[nagdu] Dogs and traffic lights

[Brenda]

I thought about this topic when I was out walking with my cane the other 
day and here it is on the list...

So when I use a guide dog instead of a cane will people quit calling out 
their windows it is okay to cross a street and wait until I cross and/or 
worse yet, like an older gentleman did, get out of his car and tell me 
it was okay to cross.   (Educating each person is just not practicle so 
I just smile and wave and try to find another corner to cross/practice at).

I know it is annoying for guide dog users when people assume the dog 
understands traffic lights, but does that misconception keep people from 
being too helpful? Or maybe it is just my town where people don't see 
many cane or guide dog travelers and want to be nice?

Brenda
brenda










On 8/22/2011 10:53 AM, Tracy Carcione wrote:
> Dan, it beats the heck out of me that people ask me if I need help
> crossing a fairly quiet street, but not when I'm trying to cross some
> noisy monster with a bus idling  a few yards away.  Maybe the people on
> the busy street are too busy chatting and looking around, and the ones on
> the quiet street are paying more attention to other people.  Like I said,
> beats me.
> Tracy
>
>> As usual, Tommy, a very entertaining and pleasant post.
>> The misconception about guide dogs reading traffic lights seems to be the
>> most persistent one.
>> I don't get as  many comments on it  these days and that's  either because
>> I'm doing better or people just don't give a darn--smile.
>>
>> It used to happen all the damned time.
>> I have explained that I hear only out of one ear.
>> It goes in one ear and not out the other?--lol.
>> So, telling whether the cars are in front or to the side of me has always
>> been an interesting proposition.
>> I remember when I was a kid and made my first ventures in to independent
>> mobility.
>> I'm not going to mince words, I'd just stand at the curb with tears in my
>> eyes because I just couldn't tell.  I just figured out that you do the
>> best
>> you can and that's it.
>>
>> I've developed my own techniques, but you know sooner or later something
>> happens.
>> And of course everyone's there to tell me that my dog crossed me against
>> the
>> light or something like that, why did the dog do that, isn't he/she
>> trained?
>> I think what irks me is not the question, but that half the time when I
>> explain it they keep arguing?
>> Oh, but aren't they supposed to tell you when it's red?
>> I just explained that. Oh, but isn't it dangerous? Well, I explain that
>> one
>> too.
>>
>> Once a guy debated with me, yes argued about it. He said he had a
>> professor
>> in college who told him that guide dogs cross when the light is the right
>> color and so "I don't know who trained that dog, but those dogs do know".
>>
>> Oy vay, as my Dad would have said.
>>
>> And what's more, people who can't remember what they had for breakfast
>> will
>> remember for weeks that they saw you cross against the light.
>>
>> Of course, they wouldn't ever consider, let's see..asking you if you
>> needed
>> assistance when it actually happened?
>>
>> Go figure.
>>
>> And where are they when I do it right? They are there probably saying "you
>> see, that dog did know when the light's red".--lol
>>
>>
>> Dan the man, Carter the nut
>>
>>
>>
>>
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