[nagdu] ouch, that hurt... is this normal?

[Lisa belville]

Hi, Hannah,

This is all part of working with a very green dog.  <sigh>

Some of it could be distraction, as you say, but if she's looking around it 
might not necessarily be that she's more interested in her surroundings than 
guiding.  My dogs are always looking at things, but not in a distracted way, 
it's more like they're scoping out the path ahead so they know what the next 
move should be, i.e. slow down, stop at a curb, etc.    My first dog even 
did the classic looking both ways when we would reach a street or drive way.

Also it could be that the poll was in a difficult place for your dog to 
accurately gauge how much space she needed to guide you and herself around 
it.  Dogs don't have the best depth perception, so it does take a bit of 
practice for them to know how much room is necessary to squeeze you and her 
through a path she sees as being too narrow.

Katy slammed me into a poll during our first family outing.  The poll was on 
my side and there was a rack of shopping carts on Katy's side.  I gave her a 
verbal correction, turned around, and did it again.  Now she just slows down 
at narrow areas so I know that part of the job of guiding is for me to 
determine if there's a narrow path for us.  We still get practice at this 
because there's a street with a very rounded curb and a phone poll in the 
place I need to be to get directly lined up.  Katy will come to a crawl and 
we work our way through it.

Don't get discouraged.  You guys haven't been together long at all, and 
you're still learning each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Lisa



I'd like an order of ambition, & a side of focus, and a large coffee. And 
could you super size that please? It really needs to last for the rest of 
the day.
Lisa Belville
missktlab1217 at frontier.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hannah Chadwick" <sparklylicious at suddenlink.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 9:44 PM
Subject: [nagdu] ouch, that hurt... is this normal?


> Hi all,
> So I took Princess for a walk around the Humboldt State University track, 
> a
> place I don't go to often. We were working on going up and down steps
> because she seems to have a difficult time stopping. After a few tries she
> got my point and of course I praised her. However, as we got to the top, 
> she
> walked me in to a pole... she gets really curious about everything and I
> believe that's why she did not see the pole. Does this happen with other
> dogs? She is over 2-years-old, and is easily distracted, will this change 
> as
> she gets older?
> All the best, Hannah and Princess
>
>
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