGORA RABBITS
      • Fairy Penguins and Maremma Sheepdogs
      • More FDR First Dogs
      • President Franklin Roosevelt and Fala
      • REFLECTIONS ON MY NEW HOME, by Nicholas
      • Dogs Who Sniff Cancer
      • SCOTTISH DEERHOUNDS
      • BAT-EARED FOXES
      • Me and My Brothers: A Love Story
      • A Few More Nice, Adoptable Dogs
      • A Dog Named Old Yeller
      • PHARAOH HOUNDS
      • MY LIFE AS A RACE DOG, by Nicholas
      • President Reagan's Dogs
      • Bad Things That People Do to Dogs
      • The Year of the RABBIT
      • SOME INTERESTING LISTS
      • A Dog Named Rowan
    • ►  January (5)
Powered by Blogger.