[nagdu] follow was Grave problems with Pilot Dogs program

[Julie J]

Tami,

Kiddo has grown up with a blind Mom and has been around many other blind 
people.  It's completely normal and natural for him.  I'm just his Mom.   Of 
course we talk about it from time to time, but it isn't much of a factor in 
our relationship.

He does like to help me train Monty though, mostly because I think it's fun 
for him.  Usually I give him some general directions, ride your bike back 
and forth through here or walk in random patterns or whatever.  Then he gets 
to use his creativity to see if he can challenge Monty in more and more 
complicated situations.

When I was teaching obstacle clearance, Kiddo used to set up obstacle 
courses in the front yard.  He'd drag out the trash dumpster, garden hose, 
flower pots...all sorts of junk and randomly place it on the sidewalk and 
driveway for Monty and I to work past.  the neighbors probably think we are 
insane! LOL

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: Sunday, April 17, 2011 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] follow was Grave problems with Pilot Dogs program


> Awesome!  Having a willing teenager as a training assistant is the first
> step in achieving success.  Adults in that role have more trouble than 
> kids
> for some reason.  Probably because they're too safety conscious.  Kids 
> have
> no clue about danger, so they can just have fun playing their part and let
> us play ours without assessing all the many ways we shall surely die at
> every step.  /lol/  Unfortunately, if the teenagers belong to your friends
> and neighbors and are not your own, you lose their companionship along 
> with
> their enthusiastic assistance once they realize that they are now way too
> cool for the likes of you.  /grin/  Still, one can watch them grow and
> develop and become super annoying twits secure in the knowledge that 
> they're
> somebody else's problem.  So it works out.  /evil grin/
>
> I look forward to hearing how future training goes.  Don't know if Monty
> will have the same response as Mitzi, but learning the person's name and
> using it in the follow command is a definite requirement for her.  If I
> forget, she will follow, but she gives me sighs and attitude until I
> remember my manners.  /smile/
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Julie J
> Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2011 6:08 AM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] follow was Grave problems with Pilot Dogs program
>
> Update on teaching follow to a nonfollowing dog...
>
> Yesterday did turn out to be a beautiful day!  No rain or snow and only a
> light breeze.  I enlisted the help of Kiddo, my teenage son, to help teach
> Monty follow.  He was wearing wind pants, you know the ones that make all
> sorts of noise when you walk?  We hadn't planned it, but it worked 
> amazingly
>
> well.
>
> We started out in the front of the house with a planned route in advance.
> It was basically a square from sidewalk to driveway to porch and then back
> around to sidewalk.  I told Monty to follow and kept repeating follow,
> giving hand signals if he needed a little help.  He seemed like he was
> starting to get the concept.  He did remember to stop for elevation 
> changes
> so that was really good.  that was something that Belle had difficulty 
> with.
>
> If she was following, she wasn't doing anything else.
>
> Then we headed over to the college parking lot.   I wanted Monty to really
> get the idea of follow without the hint of a specific pathway.  We 
> practiced
>
> for 15-20 minutes.  I'd click and treat at varying intervals for following
> and tell Monty "no" if he went off in a different direction.  I also cut
> back on the number of times I told him to follow as well as the extra hand
> gestures to indicate the turns.  I may have gone a bit fast in the 
> training
> pace, but Monty seems to have picked it up, so I think it was okay.
>
> I'd say Monty was about 75% accurate with Kiddo in the parking lot,  which
> is good for a start.  So now I need to find other people to practice with
> and lots and lots of different places.  I need to get the accuracy up and
> get him to generalize that follow means follow for a waitress in a
> restaurant or the husband in a theater or the secretary in an office
> building.  It could be a while before we get this down pat. *smile*
>
> I did notice a couple of interesting things though.  Monty prefers the
> person to be a bit to our left and ahead.  In the wide open area I let him
> follow wherever he wanted.  Most of the time Monty would place himself
> behind and to the right of Kiddo.
>
> The other thing I noticed that Monty doesn't follow as much as he notices
> where the other person is going and plots a parallel course.  He truly 
> does
> not like to follow, but that's okay as long as we stay with the other 
> person
>
> and get where we are going.
>
> Julie
>
>
>
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