[nagdu] snow was update on my questions

[Steve Johnson]

Julie,

A great summary of dealing with snow as we just received 17 inches here on 
Wednesday, and all of your insights were right on.  The difficult part for 
us was actually going to work while it was still snowing, about a foot on 
the ground, and no one had even attempted to shovel yet.  It is aamazing, 
and I am going to assume that Monty does this as well, how the guide knows 
the path of travel that they have been patterned to, even though it is 
covered by a foot of snow, they seem to know right where to go.  Although 
the snow was beyond Misha's belly, she seemed to turn into this little 
burrowing like creature and moved like a little freight train through the 
untrampled snow right to our regular destination; the bus shelter!  A couple 
of times I attempted to try to guide her, but then just stopped, grabbed her 
harness and gave her the command, find the seat and she seemed to do an 
almost 90 degree turn taking me to where we were supposed to be.  She was 
truly amazing, and she received lots of praise and scratches!  Although I 
dread the next snow fall of this magnitude, at least I know I have a guide 
that I can place my full confidence in to get to where we are going.

Thanks for sharing your account of deep snow travel!

Steve & Misha



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julie J" <julielj at windstream.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] snow was update on my questions


> Tami,
>
> We have had snow a few times already this year, but those were only 1 to 3
> inches and the sidewalks were pretty clear.  And I'm sure we worked some 
> in
> snow last winter, but that would have been at the very beginning of his
> training.  I honestly cannot remember much of how he did.
>
> The most recent snow ended up being probably 15 inches or so.  This means
> that there are little hills at the end of every block at the entrance to 
> the
> street where the snowplow pushed snow up against the curb.  Also on some 
> of
> our streets snow is piled up in the middle, between the lanes of traffic,
> similar to where a median would be.   So far all the places I've walked
> people have shoveled their sidewalks.  However apparently it is acceptable
> to only scoop one shovel width, which makes it a very narrow path for 
> Monty
> and me.
>
> He is doing very well.  He's stopping or going around the large piles of
> snow.  He is picking the best path of travel which is sometimes over the
> little hills and sometimes there is a way around.
>
> It's impossible for me to feel with my foot when we are at a curb.  I
> learned very quickly to pay more attention to the traffic from further 
> away
> so I'd know the difference between a curb pile of snow and a regular 
> drift.
>
> Monty scared the crap out of me when we were crossing one of the streets
> with the pile of snow in the middle.  I didn't realize it was there and he
> pulled to the left, out toward the parallel traffic.   I panicked and side
> stepped to the right.  Yes, stupid, I know.  When my foot went knee deep
> into snow the light bulb went on.  I trusted his judgment and followed his
> lead.  He didn't veer far enough to the left to be in that traffic, just 
> far
> enough to go around the very large pile of snow.
>
> He's never done anything like that before.  He wasn't acting distracted. 
> He
> has very good judgment and has never once made some horrible guiding
> mistake.  I should have known better and trusted him.  We are a very new
> teamand I guess all I can say is that I am still learning. *smile*
>
> Maybe it's just my perspective, but a little snow, like less than three
> inches, doesn't make any difference in how Monty and I work.  Perhaps if 
> you
> rarely see even that amount of snow it would make a bigger difference. 
> My
> best advice is to wear shoes or boots with good rubber soles, plan some
> extra time to get there, pay more attention to auditory information and
> trust your dog.
>
> HTH
> Julie
>
>
>
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