[nagdu] Holding the leash RE: guide dogs

[Jenine Stanley]

Jennifer, 

Just to clarify. Not all schools have you hold the leash in one hand and
harness in the other. In fact, most schools have you hold the leash and
harness in the same, left, hand, if your dog is trained on the left side as
is the usual way. 

Maybe the Pilot grads can answer this one with more current info. When I got
my first 2 dogs from there in the late 1980's, we were indeed taught to hold
the leash in our right hand and harness in the left. My first instructor did
show people how to hold the leash in the left hand but it was reserved only
for those with good control of the dog, both speed and behavior-wise. That
was definitely not me with my first dog. <grin> 

The leash used at Pilot is very long though, almost half again as long as
the Seeing eye leash. I measured these leashes once when fully extended and
can't recall the exact measurements now, but the GDF leash fully extended
measures around 4 feet from edge of leather to edge of leather, leash clips
not included. The Pilot leash I had for many years measured 6 feet from the
same spots when fully extended. 

There are generally 2 ways to hold the leash if holding it in the same hand
as the harness. You can either put your hand through the loop and allow the
leash to rest on your wrist, feeding over the handle from your palm. Mine
comes up and goes over the handle between my index and middle fingers.
Holding the leash this way allows you to drop the handle and still be
connected to the dog, hopefully. <grin> I believe it's also the way Seeing
Eye has you hold the leash. 

The other way is not to put your hand through the leash but to let it hang
over the handle and put your hand on top of it, holding it along with the
handle. Some people even double over the last bit of the leash to hold it
this way. It then feeds between either your index and middle or middle and
ring fingers. 

My left hand is way too small to hold the leash that way but if that's how
people initially learned, a lot of them like to continue to do it that way. 

Sometimes you will need to tighten up the connection of the leash and that
can be done holding it in either position. Sometimes too you may need to
reach over with the right hand and grab the leash while still holding it and
the harness in the left hand. That's mostly done for correction or better
stated, redirection. 

The situations where you might hold the leash in your right hand if that's
not the standard practice for the school might include encouraging the dog
to speed up, getting better control of the dog's head and probably a host of
other things I'm not remembering at the moment. <grin> 

Some schools also use hand signals with the right hand, sans leash. GDF uses
these. I've talked to a lot of our grads though who don't continue using
them once home. I like them because I can give the dog directions or
encouragement or can just clarify something without having to talk. In noisy
or very quiet environments, this is nice. 


Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com