Video of Deaf and Blind Australian Shepherd Thinking His Pool is Closed Goes Viral

This Australian Shepherd is blind and deaf but despite that, he still lives a normal life, including swimming in the summer. But as you can see in the video below, the dog's condition definitely has its challenges. The video shows the deaf and blind Aussie having a hard time finding the gate opening.

Apparently, the dog thinks the gate is closed. However, he's lucky, as his owner was there to let him know that the pool was actually open! "pov [point of view]: you're blind/deaf and want to go swimming but the gate appears to be closed," the dog's owner wrote on the TikTok video that had received over 400k likes. The video's caption reads, "Sometimes, he's a little off on where opens/closes at." 

@tamalethedm sometimes he’s a little off on where the gate opens / closes at 😅 • • • • #dogsoftiktok #dogs #deafdog #doublemerle #swimming #dog ♬ original sound - Tamale

A subsequent video proves that this blind and deaf dog truly loves swimming!

@tamalethedm everytime before he get into the pool • • • #dogsoftiktok #dogs #doublemerle #deafdog #dog #dogswimming #swimming ♬ vibey birds of a feather - Jordan Greenwald

The dog in this video is actually Tamale, a 5-year-old double merle Australian Shepherd. According to his owner, Tamale was rescued from an organization that specializes in double merle dogs. That means that both of Tamale's parents are carriers of the Merle gene. As a result, Tamale is blind, deaf, and has excessive light or white areas as a result of having two copies of the merle gene. Unfortunately, no surgery or treatment can reduce the damage.

@tamalethedm

When a merle dog is bred to a non-merle dog, their offspring has a chance of having a spotted coat and no other effects. However, if both parents are carriers of the Merle gene, they have a 25% chance of their puppies being deaf, blind, and mostly white. It's widely regarded as unethical and irresponsible to breed two merle dogs, knowing that many of the puppies will be born deaf, blind, or both.