Ball Obsession Syndrone 11/7/02
Braille has recently been diagnosed with an extreme case of BOS. In
this case, her senses of touch, smell, and hearing are best described as
being extrasensory and acute.
Her sense of touch is such, that each hair is attacted to a nerve ending
connected to the spinal cord and the brain. Sensitivity to stimuli with
touch and pressure puts the fur and skin on high alert to thermal, tactile
and other associated stimuli. She has the extraordinary abilities to feel
motion and movement.
Bubba and Mr. Seamus taught Braille, by this same motion, with them
sitting next to her. They being sighted, could see my hand waving at
them. They responded to me in return by waving their paws. Braille
picked up on this movement to know when I asked her to wave, she
picked up her paw and moved it through the air.
Braille's sense of touch and motion are such, that she can beat out my
eyesight when it comes time to swat at flies. She catches them before I
can even swat at one and I can see!
Often, people will want to touch her first, then say she is jumpy or
nervous. No, her fur acts like a set of eyes and are very sensitive to
touch. Braille is a very confident dog with all her hours of training and
skills I made sure of that.
Her smell-a-vision is highly developed and is approximately one million
times more sensitive then a humans. When odor comes into contact
with these sensory cells that line the nose, they trigger a chemical
change that causes a nerve signal to be sent via the olfactory nerve to
the area of the brain responsible for processing information.
When approaching Braille it is always advised that you let her smell
you first. Most often she responds to you by wagging her tail, like I
know you're there.
Her hearing is twice that of humans. She's able to perceive and detect
frequencies from ultrasounds to sonar ranges.The ears act like radar
antennas, thus the reason for head tipping to give aim towards the
source of the sound. The range of volume and pitch cause these
soundwaves to vibrate and change into nerve signals. These signals
transmit to the brain through the auditory nerves for detecting. Do you
hear what I hear, probably not.
In her case, losing her sight only gives more sensing power to the other
remaining senses.
Speaking of being addicted to love, Braille's BOS has her to a level,
that both her work and play are the reward of this ball. As soon as she
awakes in the morning and comes out of her crate, it's her mission to
reunite with the ball.
I'm standing at my cupboards half a sleep trying to make a pot of
coffee and Braille is lightly tapping that ball off the calf of my leg as a
remind, in case I forgot, she's ready to play.
The obsession is such, that I'm finding I now have to hide the ball so
she will eat. I thought I did a good job by placing it out of her level and
range, but her senses kick in and she's on a full alert and search. She
has now learnt most of my normal hiding places and checks them out
first. If she find the location, she will sit and wait or comes back to me,
as if to say, I found it, help me.
I have her fulliest ultrasonic attention when I ask her if she is "Ready"!
In her expanding vocabulary sit has now become ready and I know
she is when she's sitting, head pointing to the ceiling and her sense are
fired up to the point where you can almost see her brain smoking with
anticipation as she eagerly awaits.
Last weekend, we were at the Maine Pet Expo in Portland. Picture in
your mind if you will, a crowd of 300 to 400 people and their own
dogs walking around, a flyball competition with a volume of barking
dogs, the yummy smells of people food and a study stream of dog
foods and treats from the vendors that were also permeating the air.
Braille had drawn her own crowd of on lookers and passer byes in the
other arena, "Ready" to fetch her ball amongst all the varied
distractions in her surrounding.
Now pay attention to this one! As far as a treatment plan goes for
BOS, it's just something we'll all have to live with.
Braille's has since decided that her motto will always be, don't leave
home without it. You never know when that human will take a busy
moment from their world to enter mine.
With this said, it will put Braille into a category of LP as in long playing.
You will get tired before she will.
Braille has recently been diagnosed with an extreme case of BOS. In
this case, her senses of touch, smell, and hearing are best described as
being extrasensory and acute.
Her sense of touch is such, that each hair is attacted to a nerve ending
connected to the spinal cord and the brain. Sensitivity to stimuli with
touch and pressure puts the fur and skin on high alert to thermal, tactile
and other associated stimuli. She has the extraordinary abilities to feel
motion and movement.
Bubba and Mr. Seamus taught Braille, by this same motion, with them
sitting next to her. They being sighted, could see my hand waving at
them. They responded to me in return by waving their paws. Braille
picked up on this movement to know when I asked her to wave, she
picked up her paw and moved it through the air.
Braille's sense of touch and motion are such, that she can beat out my
eyesight when it comes time to swat at flies. She catches them before I
can even swat at one and I can see!
Often, people will want to touch her first, then say she is jumpy or
nervous. No, her fur acts like a set of eyes and are very sensitive to
touch. Braille is a very confident dog with all her hours of training and
skills I made sure of that.
Her smell-a-vision is highly developed and is approximately one million
times more sensitive then a humans. When odor comes into contact
with these sensory cells that line the nose, they trigger a chemical
change that causes a nerve signal to be sent via the olfactory nerve to
the area of the brain responsible for processing information.
When approaching Braille it is always advised that you let her smell
you first. Most often she responds to you by wagging her tail, like I
know you're there.
Her hearing is twice that of humans. She's able to perceive and detect
frequencies from ultrasounds to sonar ranges.The ears act like radar
antennas, thus the reason for head tipping to give aim towards the
source of the sound. The range of volume and pitch cause these
soundwaves to vibrate and change into nerve signals. These signals
transmit to the brain through the auditory nerves for detecting. Do you
hear what I hear, probably not.
In her case, losing her sight only gives more sensing power to the other
remaining senses.
Speaking of being addicted to love, Braille's BOS has her to a level,
that both her work and play are the reward of this ball. As soon as she
awakes in the morning and comes out of her crate, it's her mission to
reunite with the ball.
I'm standing at my cupboards half a sleep trying to make a pot of
coffee and Braille is lightly tapping that ball off the calf of my leg as a
remind, in case I forgot, she's ready to play.
The obsession is such, that I'm finding I now have to hide the ball so
she will eat. I thought I did a good job by placing it out of her level and
range, but her senses kick in and she's on a full alert and search. She
has now learnt most of my normal hiding places and checks them out
first. If she find the location, she will sit and wait or comes back to me,
as if to say, I found it, help me.
I have her fulliest ultrasonic attention when I ask her if she is "Ready"!
In her expanding vocabulary sit has now become ready and I know
she is when she's sitting, head pointing to the ceiling and her sense are
fired up to the point where you can almost see her brain smoking with
anticipation as she eagerly awaits.
Last weekend, we were at the Maine Pet Expo in Portland. Picture in
your mind if you will, a crowd of 300 to 400 people and their own
dogs walking around, a flyball competition with a volume of barking
dogs, the yummy smells of people food and a study stream of dog
foods and treats from the vendors that were also permeating the air.
Braille had drawn her own crowd of on lookers and passer byes in the
other arena, "Ready" to fetch her ball amongst all the varied
distractions in her surrounding.
Now pay attention to this one! As far as a treatment plan goes for
BOS, it's just something we'll all have to live with.
Braille's has since decided that her motto will always be, don't leave
home without it. You never know when that human will take a busy
moment from their world to enter mine.
With this said, it will put Braille into a category of LP as in long playing.
You will get tired before she will.
