[nagdu] issue with dog going to greet people

Nemanja Djurdjevic ndjurdjevic at umassd.edu
Tue Sep 6 17:18:24 UTC 2011


Both of the A's make the ah sound, and the J, well, sounds like a J. Thanks
for the tips, I tried having people walk from different directions to greet
me or the dog, and she's getting better at it. One of the issues I am
working on is correcting her when she starts to do something undesirable. I
need to work on correcting the moment it happens, not a second after. We'll
get better at it as time goes on. I've only had her for a few weeks, and
she's already proving to be one of the best decisions I ever made.

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Julie J.
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2011 12:18 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] issue with dog going to greet people

Welcome Nemanja!

I'm Julie, one of the moderators.  I love your name!  How do you pronounce
it?

I think you are on the right track with the unwanted greeting behavior.  
If you are noticing improvement I'd stick with it.  Consistency is the key.
Also the earlier you can catch her the better.  So if you notice her turning
off someplace you don't think you should be turning, I'd stop and do some
obedience exercises or somehow get her attention back on you.  Then proceed
on your way.

If the problem is more than a nuisance and you want to take a more serious
action to extinguish it, you could enlist the help of some friends.  First
get them to wear clothing that makes noise, carry a crinkly shopping bag,
jingle the change in their pocket or something so you can hear where they
are.  Then set up lots of training opportunities 
by having the friends approach you from various directions.   Since you 
will know what is coming up you can intercede with Mary early.  You can use
whatever works, the gentle leader, a correction, a treat for focus on you,
obedience exercises-whatever you have been taught or what you feel
comfortable doing.

As she gets better you can increase the difficulty by asking people to
approach her directly, by reaching to pet, by offering food, by making eye
contact etc.  Start easy and build up her self control gradually.

HTH and welcome!
Julie


On 9/5/2011 1:38 PM, Nemanja Djurdjevic wrote:
> Hello List,
>
> My name is Nemanja Djurdjevic, and I am a recent graduate of the 
> seeing eye with a yello lab named Mary. She is my first guide of any 
> kind from any school. While I am doing routes on campus, Mary likes to 
> turn off routes and greet other people and investigate other things. I 
> tried using the gentle leader and it seems to have curbed the behavior 
> slightly. I correct her when she does this, with and without the 
> gentle leader, but again, it only helps slightly. I discourage people 
> from petting her while she is in harness, so it's not like they're
greeting her. Are there any other steps I can take?
> Thank you very much for your help,
>
> Nemanja
>
> _______________________________________________
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>


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