[nagdu] Haas anyone ever gotten lost in their own yard?

Mon Apr 6 13:23:23 UTC 2009

Laurie makes some really good points. I have taught both of my dogs similar
commands, and neither is from a school that teaches leash guiding or that
strongly emphasizes find commands.

Once, a taxi dropped me off at the wrong apartment at 10:00 at night. I
think my cell  phone was dead. I was in the right apartment complex, and
since that particular driver had picked me up to begin with (I was teaching
a night class at a community college), I had no reason to suspect that she'd
gotten confused and left me at the wrong building. But when I walked to the
front of the building, it became painfully obvious that I was in the wrong
place. The driver had left. That particular complex was...well, there were
some shady characters there (which I didn' tknow when I moved in), so I
didn't feel comfortable knocking on a stranger's door at 10:00 at night.
Having pretty much no other choice, I picked up Glaze's harness and said,
"Go home." I had no clue where we were, exactly, so I didn't give her a
direction. But within a minute, we were at my door.

I have also used "go home" to encourage the dog to find my hotel room.

Angie

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Laurie Mehta
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2009 3:19 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Haas anyone ever gotten lost in their own yard?

Hi Allison, 
You've obviously already thought of several things that can help in the
future, but here's another possibility to consider.  /smile/ 

I don't know which program you trained with (whether or not they teach
this), but it is often beneficial to work with teaching a guide some leash
guiding in safe settings such as, for instance, your own yard.  

You can slowly work the dog up to finding the house, for example, by giving
him/her a helpful start (pointing him/her in the right direction and naming
the destination).  After relieving the dog, even if you're fairly close to
the house, tell your dog "forward home" and let him/her lead you on leash
back to the house, for instance.  Each time, try doing this from farther and
farther from the house.  (You hold the leash relatively close to the clip to
feel the direction of travel.) 

I have used a technique of naming things plus setting the dog up for success
(pointing the dog in the right direction) and I've taught my dogs
destinations such as our mailbox, the place where we wheel the garbage
container out to on pick up day, the place where we wheel our recycling
container out for pick up and home (to mean whatever building we have just
come out of).  

I did not attend a school that teaches this.  I got the idea from my own
experiences, and was affirmed and encouraged by listening to the GDF grads
talk about it.  I use the same technique as for teaching a dog to find a
certain thing, that I was taught by instructors at the program I did attend.
/smile/   

I have had much success with teaching this to three dogs now.  You just need
to take it slowly and use patience with your dog.  

hth-- Laurie
--- On Sun, 4/5/09, Allison Nastoff <anastoff at wi.rr.com> wrote:

> From: Allison Nastoff <anastoff at wi.rr.com>
> Subject: [nagdu] Haas anyone ever gotten lost in their own yard?
> To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
> Date: Sunday, April 5, 2009, 10:08 AM
> Hi List,
> I had a rather frightening experience last night.  I was
> wondering if a similar experience has ever happened to any
> of you, or am I the most directionally challenged person in
> the history of humankind (grin).
> Usually, I can brag that Gilbert is a perfectly behaved
> dog.  He always obeys me, and when I take him out to
> relieve, I take him to his designated spot just off the
> porch in the grass, he does his business efficiently, and we
> go back into the house without incident.  But every once in
> a while, and it seems to be when snow has just melted, and
> there are all kinds of new currious scents, he will get so
> preoccupied with sniffing that he leads me far past his
> relieving area, and I get lost.  It has only happened twice,
> but last night was the most frightening because it was
> midnight and I was completely alone.  On top of that, I
> forgot to put my cell phone in my coat pocket, and I
> didn't even bring his harness so he could work me home
> if I got lost.  Living in the same house for 18 of my 19
> years, you would think I should know the way around my own
> yard right?
> Anyway, I live in a rural suburban area with no sidewalks
> and a two acre yard.  I took Gilbert into the grass, and he
> peed like he was supposed to, but then he started walking
> and sniffing.  At first, I thought he was just sniffing out
> the perfect spot to poop, but after awhile when we started
> getting farther and farther from the house, I realized he
> was sniffing out of naughtiness, not looking for a place to
> poop.  I gave him a correction and tried to tell him firmly,
> "let's go home.  The trainer did recommend that I
> have Gilbert on a long leash when he relieves, but I prefer
> short leash because on long leash, it is harder to tell when
> he is squatting to poop, and harder to find it when he is
> done.
> I turned in what I thought was the direction of my house,
> and used an old trick I figured out when I used to get
> myself off the school bus and walk up the driveway.  I
> slapped my right leg with my hand, and the sound echoes off
> the house, thus leading me in the right direction.  What I
> didn't realize until last night though is that this
> echoe can also bounce off trees, so before I knew it, I was
> walking into a clump of trees.
> A huge weakness of mine is that I am a panicker, so when I
> realized that I had walked into a clump of trees, of course
> I panicked.  I ran in circles trying to pick up an echoe,
> and when I did hear one and follow it, I only went deeper
> into the trees.  I tried shouting for help but no one heard
> me.  I tried waving my arms, but there was nobody outside,
> and even if there had been, I now realize they probaly
> wouldn't have been able to see me from where I was
> anyway.  I don't know how long I wandered in panick, but
> finally rational thinking did set in.  I realized that I
> could either camp out there all night, or calm down and
> retrace my steps.  I knew I was capable of the latter.  I
> told Gilbert to sit, took deep breaths, and realized that I
> could hear cars.  If I followed the sound of the distant
> cars, I would end up back at my driveway.  I turned around,
> ducked through the tree branches and followed the cars. 
> When I slapped my leg again, I heard the familiar echoe, and
> this time the echoe led me the right way.  I have never been
> so overjoyed to feel blacktop under my feet!
> Last night during the ordeal, I was on the verge of tears,
> but since all ended well, I can now reflect back and laugh. 
> If I made it home alive in the worst possible circumstances,
> getting lost on my college campus will be a piece of cake
> now.  And I also learned why cell phones were invented
> (grin).
> Allison and Gilbert
> 
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