[nagdu] which side are you on?

[Katrin Andberg]

There are a couple of general 'dog behavior and social etiquette' principles
that come into play as to why most guides will track to the left (or right
if they are taught to work on the right side of the handler)

 

1.  In dog social etiquette and body language, straight lines, movement in
straight lines is incredibly stressful and confrontational.  One of the most
challenging things to teach a dog is to move independently in a straight
line for a given longer distance.  Dogs prefer to work in curves, in their
social structure, curves avoid conflict and are socially preferable.  Think
about even the basis how socially appropriate dogs greet each other- nose to
rear end/tail, i.e. in a curve.  Moving directly head on straight forward
towards anything or anyone is very difficult for dogs to do as it requires
that they ignore all biological survival mechanisms (the most basic way to
survive is to avoid conflict as every time one engages in conflict on any
level, one risks the potential increase of death), therefore most dogs will
naturally prefer to curve, especially guides who their handler is not
consistently with his/her own body language and forward motion keeping the
dog on a straight path.

 

2.  Dogs communicate with each other (and attempt to with us) through very
subtle give and take of body pressure and space.  Guide dogs, as a general
statement, are bred to be non-confrontational, to be as non-threatening and
as deferential as possible.  In this, most guides would avoid challenging
body pressure and space.  If you think on these lines, a dog pulling into
you, to pull you to the right to keep you to the right side of the path is
very confrontational.  In order to pull you to the right of the path, the
dog must engage in (in his or her mind) 'conflict', i.e. 'challenging' your
body space and pressure to pull into you.  Again, most dogs will avoid doing
this as to him or her it feels very stressful- 'challenging' you in that
manner. 

 

3.  Added into this scenario as a complicating factor, again remembering
that dogs will naturally wish to avoid conflict, is that what happens when
most of your dogs pull or drift you to the left when you wish them to pull
you to the right?  Many would correct their dogs, i.e. the handler would
engage in conflict with the dogs.  Again most guides would rather defer, and
avoid this, so the dog's gut reaction would be to avoid further pulling you
to the right, avoid any potential of engaging in conflict and 'challenge'
with you.  

 

4.  As others have already stated, pulling to the left also makes the dogs
job easier with guiding as there is generally more space then to the
handler's right to avoid potential obstacles (which you hitting an obstacle
on your right side, has been paired with some level of aversive for most
guide dogs, since if you hit something on the right side, most handlers will
correct the dog in some way), as well as keep the handler (and dog) closer
to the curb, out of way of moving cars (which for a guide dog has been
paired with a high aversive and desire to avoid) when doing sidewalkless
travel.

 

So if one wanted to have an increase of making any potential progress on
encouraging the dog to pull them to the right, I'd avoid making that
behavior more stressful (i.e. avoid engaging in conflict and challenge with
the dog when he pulls you to the left), and break it down into small parts
with high rate of reinforcement for each willing attempt the dog made to
keep straight or pull to the right.  (or, I would suggest getting or
training the dog to work on your right if keeping you to the right side of
the path was a significant need for whatever reason)

 

Katrin

 

Katrin Andberg

katrin at maplewooddog.com

www.maplewooddog.com