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

Sat Aug 24 23:44:14 UTC 2013

Hello,
GDB suggests at first to give food reward a lot. That is what I meant.
Jessica Diaz
-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Shannon Dyer
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 1:56 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] [and] Changing the rules when you get home

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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