Tasha's been going on "Walk Abouts" Start of Dementia??

[Crookedcreekranch]

My eldest bitch Tasha has lately been just "leaving" our property. I have always left Tasha out to guard the house and property knowing she is a prescene but in reality she is very sweet and would not harm an intruder. yet her physical size and her being a shepherd is imposing enough to prevent someone from entering the house while we are out.

Tasha has diabetes and is 9 years old. She is almost completely blind from the diabetes. She is given insulin and special diet now and has been on this for more than years. This is the only thing that has kept her alive as without it the diabetes would have killed her.

Anyway she just goes on "walk abouts" . At first I thought she was trying to follow me when I left...although she would not follow the car but sometimes when I would return there she was in the road or end of the driveway. **Please note our driveway is more than 1/4 mile long and we live on a seldom traveled gravel road***

She always has a happy pleasant demeanor. Is STILL the alpha female in our pack of 9 shepherds unchanllenged. She runs, swims and goes for miles everyday despite her diabetes, and lack of vision. Although sometimes she runs into things outside which is disturbing but living on all our acres we can not control everything in the environment.

So just wondering...is this "wandering" the start of dementia, like in Alzheimer patients? Or is she just patrolling her territory.

When she was 12 months to 2 years of age we lived in a different country home and twice a day/ morning and evening she would go on her "walk about" just perimeter check as we would call it. It was kinda neat but kinda disturbing at the same time. Never got into trouble just like clockwork she would cover a couple acres of ground.

She had not really done this here at this home. She is not acting disoriented or tired or anything that would lead me to believe blood sugar levels are off. I usually have symptoms physically letting me know blood sugar is off and adjust food/insulin.

I worry she will get hit by a car as without her site people may expect her to move off the road and she doesn't as she is very friendly, people oriented as well.

So I put her in a kennel, as she really doesn't like to be in the house during the daytime,,,,too hot for her...she prefers outdoors when the weather permits. But the strange thing is lately even when we are HOME she is taking off..the other night my neighbor down the road nearly a mile away called and said she was in the road! So now she is leaving even when we are here daytime and night time hours.

Any one have a clue? anyone experience this in an older dog?

[arycrest]

I've never had a blind dog, but have had a couple seniors with "night blindness". At night they would go in the back yard, get disordinated, and be unable to find their way to the front yard. Fortunately Mac was trained to find them and herd them back to the front yard for me.

IMHO you shouldn't allow her to run loose since it's to the point where she may be endangering her life.

[wazoo]

Is there any possibility of erecting a perimiter fence around some of the patrol area?
Give her enough room not to feel penned in but keep her from getting to the road and the risk of being hit by a car.