The Rex Specs not only protects against sand, dust, wind and foreign objects.
Sky and Rise are two Australian Shepherds. Rex Specs help both of them, but for completely different reasons. Their owner, Romana, describes why the dog goggles have become an important piece of equipment.
Sky and her Rex Specs
Sky has been with us since she was 8 weeks old, and six months ago, just before her 11th birthday, we noticed that her hearing was getting worse and her eyes were becoming more sensitive.
How did we notice it?
Especially when it was very windy and sunny, her eyes would immediately start to water and she could hardly keep them open.
She was increasingly experiencing eye problems, with frequent eye infections requiring antibiotic treatment. Her eyes were constantly itchy, and she was less likely to enjoy going for walks . However, a serious eye condition was ruled out by the vet, so we diagnosed light sensitivity and generally more sensitive eyes due to age.
Since we already knew the dog glasses from our deaf Aussie dog, we simply gave it a try.
After successfully training her to wear the glasses, we started taking her outside, initially only for short periods of free running, so she would accept them as normal and not bothersome. But we immediately noticed an improvement in her symptoms; she was more alert and seemed younger again.
She was able to orient herself and look up at me again, something she often found difficult without glasses because of the sun. She no longer constantly stopped to rub her eyes, and the conjunctivitis also stopped.
She started running and playing more again. You can really see how much quality of life she's regained.
Since then, the glasses have been with us, especially on very windy and sunny days. But we always have them with us in case of emergency. We're happy to have our old Sky glasses back thanks to such a great tool.
Rise is more confident again with the Rex Specs
Rise came to us at 4.5 months old. He had a difficult start and had to leave his home twice within his first few weeks of adoption.
In addition, he was initially plagued by Giardia and had little contact with other dogs.
When he came to us, he was immediately very insecure. He was afraid of new noises, found dogs and people strange, and reacted to them with insecure barking. He was often frightened by new things like scooters, bicycles, loud children, or garbage cans that suddenly appeared in his way.
After a few weeks he had settled in and the first small successes became visible.
However, our living situation isn't ideal for him; we live in a high-rise building with lots of people and dogs. Unfortunately, we rely on the elevator, and despite lots of training, this elevator compartment has become a negative part of his mind. It's currently our biggest problem.
He reacts very strongly to echoing noises, and with the hormones of puberty, the stress began to intensify. His insecurities increased again. Any kind of movement became more frightening. He still finds tight, sudden situations in which people or dogs approach him loudly, too head-on, or too close to him very scary, and he barks a lot.
To help him with this, after many discussions, we decided on the Rex Specs glasses. We already knew them from two of my dogs . A blog article on Hundebrille.eu introduced us to another use, and we wanted to try this trick as well. So we did some research, got a pair of suitable glasses with a tinted lens, and a suitable perforated screen protector.
The darkened window and the perforated foil enabled us to mitigate the stimuli that unsettle him.
After just a short time, we noticed a difference. We first tried the glasses in relaxed situations where he wasn't exposed to the stimuli so closely. Movements at a distance were perceived more and more relaxed.
So we dared to use the glasses in tighter situations, and you can tell that the slightly darkened vision and the resulting reduced stimuli offer him significantly more relaxation in everyday life. He can relax so much more and no longer constantly scans his surroundings.
He is able to tolerate people, dogs, and other movements better, and we can now start training even more intensively because the glasses have helped us bring a basic sense of relaxation into our everyday lives.
We've also had several sudden encounters in the narrow elevator space that would have escalated without the glasses.
He is more responsive and so we can now try to redirect the negative stimuli into something positive.
Thank you for this great invention.
Romana Schröder
Follow Sky and Rise on Instagram 
https://www.instagram.com/elbinsel_pfoten/?igshid=1h0hcso2g0bcq
