[nagdu] Guide dogs and sports

[The Pawpower Pack]

Daryl, 
I did agility, not competetivly with my first guide— a lab. 
I did herding for fun with my border collie guide and also some agility. 
My golden Brissy was a therapy dog, although that's not a sport but it's an activity. 
And of course with Soleil, my current lab, I do bikejoring, with an adult trike— or I will once I get the trike and I finish the groundwork training.  
I also have run with most of my dogs, except for the bc who hated it. 
Right now, I'm training groundwork with Soleil which is the cues for mushing without the bike or scooter or whatever.  She wears an X-back harness with the D-ring for attaching the towline where the 2 lines of the x cross, right in the center.  Connected to the X-back is a towline made of bunjee material which absorbes any shock from me to the dog, like sudden stops or whatever.  The towline is then either connected to the bike or scooter, or to me via a belt.  
When a dog is mushing, it can work anywhere from 6 feet to 12 feet from the handler.  A dog bikejoring will work about 6-8 ft away, the dog skijoring will work about 10-12 ft from the handler because of the length of the skis. 
When I train direction cues, I use a flexy leash set at about 6 feet and locked and connected to the X-back to simulate that towline.  I use the flexy for training because it gives me more tactile feedback than a bunjee towline.  
Soleil knows Hike, which means mush forward with tension on the tow by pulling into the X-back.  Left and right, halt and On By which is a cue that means— I see that distraction, now move along.  
She is finishIng her distance direction training because dogs do not generalize. So she knows left in the service dog gear but is still learning left as distance behavior.  We are about 75% there.  
We are also mushing with a scooter for the practice of pulling something behind her on wheels, and having a lot more weight to pull.  In about a week we will put the flexy away and will incorporate both the distance cues and the scooter and will begin joring full time.  
When she is joring, she will guide from a distance, the feeling is very different, so I'm also learning to recognize obsticle avoidence and stops at changes in elevation from 6 feet away.  I love doing this activity with her, it has helped our teamwork, has given her an outlet for her energy and has stretched my skills as a trainer.  
She loves it! and gets so excited when she sees the X-back come out. It has not impacted her work in a negative way at all and has actually made us a better team because she is calmer from more exercise and I'm reading her better. 
I'm an owner trainer so obviously I can do as I please without having to worry what anyone says which is great.  I don't think I could attend a program if I had to hide what I did for fear of getting into trouble.  I'm an adult and expect to be treated as such, smile. 
Sorry for the novel    

 Rox and the kitchen Bitches: 
Mill'E, Laveau, Soleil
Pawpower4me at gmail.com
Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 29, 2015, at 2:33 PM, Daryl Marie via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi, guys!
> 
> I've seen the news article about Klinger, the "certified" running guide dog (don't open THAT can of worms, please), make the rounds of this list and twitter earlier this week.  I am curious about other activities you do with your guides? Hiking, tracking, field lessons, joring, whatever.  I am curious how you got into these activities, how you can tell if your dog enjoys them (or not), any special ways you train your dogs for these activities, etc.  Have traditional guide dog schools been encouraging or reluctant? Have you had to fly under the radar, so to speak?
> 
> I am blogging about my own experiences, as well as those of a few others... if you would like me to quote you, let me know specifically; if you don't mention wanting to be quoted, I will not quote you.  Either way, I think this might be a fun discussion for the list!
> 
> Daryl (with Jenny, the un-certified, but oh so good running guide dog!)
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