Hi Lee
So sorry to hear about Saffy.
My golden cocker girl, Scully, is blind. She has what the vet calls multi-ocular defects - although she does not have PRA.
We use an extending lead when we are in places she doesn't know or if there is traffic around (we are lucky to live where there are no cars but we do have tractors, bikes and horses!). When she is off the lead (ie in a field or on the beach) and we want her to come we call her, stamp our feet about, clap and generally keep making a noise until she locates us. Another thing we sometimes do (though not always) is to wear a small bell on my wrist so she can always hear us, but I think that as a blind dog she tends to pay more attention and listen out for us more than any of our dogs that have had normal eyesight!
She loves to play ball and we use a ball with a bell inside it. She loves to play "find it" too where we drop the ball somewhere and she sniffs around until she finds it!
We don't move the furniture if we can help it but if we do then we take her and 'show' her so that she won't just walk into it.
We never let anyone pat her without speaking her name and getting her attention first otherwise she gets really startled. And we are careful about letting other dogs rush up to her, especially ones she doesn't know.
Much of the time a stranger would not even notice there was anything out of the ordinary about her. She manages so well I don't know how she does it
I do try to treat her the same as if she was 'normal' as far as possible otherwise she is clever enough to know it! And then she plays on it BIG time!!
She is now nearly eight years old and although she was born with cataracts so never had full vision she gradually lost what little sight she did have by the time she was about 2 years old. She has 6 monthly check ups with the vet for her eyes when he gets the opthalmascope out and has a good look around but otherwise she needs no medication. She went to an eye specialist when she was about 4 but otherwise has not had any special treatment.
If you want to ask anything or talk more then PM me anytime. I didn't know anyone who had a blind dog when we first got Scully and I would have loved someone to talk to who understood.