The house becomes her map
A dog losing one sense usually leans harder on the others, but a senior dog who is both deaf and losing her sight has a narrower set of tools left: touch through her paws and body, scent, memory of the layout and vibration through the floor. Every useful modification strengthens one of those four. Every unhelpful one — moved furniture, a new obstacle, a rug that slides — quietly takes information away from her.
Her memory of the home is now a real asset. The layout she learned while she could see is the map she still walks by, which is why the first rule outranks all the clever equipment: do not rearrange the furniture.
Fixed furniture and clear, honest routes
Keep sofas, tables, her bed, her bowls and doors in exactly their established places, and resist even small shifts — a chair left angled out from the table becomes an unexplained obstacle at head height. Walk her main routes yourself: bed to water, water to food, inside to the garden door. Anything stored on those paths, from shoes to shopping bags, should live somewhere else permanently.
Close off rooms she does not need, rather than letting her wander into spaces full of chair legs and cables.
Floors that speak to her paws
Different textures underfoot can mark different places as clearly as signs. A ribbed runner along the hallway tells her she is on the route to the garden. A coarser mat in front of her bowls tells her food and water are two steps ahead. A soft, familiar mat marks her bed area as the place journeys end.
Fix every runner and mat so it cannot slide or ruck up; a moving landmark is worse than none, and a frail dog's legs can go from under her on a skidding rug. Keep the textures genuinely distinct — two similar thin rugs in different places give her paws nothing to tell apart.
Touch, scent and vibration instead of voice and gesture
She cannot hear you call her or see you wave, so agree as a household on touch signals and use them identically every time: a flat palm rested gently on her shoulder to say you are here, two soft taps on the floor beside her bed for dinner once she has learned it, a hand stroked down her chest — never grabbed from above or behind — before lifting or guiding her.
Never wake her with a sudden touch to the face. Stroke her shoulder or let her smell your hand as she stirs; a deaf, half-sighted dog woken abruptly can snap before she is truly awake, through startle rather than temper.
Scent can mark the important places: a dab of a safe, food-based smell or simply her own bedding scent kept at her bed, and consistent feeding spots, help her confirm where she is.
Stamp or knock on the floor as you approach across wooden boards; many deaf dogs read vibration well, and a dog who feels you coming is not startled by a hand appearing from nowhere.
Drops, stairs and the garden
Block stairs at top and bottom, not just when you remember — a dog navigating by memory can step confidently into a stairwell that has always been there but that she can no longer judge. Do the same for any drop from a deck or retaining edge in the garden, and check fences and gates assuming she will follow a familiar route straight through a gap she cannot see.
Writing the fixed layout, touch signals and blocked-off areas into KinsLe through Family Sharing means everyone in the household — and anyone helping while you are out — works from the same map she does.