A Blind Dog Plays a Successful Game of Fetch Using Verbal Cues Called Out by His Beloved Human

In 2013, a beautiful blind English springer spaniel named Kellar played a successful game of fetch with his beloved human, who called out verbal cues to help the dog locate the ball. Kellar proved to be quite good at the game. Kellar has been blind since birth, but due to the diligence of his trainers, he’s able to function quite well in a visual world.

This is Kellar, an English Springer Spaniel who was born blind. He came to us at 3 months old, and he has been a joy ever since. At first, he was difficult to train, as there are limited resources for training a blind puppy. Over the 3 years he has been with us, he has established a vocabulary of over 200 words and phrases. He’s quick to learn, however, and now we have trouble keeping up with him!

Kellar the Blind Dog

Kellar was originally trained to play ball with the commands “hot” and “cold”. We later added “warmer”, “passed it”, “left” and “right”. The process took about a week for the basic commands.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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