Category: Animal House
Hi,
I am in the process of obtaining my first dog guide from Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Thus far, the training has been going excellent, but I did have some questions that maybe some fellow guide dog or dog guide users can share with me.
My instructor talked about "leash guiding." I don't really know what this means, even though she explained it to me more than once. My dog was beginning to become use to a specific route that I take him on. So, I let him take me on that route, issuing the heal command when necessary, because that was the way I wanted to go at that particular time. When my instructor saw me, she told me that I was not doing anything wrong. However, I still don't understand the whole idea of what "leash guiding actually is.
At Guiding Eyes, clickers are used for targeting work. I was wondering if everytime you go into a new environment if you have to train the dog to recognize a chair, or could you just say Juno to the chair?
Thanks for all your help,
Nathan.
One more question is why don't dog guide schools teach you how to give your dog a bath? Do they give you anything like front line to protect against ticks and fleas? ?What about heart worm medications?
We had a situation yesterday, where I was using my crossing card, and this lady said i was fine to cross, so I told my dog forward. As I went forward, I felt the lady grab onto my arm. I was like, what the hell are you doing? Then, I heard a car turn in front of me, and my dog immediately backed me out of the way back onto the curb. My instructor told me that was a traffic check. What does that mean? I am sure I will learn all of this in training.
Thanks,
Nathan.
One more questions is something that other dog guide schools do but for some reason, I don't think Guiding Eyes does. What if you are traveling on a route, and you don't know it. Can you just say Juno follow, and the dog follows the person you are with? Why would an instructor discourage this begavior?
I think leash guiding should only be done inside a building or outside if you know the area wel but never to cross a street. For example you can use leash guiding from your room to the dining hall or whatever its called. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about this.
That's cool that you guys got clickers for targeting. I have a clicker now but never got to use one during class.
If you want them to show you how to give your dog a bath I think they would be willing to help you.
You can get Frontline and heart worm meds on the GEB website for a discount price after you graduate.
A Trafic check is done with the guide dog trainers to make sure that in a real situation if a car does pull out in front of you your dog will pull back out of the way.
You should be able to use the follow command without any problems but you might not use it in class because they want your dog to be paying attention to you rather than being distracted by another person.
I'm sure they will answer these questions there better than I did. Hope your training continues to go well.
The reason why the command "follow" is been discourage is partly because if you use it too rapitly the dog will grow a behaviour or a habbit thinking that he or she can follow anyone in no particular, and go anyware that other person goes. It also sort of taking away of their respondsibility of being a dog guide, instead, letting the respondsibility falls to the person they follow.
It is a great tool, specially if you going out with a group of friends to some strange place that you or your dog never been before. and your dog suppose to follow a particular person or a group. But if you use it all the time, the dog could getting lazy in their work, and start to not paying attention to things that they should be. Just like, using sighted guide all the time when the dog is around. It take away their respondsibilities as your dog guide.
As far as trafic check is concern, from my understanding, you should only do it with a guidedog instructor is around, or with someone that you can trust fully. According to my instructor, you are not suppose to turn around specially after you already sort of crossing the street half way thru.
The trafic check from my understanding only should happen when you and your dog are on the footpath, when there's a car coming thru, you initial the dog to move forward. By default, the dog should stop you because it is dangerous for you both to cross. But again, i'm not train with your school, so, could be slightly different from that regards.
If you got a particular favourite chair/sit/place in a class, ones you go thru with your dog a few time about finding that place, he or she should automaticly find it for you.
That makes sense. And Lenobia explained the traffic check far better than I probably would have. It's a test to make sure the dog acts safely and probably to insure that you react correctly as well. Guiding Eyes is one of the schools I'm looking into. Ijust hope that if I get accepted (not that I'm really ready to apply yet), I don't have a heart attack or something at the first traffic check LOL.
They made me put headphones on when I was doing that for my dog. I would just stop before the dog did. I knew the car was going to be there, and my self-preservation insincts kicked in. So they made me wear headphones so I wouldn't even know when the street was coming up. I was terrified. Now I wear headphones all the time.
That seems more than a little dangerous to me.
Hi,
Thanks for your advice. Wow, headphones all the time? The traffic check I had was not intentional, it happened on accident.
Sure, I wear earbuds, so I can still hear what's going on around me, and I don't turn it up very loud. If I can't hear well enough, I take them off and concentrate. No big deal. Its all in how much you trust and communicate with your dog.
True!
Yes, absolutely. at the end of the day is all about how much you trust and communicate with your dog, also how well you bond with your dog. It will take a while, bonding won't happen immidiately. Mine took about 6 months, before we both feeling comfortable working with each other. and now, she's 6, she knows exactly what are her boundries, and what consiquence she or, us, may have if she cross that boundry,. The training with the dog does not stop when your initial training with the school finish. is about you keep reenforce those training the the school train you, to the dog, and also keep it up.
Dogs like kids sometime, they will constently test their boundries and push it, to see how far they can go. If you let it slip one or twice, thats it, they will know, and they also will use it against you.
Completely agree with the last poster.
we live in a house with two guide dogs. when we walk, we make sure that they take turns being the leader. what way they don't get in to that following mentality.