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

Mon Apr 6 17:39:32 UTC 2009

Hi,

    In the past I have moved around a lot, for school, for work and for 
better whether, I have a battery powered wind chime, it turns on with a 
switch and is loud enough to be heard for probably up to about 70 feet, I 
have found this thing useful in many cases, if I am in a place that I am not 
exactly familiar with I place this little thing outside the door and turn it 
on and then I have a auditory landmark to work with.

My wife and I just bought a new house about a year and a half ago, it has a 
very large yard, I've gotten lost out there more times than I can count, 
while doing landscaping or raking etc. HTH

    Bryan
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Angie Matney" <angie.matney at gmail.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 8:23 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Haas anyone ever gotten lost in their own yard?

> 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
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nagdu mailing list
>> nagdu at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your
>> account info for nagdu:
>>
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/lauriemehta%40yahoo.c
> om
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nagdu:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/angie.matney%40gmail.
> com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nagdu:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/bryanbrown%40solarus.biz
> 