[nagdu] follow Command

[Julie McGinnity]

Hi Danielle,
 teach my current dog to follow.  He follows without me wanting him
to.  It's either a way of testing me, him being lazy, or simply that
he likes my friends.  But I am actually correcting him for following
because when he follows, he doesn't work anymore.  I can feel it in
the harness, and it's hard to explain to others.  I have run into
things this way though as well as off curbs and down stairs.  So yeah,
we may never follow... ever...  But that's ok in most situations.

Bill is so chill that if I need to, I can lightly touch a friend to
keep track of them while he's guiding.  I did this yesterday when we
were at a loud establishment.  When I did that, he actually lost the
motivation to follow, which he had tried to do a few minutes before.
It's very interesting what you can say to your dog with the simplest
of body language.
I'll respond to your message as well but thought I could chime in here.

I taught my first dog to follow, and she got pretty good at it for the
most part.  She was picky about who she followed.  I did a hand
gesture towards the person we needed to follow before saying forward
as the person was walking.  I just practiced following by getting her
bacvk on track with the other person when she decided not to follow.
But what Rox does may serve you better because I relied on my hearing
for this.

I may not ever be able to

On 6/10/15, Danielle Sykora via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> My dog was decent at following when I first got him, but he tended to
> focus more on the person leading than on his surroundings so I didn't
> use the follow command much for the first couple months. Now, he is
> very good at following, although I still like to have a general idea
> of where I am going. If he gets distracted, I want to tell him
> something a little more concrete than follow to refocus him. I find my
> dog follows more consistently when I talk to him, which also holds
> true for when he is working but not following. This could be a general
> command such as "straight, follow" or a meangingless phrase such as
> "come on" or "let's go" to get his attention.
>
> My problem isn't necessarily with my dog being distracted by people
> using his name, but by the people themselves not understanding that
> giving them permission to say his name while following doesn't mean
> they can talk to him all of the time. I almost always tell people my
> dogs name if they ask; however, I don't want people thinking they can
> talk to my dog when ever they please. I also find that individuals
> will then talk only to my dog and not feel the need to give me any
> directions. Of course, there are some people that talk to him and use
> his name but he isn't expecting to receive any information from them.
>
> Hope some of this makes sense,
> Danielle and Thai
>
> On 6/10/15, Danielle Burton via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Debby, I would but my Mom will not speak up. My own Mom despite
>> constantly
>> remindst her does not gve enough information. And honestly that's most
>> situations for me. Any background noise whatsoever and I can't hear. I
>> would
>> be heeling her a lot otherwise. When I'm in school and living on my
>> campus
>> it's a different story. I know the area well. i also have friends who
>> absolutely cannot give directions. When we go to convention I cannot hear
>> someone if they are even 2 feet away. This means I can't always give hg
>> additional direcnames but when I can hear that's what I do but even then
>> she
>> really doesn't always get the concept I don't think. She follows when I
>> can
>> hear not when I can't. Even if it's someone familiar.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Jun 10, 2015, at 12:10 AM, Debby Phillips <semisweetdebby at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> One thing that I learned while in class, which was new is to actually
>>> say
>>> Nova, follow forward, or follow right, or follow left.  That seems to
>>> help.  It isn't something that I do tons of, following.  They don't
>>> really
>>> guide when following, because they tend to just start looking at the
>>> person they're following, which is why giving them commands is
>>> important.
>>> Then they still focus on you, and not just the person they're following.
>>>  Peace,    Debby and Nova
>>
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-- 
Julie McGinnity
National Federation of the Blind of Missouri second vice president,
National Federation of the Blind performing arts division secretary,
Missouri Association of Guide dog Users President
graduate, Guiding Eyes for the Blind 2008, 2014
"For we walk by faith, not by sight"
2 Cor. 7