[nagdu] [and] Changing the rules when you get home

[Shannon Dyer]

Hi, Jessica.

I, too, do a lot of moving turns. With Ace, I couldn't do them right away, as I had to get used to a dog with a totally different pull from my previous two. However, within a few months, we were turning just like I had with both Rachel and Caroline.

I'm curious about something. You talked about treating at every curb. Where did you get your dog? I've never heard of a school that teaches its students to give a treat when the dog stops at a curb. I'm not passing judgment here. I'm just curious to know which school does this.

Shannon and Ace
On Aug 24, 2013, at 1:12 PM, "Jessica Diaz PC" <jldiaz421 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> Thought I would write a little here too. Right away I stopped the treating
> at every curb. To be honest, it slows me down especially in my rush to work
> and so on. I stop at steps because I need my dog to always do this but I let
> him go up and then keep walking. I never have been a goo-goo gaga over these
> expensive beds and my dog sleeps wherever he wants which is most of the time
> on my feet. It doesn't bother me because I feel as long as he keeps me safe
> and we do good work, who cares. We do lots of moving turns because I am
> great at judging distances and half the time my dog knows where to go anyway
> which is amazing in my eyes. I buy my dog all kinds of toys including soft
> ones because I don't see anything wrong with them and if he gets the
> stuffing out of it, a vacuum cleans that right up. Am sure lots of people
> will not agree but everyone does different things trust me.
> Jessica Diaz And A Crazy Saunders
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Raven Tolliver
> Sent: Friday, August 23, 2013 12:19 PM
> To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Changing the rules when you get home
> 
> I changed a lot more than just the rules.
> One of the first things I did was put the choke chain to rest, and switch to
> a prong collar. I did not like the chain because frequently, it got caught
> in my golden's fur, and it would turn around and slide down his neck. I
> could never keep it in a proper position for a leash correction. I also did
> not like the idea of briefly choking my dog for a leash correction. So for a
> couple months, I used the prong collar, and it worked much better for me.
> Then, I just switched to the martingale check collar, which is what I use
> now.
> I don't remember if my school said to heel the dog off of a bus or not.
> Regardless, I work him off the bus. I gauge how much of a step down there is
> by his behavior. If he steps right off after being cued to go forward,
> there's obviously not much of a step. But if he stops in the doorway, and
> does not obey the cue "forward," I know that there is a larger step down.
> The school did say not to have the dog lay down on the bus. I don't think
> this is practical, especially for longer bus rides. It doesn't come
> naturally for my dog to just sit up while the bus is moving, so he just lays
> down, and I slide him back under the seat. If someone comes on with a
> wheelchair, stroller, or cart, I briefly grab up his front paws.
> The school taught us to switch the dog over to the right side when working
> through doors that opened out to the left. The only time I'll maneuver
> through a doorway by doing a complete 360 is when I am carrying things in my
> right hand.
> I stopped treating so frequently concerning curbs and stairs. The school had
> us treating at every curb, which is just ridiculous, especially the way they
> had us stopping at the curb when we reached the other side of the street.
> They trained the dog to stop with its front paws on the curb, but you and
> the rest of your dog would still be hanging out in the road. I'm sorry, but
> I did not like that at all.
> Not all roads have bike lanes to just hang out in, and you only have about
> 20-30 seconds to get your butts across the road and out of the road. So I
> allowed my dog to continue over the curb, and just verbally praised him for
> it. It's just not necessary to stop in the street after crossing the road.
> At stairs, I allowed him to go up stairs without stopping at them.
> Usually, he stops at stairs whether they are going up or down, but if he
> does not stop, I don't rework it because I personally can feel through my
> harness whether my dog is stepping up or down.
> Too, when crossing streets, the school discouraged any kind of automatic
> turning after crossing. If we needed to make a turn, we were instructed to
> take two or three steps after the curb, cue "wait," then cue our dogs left
> or right. Again, not practical, at least, not in my environment. On campus,
> there isn't a lawn on the street side of the sidewalk, so turns after
> crossing have to be immediate. I have to cue my dog "to the curb, right. To
> the curb, right," or else, we will pass up the turn.
> I also changed my dog's diet. He is now on a fish-based, grain, gluten, and
> soy-free dog food. And I started feeding my dog fruit -- cantaloupe,
> honey-do, and pear. He has never been interested in vegetables.
> When I lived with my parents, I did not let him off leash until his
> off-leash recall was reliable. And I did not force him to sleep on his bed
> or in his crate. He was restricted to sleeping in my bedroom with me, but
> the spot was up to him. He never got up on the bed, since he considered
> jumping up on the furniture a sin. Here in my apartment, he sleeps wherever
> - in the bathroom, living room, somewhere in the bedroom. The spot is up to
> him and he moves around throughout the night.
> He has never had an accident indoors. My puppy-raisers even said that he
> never had an accident with them, even when he was sick. But sometimes, I
> will take him out if I wake up around two or three in the morning though.
> Oh, and lastly, I got him several squeaky toys. I don't know why schools say
> not to get them. Maybe because dogs will try to chew the squeakers out and
> eat them? My golden guy loves his squeaky toys, and I always monitor him if
> he's playing independently with anything but a Nylobone.
> 
> 
> --
> Raven
> 
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