The bonds between a person and their dog are always so unique. And one video of a deaf and blind dog named Plum is pulling at the heartstrings of many due to the sweet way that her owner, Aiden Mann, wakes her up without scaring her.
Mann works as a veterinary assistant in Nashville, Tennessee. He’s naturally a huge animal person, and already had adopted Staffordshire Bull Terrier and Great Dane mix named Lola, five years ago, before he decided to add to his family. That is when, last summer, he took the plunge and welcomed Plum into the fold.
The dog dad and his furbabies live together as a happy family that often go on adventures together – either to the dog park or their local creek. He’s even set the two dogs up with their own joint Instagram account.
While Plum is a special needs dog, the 25-year-old Mann did admit that at first, he had some hesitations about adopting a special needs dog. However, all doubts dissipated the minute that his coworker, who was fostering Plum at the time, introduced the two. As Mann explained, he was in love with Plum “the second after” meeting her.
He shared with Insider, “I definitely didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but I did know that I loved her and wanted to give her a good life.”
Mann took on the responsibility of Plum, as well as the challenge of teaching her communication and signals. Of course, much of this was, as Mann put it, “trial and error.” However, eventually, both Plum and Mann managed to reach an understanding and communication level so as Mann could begin teaching Plum commands.
Mann detailed out the commands and their communication techniques, saying, “We have ‘sit’ somewhat down, which is a touch under her chin. And when I want her to follow me or go in a certain direction, I will softly guide her nose in the direction we are going or run my hand along her body in the direction I want her to go.”
Since Plum can’t hear or see, one of the tasks that Mann had was to figure out how he could wake Plum, if he ever needed to, without necessarily giving her a heart-attack each time. Again, through trial and error he started testing out ways. At first, Mann tried to gently pet her, however, even the lightest of touches would make her jump out of her skin. Then, he decided to try putting a treat beneath her nose. Surprisingly, that trick won’t always work with her.
As he came to figure out, the most effective way of gently waking Plum up, was to lightly blow on her nose. Once this was routine, Mann decided to record a video of himself waking her up to show how well it worked.
He uploaded the video, writing, “People ask me how I wake up my deaf and blind pup without scaring her.”
He added, “I slightly blow on her. She still gets startled until she feels me. Then she wants all the love.”
The video is absolutely adorable!
Watch it below:
