[nagdu] Bad weather and class

Fri Feb 14 19:39:11 UTC 2014

Hi Tracy,
The trouble my golden had with guiding in the snow occurred when we
received our first nonstop lake-effect snow. The snow just kept coming
down and it got so deep that he had difficulty discerning the sidewalk
from walkways to buildings, from the street where the curb was flush
with the sidewalk. So sometimes he would run those curbs that were
flush, and some times I would cue him to turn and because it was a
snow-covered walkway, he would ignore the cue and look for a path that
was clear. He quickly adapted after I put in some work with targeting,
and this winter he had no trouble at all. It wasn't a huge
inconvenience. My O&M specialist told me that it may or may not be a
issue for my dog. I was able to catch onto his issue right away, and
dealt with it in four or five training sessions throughout the day.

A guide dog in the snow is far easier than a cane in the snow. Getting
lost using a cane in the snow was my breaking point that brought on my
snap decision to get a guide dog. The dog beats a cane every time.

On 2/14/14, Raven Tolliver <ravend729 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm not sure if a school would teach a dog to guide over a snow bank,
> especially if they can't see what's on the other side. The snow bank
> is an obstacle like any other, and yes, it's important to get your
> butts out of the road, but since it's considered an obstacle, the
> instinct seems to be to stop and try to find a way around it.
> Unfortunately, that's just not possible some times. What I do is cross
> the road, and when we get right up to the snow bank, I drop the
> harness handle and heel him up and over.
> The difficult thing about teaching snow-coping skills to a dog is you
> can't do this unless the snow is there. Too, just because a dog is
> trained to deal with winter in one place doesn't mean it will be ready
> to handle winter in another place.
> For instance, my golden was trained during winter in NY. As I said
> earlier, the snow there at that time was nothing like the snow is here
> consistently, so he was not prepared. Really, I think it's up to the
> handler and their particular situation, and if they can't quite manage
> to teach their dog how to guide in winter conditions, hopefully
> someone from their school can give them some tips or come do a home
> visit.
>
> On 2/14/14, Raven Tolliver <ravend729 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I would imagine that classes go on. Sidewalks in most places are
>> shoveled or salted, so ice is not as much a hazard as you might think.
>> Not here in Michigan anyway. I've lived in Southeast and Western
>> Michigan for a long while and the sidewalks are just as cared for as
>> the streets are. Given, there are some places where you must walk over
>> patches of snow. But patches of ice are pretty rare.
>> My golden and I were still able to get out there and work despite the
>> below freezing temperatures. Classes around here aren't cancelled
>> unless the world is on the brink of ending, so the show goes on.
>> Outside of classes, we still have errands to run, buses to hop, and
>> volunteering to do. Life is definitely not put on hold because of the
>> snow, and trust me, there is a lot of it here. You just work through,
>> around, and over it, even if you have to climb over 2-1/2 feet of snow
>> to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk.
>> It would have been nice to score a winter class, but I don't think New
>> York winters are anything like West Michigan winters, so it probably
>> wouldn't have made a difference. Too, that would have clashed with the
>> school semester, so it was out of the question.
>> For people from different parts of the country who aren't used to
>> working through so much frigid temps and copious amounts of snow, I
>> would advise those people to avoid the winter classes if you plan on
>> getting a dog from a place with weather like Momma Michigan's. It
>> definitely takes some getting used to, even for some dogs, so if both
>> the handler and dog are thrown off, your mobility is shot.
>> My golden was very thrown off by the snow his first winter here in
>> Michigan. His trainer couldn't even tell me how he'd handle it since
>> the winter he was trained dropped little snow in New York. I had to
>> put in extra training with him to get him acclimated so he would still
>> turn down the paths I needed and stop at those curbs flush with the
>> sidewalk. He got it down quickly, and this winter, he's guiding in the
>> snow as if he's been doing it his whole life.
>> Too, if you put booties on a dog, they definitely walk faster,
>> especially if it's those clunky ones the schools commonly give out.
>>
>> On 2/14/14, Larry D. Keeler <lkeeler at comcast.net> wrote:
>>> Welcome to Michigan's weather! It will finally go abov freezing this
>>> week!
>>> Holly mostly didn't work much this winter because of the cold and
>>> sidewalks.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione at access.net>
>>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
>>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 10:07 AM
>>> Subject: [nagdu] Bad weather and class
>>>
>>>
>>>> It seems like, here in Jersey, we've had a major storm every week for
>>>> at
>>>> least the last month, and, even when there's no storm, it's been very
>>>> cold.
>>>> I wonder how the schools around here are handling it.  Do people just
>>>> go
>>>> out, unless it's actually blizzarding, and stomp through the snow as
>>>> best
>>>>
>>>> they can?  I would have a hard time judging my new dog's pace, if all
>>>> the
>>>>
>>>> time we were walking carefully on ice, or maneuvering down narrow
>>>> shovelled paths.  And in my book, one or two trips to the mall exhausts
>>>> the possibilities for learning anything useful there.
>>>> Or, I suppose, they could come into New York City a lot more, because
>>>> the
>>>>
>>>> City tends to clean the main walkways pretty well.  A lot better than
>>>> my
>>>> town does, for sure.
>>>> I wonder what Leader does, since bad weather is a constant in Michigan
>>>> winters?
>>>> Anyone been in class in the northern part of the country during January
>>>> or
>>>>
>>>> February, with lots of snow?
>>>> I'd be real interested to hear about it.
>>>> Tracy
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Raven
>>
>
>
> --
> Raven
>

-- 
Raven