[nagdu] Behaviour in public places

[Nicole Torcolini]

Lisa,

	I think that a few different things may be happening. First, your
trainer is no longer there. Taylor  may be playing the game that most dogs
play where, as soon as the trainer leaves or you go home, the dog is testing
you to see if you have the same expectations as the trainer. You could work
on this at home by doing obedience with him. Try to work on the behaviors
that are most problematic, such as stay. Try to add motivations for him not
staying, such as food on the floor or other people coming in the room. Make
sure that you praise and/or reward him for doing the right thing. Once he
has that down, try going out in public, but make a trip specifically for
working with him. You could go to the café or something, but not actually
order anything, or, if you did, still focus more on working with Taylor. As
soon as he gets up, tell him down, and then praise and/or reward for the
desired behavior. Some people also use clicker training for this type of
problem. Let me know if you would like information on that. As others have
suggested, you can also put the leash under your foot and/or try to slide
Taylor under your chair. You probably would want to practice the under the
chair thing at home if it was not something that the trainer did with Taylor
as some dogs don't care for it at first and can kind of freak out. Finally,
if you can get a table beside the wall and/or in a corner, you can sometimes
keep the dog somewhat under control and out of the way by putting him by the
wall. If you are not using all of the chairs at a table, you can move one
and put Taylor where the extra chair would be.

Nicole

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lisa via nagdu
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2014 9:50 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Behaviour in public places

Hello everyone,

I have a question regarding Taylor's behaviour in public places.
We haven't had much opportunities to practice it yet, but I already noticed
the following: Each time we were in a café or another place where alot of
other people are, Taylor won't stay quiet for a long time.

The other day we met with some people in a café. Taylor laid down next to my
chair but everytime the waitress walked by or the door was opened by new
customers, he stood up and wanted to greet them. But also when noone walked
by, he would get up and try to sniff around. He tried to go under nearby
tables and chairs and everytime I took him back, it made alot of noise
because the chairs were scratching on the floor and so on. It was really not
nice at all.
And it's like this everytime we sit somewhere in a similar surrounding. What
I do is telling him to lie down. Right now, I don't really know what else to
do. Of course, I know that when I get frustrated about that, he immediately
notices that and then nothing gets better.... But it's not easy to stay all
kind and calm in such a situation.

During training, we only practiced in a bakery that was small and quiet. 
when we sat there and had coffee, he was perfectly still. But there were no
people walking by or entering the room. It was just small and quiet so I
think there were not many distractions for him.

What are your suggestions? What could I do in such situations to make this
better? Any idea is very appreciated.

greetings from Germany
Lisa 


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