[nagdu] Adjustment from working with a king to a dog

Thu Jun 26 22:24:28 UTC 2014

Cindy! You do that! Well, like i say, I interchange cane and dog often 
enough so that I am usually pretty quick with iether. But, i also got up to 
talking to mty cane once! Yep! I was leaving our gas station and I caught 
myself telling my cane to find out.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cindy Ray via nagdu" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
To: "Buddy Brannan" <buddy at brannan.name>; "NAGDU Mailing List,the National 
Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2014 2:25 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Adjustment from working with a king to a dog

Yes, I feel like something is missing; I don’t really feel off balance. As 
for talking to the cane, we probably shouldn’t discuss that here. LOL.
Cindy

On Jun 26, 2014, at 12:00 PM, Buddy Brannan via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> 
wrote:

> Yeah, that is hard. The hardest part of changing back from a dog to a 
> cane, for me anyway, well, there were two things. We won’t talk about not 
> telling the cane it’s a good boy. The first thing was always feeling like 
> I was weaving all over the sidewalk. The second thing was feeling off 
> balance. I literally felt like I was going to fall over at any second for 
> the first couple days. Once I hit my stride though, it was all right and I 
> stopped feeling like that. No mistake, you definitely use different 
> muscles when you walk with a cane vs. walking with a dog.
> On Jun 26, 2014, at 12:39 PM, Sean Robertson via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> 
> wrote:
>
>> And I'm having to do backwards, From a dog to a cane. Boy is that hard 
>> too. I have a bad rite rist, So using a cane hurts.
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Buddy Brannan via nagdu" 
>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> To: "Daryl Marie" <crazymusician at shaw.ca>; "NAGDU Mailing List,the 
>> National Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2014 12:09 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Adjustment from working with a king to a dog
>>
>>
>> I’ve said this in another post, probably several other posts, but the 
>> hardest thing for me to learn wasn’t the mechanics of guide work. The 
>> mechanics are easy. This hand signal means that thing, and when you move 
>> your feet this way, it means this other thing, and when the dog stops or 
>> backs up or what have you…all that stuff was pretty easy by comparison to 
>> the hardest thing, which was learning to trust my dog. Being a cane user, 
>> and I’d say a *good* cane user, I was used to having all the control and 
>> making all the decisions. Pole? Walk around it. Check. With a dog, you 
>> have to let some of that go. And I’ve had to relearn this three different 
>> times.
>>
>> On Jun 26, 2014, at 11:29 AM, Daryl Marie via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hi, Clare!
>>> I am less than a year into working with my first guide, Jenny, and I was 
>>> a cane user for my entire life.  The tactile feedback is very different 
>>> from cane to dog, and I personally thought the transition would be 
>>> difficult; instead, I found myself freed from the feedback of the cane. 
>>> Even my best friend thought I would have a hard transition and was 
>>> surprised when I didn't.  Others will have different experiences.  The 
>>> advice I can give here is to break down the feedback you receive from 
>>> your cane and think about what feedback you think is necessary, and what 
>>> you can do without.
>>>
>>> As for your dog's signals... all dogs will have different signals that 
>>> they use.  Trainers will know your dog and know some of their signals. 
>>> In the beginning, they will tell you that your dog is distracted, 
>>> focused, scrounging, etc., and you will learn in training and beyond the 
>>> signals your own dog will use.  I tend to second-guess Jenny signals on 
>>> locating thigns, because her body language is the same as if she's 
>>> diving toward something, so I act accordingly.
>>>
>>> You will make mistakes; this is normal!  Don't be like me an put on 
>>> yourself the unreasonable and stressful expectation of perfectly 
>>> understanding your dog as soon as you start training, or even in the 
>>> first few months.  You will both make mistakes, figure each other out as 
>>> you go... and when you both "get it", there's no better feeling in the 
>>> world!
>>>
>>> Daryl and Jenny
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Clare Westlund via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
>>> Sent: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 09:10:03 -0600 (MDT)
>>> Subject: [nagdu] Adjustment from working with a king to a dog
>>>
>>> afraid that I will miss something that the dog is trying to tell me when 
>>> off leash. Thank you all for your guidance and advice! Clare Hi 
>>> everyone! I am preparing to get my first dog next month and I had a 
>>> couple questions. I am nervous about the adjustment from working with a 
>>> cane two then using a dog? What was it like for you? I am nervous that I 
>>> will not understand what the dog is trying to tell me when and and or 
>>> out of harness? I don't want to interpret the body language or mannerism 
>>> of the dog in a bad way? Since I am totally blind I am
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
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>>
>>
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>
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