A Rescue Dog Went Blind. Now She’s Helping Other Pups Avoid Her Fate.

All dogs, it must be said, are born great. Most achieve greatness in their own waggy ways. But some — like Shola, a 9-year-old English Shepherd — have greatness thrust upon them.

In her first act as a canine hero, Shola fought through mountainous terrain and dangerous weather to search for missing people in England’s central Peak District and other rural areas.

Her second act began in 2019, when, at the age of 4, she was diagnosed with an inherited, incurable form of blindness. Her owners approached an eye specialist to understand more about her condition and, eventually, a sample of her DNA taken from a cheek swab landed at the Canine Genetics Center at the University of Cambridge.

Using Shola’s DNA and samples collected from other English Shepherds, researchers pinpointed the mutation that had caused her blindness and developed a test to identify it in other dogs. Their findings were shared in a paper published last month in Genes, a peer-reviewed journal.

While the discovery came too late to save Shola’s sight, her DNA has already helped protect future generations of her breed. “We’ll never have any more blind puppies,” said Jackie Graves, 62, who bred Shola and whose current litter is from two dogs who tested negative for the mutation.