[nagdu] street crossings

Tamara Smith-Kinney tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Fri Apr 30 16:41:38 UTC 2010


Yup!  That's what it's all about.  /smile/  I do think that's the advantage
of clicker training and positive reinforcement, though.  The dog starts
offering behaviors, which makes training for some of those tricky bits guide
dogs have to do much more doable.  Then again, I'm biased!

Go Monty!  Let me know if you ever figure out to remember to listen to the
dog.  I still find myself arguing with Mitzi now and then only to discover
that she's doing the right thing and I'm just being a dolt.  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Julie J
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 6:16 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] street crossings

Tami,

I'm notorious for not crossing streets exactly, precisely straight.  I'm 
usually within a few feet though.  when I started training Monty I was so 
excited to always land at the right spot.  I'd cross crooked, find the 
sidewalk, move over there and then click and treat Monty.  It didn't take 
him long to figure out to skip all that in between stuff and just go to the 
c/t place! *smile*

I know what you mean about trusting the dog even when it seems like the 
wrong thing to do.  A few days ago we were walking down the street when 
Monty does a hard left and takes me to the curb like we are going to cross 
there.  I didn't want to cross that street.  I wanted to go straight.  So I 
get back on track and tell him forward.  He backs up.  I'm dense.  I 
encourage him forward.  He sits.  Really by now I should know better than to

second guess him like that.  So finally I start paying closer attention to 
what is up ahead.  Down the street a bit they are doing something high up, 
maybe trimming trees or repairing telephone or power poles, I don't know. 
So we cross the street to the left and continue on the other side.  Monty 
was happy to go that way.

Good thing I have a stubborn dog! *smile*

Julie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 1:10 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] street crossings


> Julie,
>
> Er...  I didn't know I was training Mitzi about curbs for guide work when
> she figured out the system we use now just in the course of our first few
> walks to the park.  By the time I realized there was a right way to teach
> her to do it and started worrying about how to do it just right, I 
> happened
> to notice that the little bugger was leading me across streets just find 
> in
> a way that worked for both of us.  Whew!  Well, I sort of worked out how I
> preferred to go about crossing streets duruing those early walks and 
> talking
> to her about it and praising her when she did something I found useful, so

> I
> actually was training her.  I just didn't know that I was supposed to be
> training her to do it the right way.  /lol/  Chalk one up for ignorance.
>
> Anyway, she goes from the middle of the sidewalk on the one side to the
> middle of the sidewalk on the other side, unless there's a curb cut, which
> she will use.  I think I've misstepped a couple of times when I was tired,
> and she doesn't like that at all.  So if there's a curb cut, she will use
> it.  This works for me, so it's okay.  I've learned to navigate that way, 
> I
> guess.  Otherwise, she does the middle of the sidewalk thing.  Unless
> there's a lot of foot traffic, then she will find a way to take me to the
> edge of the curb where I can place my feet properly to step off.
>
> So I guess a better way to say would be to say that she goes from curb to
> curb on street crossings just as she goes from curb to curb between street
> crossings.
>
> There was one tricky intersection in our old neighborhood on a narrow yet
> busy street where there were zigs and zags in both streets of the
> intersection so things did *not* line up in a sensible manner.  We ended 
> up
> compromising on how we did that one.  I wanted to be all proper at first,
> and was annoyed that she seemed to be trying to cut a corner somewhere and
> was being stubborn about it.  Then I happened to notice how much she was
> watching every which way and how tense she was, especially when she was
> insisting we do it her way and realized that she was actually taking the
> safest route because it was the quickest.  So we just did it improperly 
> and
> were both much less tense.  I guess I had been hearing what she was trying
> to tell me but didn't interpret those sound cues correctly because I was 
> too
> worried about crossing the street properly.  Not saying she gets to make 
> all
> the decisions about crossing streets, but I have learned to listen to her
> when she argues with me and try to figure out why.  /smile/
>
> I totally don't get that method you described either or why someone would 
> do
> it that way.  Maybe so the handler knows there's a step up or something?
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Julie J
> Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 6:01 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: [nagdu] street crossings
>
> When you cross a street with your guide dog, do you cross straight across 
> no
> matter where that lands you on the far curb or does your dog target the
> pedestrian pathway?  What happens if you aren't lined up absolutely
> perfectly, does the dog automatically correct the error or do you end up 
> in
> a straight line from where you were aimed?  I'm meaning a small bit of
> misalignment, not 45 degrees off.
>
> I'm asking because I've trained my guides to target the up
> curb/sidewalk/path regardless of where it is.  Then I was reading 
> something
> or another on the internet where some guide dogs are apparently taught to 
> go
> straight across and then make a 90 degree turn to get to the sidewalk. 
> That
> seems way weird to me.
>
> Thoughts?
> Julie
>
>
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