[nagdu] Things I wanted to discuss, but just didn't have time to

Sun Mar 8 15:01:48 UTC 2009

I think the "tracking left" is not something that is specifically taught, 
but something that dog's will do on their own.  The natural tendency is 
expanded on through training and definitely a dog can be taught to follow a 
line on the right.  It would be interesting to know if guides that work on 
the right tend to follow a line on the right better.  My guess is that they 
would.
Julie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nicole B. Torcolini" <ntorcolini at wavecable.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 10:43 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Things I wanted to discuss, but just didn't have time 
to

> It took Lexia a little while to get the hang of following people.  She did
> not always stop when they did, so, although zigzagging was not a problem, 
> we
> had to do walk then stop exercises with her to teach her not to bump into
> the person whom she was following.  On another note, when the person whom
> your dog is following is walking on the right side, have any of your dogs
> tried to go around the person because they try to track left?  Is the 
> track
> left training a standard for all of the schools?
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Merry Schoch" <merrys at verizon.net>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 3:20 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Things I wanted to discuss, but just didn't have time
> to
>
>
> Hi Mardi,
>
> I loved to use "follow" especially when travelling in a crowded mall. 
> With
> my first guide, my daughter was 12 years old.  We would head to the mall 
> and
> I would have her zig zag and then make suddens stops.  We did this when 
> the
> mall was not crowded, and also did it in a tasteful manner.  It was fun 
> time
> for the three of us.  Also with this dog I would tell him to sit if anyone
> came to pet him, depending on where I was, if they continued I would 
> either
> put him in a down or while he was in the sit I would remove their hand and
> place mine on the top of his head.  If I had to put him in a sit or down, 
> I
> would always say "No, sit/down".  Usually, the person would apologize
> because they did like seeing the dog get corrected or told no; however,
> there are always those who "push the envelope".  Anyway, I was doing a
> walkathon one year for the guide dog school and I was in the hotel's 
> lobby.
> One of the staff people stated to me that someone was approaching my dog 
> and
> he backed away from them.  He was quite amazed to see the dog do this.  I
> beamed with pride.
>
> Marion's dog is like your Nala, she just turns her head and could care 
> less
> if anyone is petting her.  Due to this, he is more apt to let someone in
> public giver her a pat on the head; however, whenever I had a guide with 
> me
> he would not do this because I don't let my dog get attention while 
> working.
> Marion has this woman at his church who "pushes the envelope".  In the 
> past,
> I have taken my old retired dog to his church (in harness) to get him out
> and let him work a bit.  Well, Marion would let her pet Louiza and I would
> not let her pet Sydney.  Last week he was at church, he had the harness 
> off
> the dog, and the woman came up and unleashed his dog.  He asked her why 
> she
> did that, and she said she wanted to pet her.  I would have lost my mind 
> if
> she had done that, but Marion stayed calm and cool.  Hopefully, before the
> next national convention I'll have another guide and Marion will have to 
> be
> on his best behavior when we work our dogs together (smile)!
>
> Merry
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mardi Hadfield" <wolfsinger.lakota at gmail.com>
> To: <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 3:33 AM
> Subject: [nagdu] Things I wanted to discuss, but just didn't have time to
>
>
>> Hi every one,  I have been so busy these past few days, that I have not
>> had
>> time to read or post. Now that I have caught up on the reading, I am 
>> going
>> to attempt to catch up on my posting.  I have always trained my dogs to
>> find
>> and to follow. I have found it to be very helpful.I also have noticed 
>> that
>> when people pet Nala when she is in harness, She will turn her head away
>> from them,as if she were tying to tell them to leave her alone,as she is
>> working. People always want to pet the cute snow dog. I wonder if people
>> will be so quick to pet Shaman, or will they refrain from petting him him
>> because he is a large shepherd,who looks like he could remove a hand or
>> two.
>> It will be interesting to see if there is any difference. When I go into 
>> a
>> restaurant, I try to sit away from other people so no one will bother my
>> dog. There have been times when this was not possible and I ended up
>> sitting
>> next to kids who felt it their mission was to feed my dog french fries,
>> which thankfully, she refuses,as I have taught her never to take food 
>> from
>> any one but me.  I don't know which school it is but they have the rare
>> black and tan labs. I think they are very beautiful, and would not mind
>> having one of them. I like the black labs ,more than the yellow or
>> chocolate
>> ones. I don't think they are different in temperament, it's just my color
>> preference. However if I needed a dog and they were the only ones
>> available,
>> I would be happy to have any dog that could do the job.I am wondering why
>> non of the schools have tried the curly coated retrievers. They have a
>> curly
>> coat that never needs trimming and they are retrievers. I would think 
>> they
>> would have a similar temperament as a lab.I also wonder why the school
>> that
>> train for wheelchair users haven't tried some huskies. I know for a fact
>> that they are very trainable and always want to work and don't know what
>> the
>> word tired means. They do mellow out  with age, but still have enough
>> energy
>> to work all day and then some,with out being hyper. They always have that
>> happy go lucky attitude and are never grouchy. They have a great sense of
>> self preservation, which makes them good in traffic. They are very 
>> capable
>> of thinking for them selves, and while I realize that they are not for
>> every
>> one, they do make excellent guides. I would have preferred to get another
>> husky, but I just could not find one the right age. They were either too
>> young  or too old.The two husky crosses, I tried just did not work out. I
>> have reservations that Shaman will have the same energy level that my
>> huskies have , and wonder if he will be able to keep up with me. I guess
>> time will tell.   Have a great day,  Mardi and Nala, semi-retired and
>> Shaman, gdit
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>
>
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