[nagdu] "Find" command was Critical blind people

[Katrin Andberg]

I too can't believe that people don't think dogs can do a "find" command.
That was one cue that James knew for so many varied situations and things
and it helped me out tremendously.  He could find exit and entrance doors,
he could find stairs, elevators, escalators, he could find people by name
that I'd taught him, he could find the vehicle we came in in a parking lot
didn't matter what vehicle it was he would find whichever one someone drove
us in, he found seats, he could find places we went to often.  If I left the
house and said to him, "Let's find CVS" or "We're going to David's" he knew
exactly where we were off to and while of course I paid enough attention to
make sure he wasn't' taking me on a joy ride he did know how to get many
places no problem.  In Boston he could find South Station from many
different places, which was very helpful on certain occasions.  He also had
a cue for finding the last place we were at, once in Penn Station in NY I
had been asked for assistance to take James outside to potty and then the
station attendant who had walked us out up and left us out there before I
could tell her I needed help getting back.  I didn't have a real clue of
where we were or how to get back to the specific seating area where we were
to be escorted to our connecting Amtrak train from, so after James had
pottied, I put his harness back on, picked up the handle walked him towards
the inside door and said, "Find our seat."  And he absolutely did.  We had
to go down a floor via a stair case, and across a long expanse into a small
room and he found "our seat".  Saved me a lot of trouble in that particular
situation.  Dogs can do a lot more than some people give them credit for,
you just have to teach them and it's amazing how well they can figure things
out.

 

Katrin & James (retired) 

 

Katrin Andberg

 <mailto:katrin at maplewooddog.com> katrin at maplewooddog.com