[nagdu] How to encourage dog initiative

[Tracy Carcione]

It's been a while since I've had a new dog, knock wood, but I think that
what I do to encourage initiative is to encourage the dog to make
decisions when we get into a situation, and show him that I'm willing to
go with his decisions once he makes one.  At first, this can involve
standing somewhere and saying Hup-up in a cheerful way, and sometimes some
gentle handwaving to suggest possibilities.  I've even found myself giving
that wonderfully mystic GDF command "Find the Way!"
In my experience, this kind of thing requires me to work my dog on my own
quite a bit.  Standing still and waiting for the dog to figure out a
challenge seems to drive sighted people buggy.  Even if I explain before
we set out that I am trying to teach the dog that he can figure things out
without much help, when the situation comes up, the sighted person barges
ahead saying "Oh come on; this way."  So, instead of the dog learning that
he can make decisions, he learns that if he waits, someone will go ahead
and he can follow them.  Not the conclusion I want.  Someone told me that
her dog would look around for a sighted person to follow, if the dog felt
her person was confused.  That's initiative too, but not the kind I want.
So, for me, it's really important to work with my dog alone in the
beginning.  Maybe other people have better control of their sighted
partners than I do, but for me they can be quite a hindrance to
team-building.

In the beginning, and not much after either, I wouldn't expect the dog to
figure things out if I was facing the whole wrong way or something. An
experienced dog can sometimes figure that out, but really it's my job to
at least aim in the generally right direction.
Although once, at a state convention banquet, I had to step out, and I
pointed the way I thought we should go and told Echo "Outside!"  She led
me the other way than I pointed, around the table and to a clear aisle,
and then took me to the door.  I was very impressed.  Just like in the
Seeing Eye dog books!

I may have messed up Ben's initiative a bit by not trusting his decisions.
 It's hard for me to tell when he's going around something and when he's
going to sniff something, especially in suburbia, where the work is less
challenging and he gets more distracted. Luckily, Ben has lots of
confidence and initiative, so I haven't made a complete hash of things.
Tracy