[nagdu] shorelining

[Julie J.]

Thanks Jeanine!

I use over right and over left to move the dog to the right or left edge of 
something, a hallway, a street, a parking lot etc.

I mainly use over right when I am in a crowded pedestrian situation.  For 
example the park very near my house also has a baseball field.  the sidewalk 
that borders the field must be ten feet wide or more.  When there are games 
it is essential that we walk on the right side with the flow of pedestrian 
traffic.   Or if we are in a large open place, hotel or mall, and I want to 
find a particular room or store that is on one side or the other I will use 
the over commands to shoreline on that side so I can listen for where I want 
to turn.

Generally on  a street with no sidewalks I will walk on the left hand side. 
However this is not always the most practical or possible solution.   So I 
teach the dog to also shoreline on the right.  It just makes sense to me to 
have the most options so I can negotiate any sort of situation that might 
come up.

I teach over right and over left by clicking for the right position.  There 
is a street that I like to use to teach this skill that has a lot of slope 
so it is easier for me to tell how close to the curb we are.  the closer to 
the middle of the street you get, the flatter it is.   For the left side 
curb I use a cane to check and for the right curb I will generally just use 
my foot.   If the dog has drifted out I heel them back to the right place 
and continue.   I like the dog to work very close to the curb, maybe only a 
few inches out.  I do quite a bit of travel in situations with no sidewalks, 
so the dogs get lots of practice.

It has been a long while since I have taught this concept, but this is the 
way I remember doing it.  I haven't gotten to these concepts with Monty yet. 
He is still learning stationary left turns. *smile*  We have made a lot of 
progress with them in the last week.  I think he is just about ready to move 
on to the next step. When I get to the place where I am ready to teach him 
over I'll have to think through how I plan to approach it with him in more 
detail.  I'll let you all know how I teach it to him and how it worked out.

Julie




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jenine Stanley" <jeninems at wowway.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2009 6:50 PM
Subject: [nagdu] shorelining


> Julie asked about how different programs train for shorelining.
>
> I can tell you what GDF does these days.
>
> There is a lecture about the "straight line" concept which explains how 
> the
> dogs are taught to walk just left of center on a sidewalk. Then, there is
> another short lecture and individual teaching about shorelining or country
> travel.
>
> We always worked a left shoreline on country walks, those without 
> sidewalks.
> GDF does have commands "over left" and "over right" which mean that the 
> dog
> should move over that direction slightly but the command I was taught to 
> use
> when working a road without sidewalks where I need to shoreline was "stay
> left" or "stay right".
>
> They began teaching a right shoreline as a test back in the mid '90's. My
> last two classes, 2005 and 2008, it was part of class.
>
> I find that where I live, due to curving road and poor lines of sight for
> drivers, it's safer to work the right side of several roads. My instructor
> put a lot of work into his dogs doing right shoulder work, as we call it,
> because he said it is the harder of the two shoreline methods to teach and
> reinforce. I have to say that Swap is extremely good at it too.
>
> These shorelining techniques can also be used to navigate parking lots.
>
> I think the country walks, especially during the home training part of my
> recent training with Swap, are the most exhausting for me. In the 
> beginning,
> until you learn the dog's moves and trust him or her to keep that perfect
> alignment with the edge, it takes a lot of monitoring.
>
>
>
> Jenine Stanley
> jeninems at wowway.com
>
>
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