[nagdu] Guide work and hiking

Tamara Smith-Kinney tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Tue Aug 17 16:58:09 UTC 2010


Gary,

You can order one of the harnesses through Pawpower Creations.  And I'm sure
by now, Rox or Bob has posted the link.  /smile/

The sport harness is great for hiking!  It gives a whole lot of freedom of
movement on uneven terrain while providing tons of communication both ways.
Also, I like the way it fits the poodle, since it doesn't interfere with her
shoulder action, and the intersection of the "Y" is down low enough to put
the pressure on her sternum instead of her trachea...

I did what you did with Bogart and just let Mitzi run wild run free on our
first couple of hikes.  She was just a year old and ran and bounced
everywhere, with that fun combination of whimsy and intense investigation.
/smile/  That natural poodle yo-yo tendency makes letting her off leash to
run and bounce and explore pretty relaxing and easy, because she runs out so
far and bounces back.  /smile/  Now that she's older, she's less airborn,
but she still loves to run and explore, then check back, then run and
explore.  Or go up ahead and "jingle guide" or even "squeak guide" if she
has her ball with her.  One of the trails where we sometimes do that is
familiar enough that she knows exactly where to dash across the trail in
front of me and squeak the ball as she crosses so I remember to turn and
don't walk off the thing and get lost.  Very funny.

She is also a *very* good guide on hikes and likes to take the lead!  This
was scary at first and I really had to concentrate to buck up my confidence
in her because I wasn't too sure about what would happen on those narrow,
twisty spots with drop-offs.  I would usually have a sighted friend huffing
along behind us who would let us know we were coming to one by calling
frantically about how I was going to die...  /smile/  Or just calling to me
calmly to stop and let them go ahead for a ways.

Now it's old hat, and she does very well, and I can just hike along with her
in harness and chat or daydream or take in the smells and what nature scenes
I still see.  It is very cool.

My cane did drag me off the trail this one time into a tree...  /lol/  Long
story, and since we were in deep shade after coming out of the sun, I was
completely lost when my cane caught some brush or something, then I couldn't
get it out at first.  Mitzi was scouting ahead off leash, and my friend, who
was still awaiting her guide, is deafblind so just kept going without me,
and since I was distracted and pretty much totally blind in that light, I
didn't see or hear where she went...  Anyway, I finally decided to call Mitz
instead of whispering my mostly deaf friends' name -- why that clever move
came to mind first, I have no idea -- so Mitzi heard me and doubled back,
picking up my friend along the way so we were all reunited safe and sound
and had some fun making up jokes on me about the tree that grabbed me...
/lol/

Yup!  Hiking with poodles is way fun.  Gotta say my friend's GSD was a good
hiking guide from the time she got home almost.  It was pretty fun the time
we went hiking right after she got her dog so that I could see them learning
together.  I will admit, it was also nice for a change to be the old hand
with the guide dog.  /grin/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Gary
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 10:25 AM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Guide work and hiking

Hello Laura:

Thanks for sharing your experience. I know that sometimes we have things to
work out with our dogs but they usually have things they do really good at.

Bogart, who I've had at home since June, is doing pretty good. One of the
neatest things we did was go on several hikes during our holidays. It was
our chance to see how he was off leash in an area with a fair bit of wild
life and challenging terrain. So our first hike was about 4 kilometers of
fairly rugged terrain. In poodle style, he never went very far ahead and
always came back to walk by Susan. He would always come back and check on me
as well, or wait for me to catch up. Seemed to handl the terrain pretty well
although a few times he wanted to see susan go down the rocky steep path to
show that this was the way we really wanted to go.

The next day was about 7 km of pretty flat walking on dyke paths and such by
the ocean where it meets the mountains. The third day of our holidays we
planned a four lake walk. This is about 7 km with a good bit of climbing.
Since dogs have to be on leash in this area we thought we would see how
Bogart would guide on such a trail. So he was in harness and I used a
trekking pole in my right hand to help with balance and identify issues like
I would with a cane. He did great. For most of the hike we were actually
leadinng. Susan would have to get us to move over left or right when she
wasn't sure that bogart would leave enough room for me when there were drop
offs but besides that it was great. It was so neat to be leading the walks
to the point where I had to let susan go in front because she wanted to go a
bit slower as we got towards the end of the hike. I will have to look at
getting one of those sports harnesses I've read about on here since I worry
about the leather one being heavy and possibly chaiffing him. If the fellow
who makes those harnesses monitors the list please feel free to contact me
off list to tell me about your products.

Anyway, as a new guide dog user I do experience moments of frustration where
I miss my cane but then there are other times that the dog totally amazes me
with his abilities. Certainly adds to our life now that bogart is part of
it.

Gary




-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Lora
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2010 9:13 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Guide work and hiking

Hello everyone
I wanted to share something positive about Kori so you didn't think
that my whole guide dog experience is bad. :) I went hiking yesterday
in a conplex terrain area. There were lots of rocks and sticks etc.
Kori did amazingly. If there wasn't a way he could get around the
rocks he would stop and then proceed slowly. There was one section
where he couldn't go around all the rocks. He stopped and after a
little encouragement procedded very slowly stopping at larger rocks.
We curved alot back and forth on the path created by other animals and
humans (ie not paved) and he took the path of least resistance. It was
alot ot ask for since there wasn't really a clear path and we've only
been home for two months. I am very proud of my boy. :)
-- 
Lora

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