[nagdu] When keeping you safe leads into distractions

[Tami Jarvis]

Daryl,

Sounds like you're right and Jenny made the best call and managed the 
distracting other dogs well, too. I'm guessing that because of the ice 
lakes and other muck, there may be a bottleneck along a small portion of 
navigable sidewalk and crossing spots. With a warm up, there are 
probably more people breaking out and walking their dogs for the first 
time in months, too. So your statistical odds of encountering other dogs 
on the sidewalk are pretty good, so the coincidence isn't all that much 
of one.

I get confused at times like that, too. Mitzi will insist we do 
something one way, but I'm not so sure, or I'm sure we should do it my 
way. It's especially confusing when it's on a regular route, because I 
absolutely know where we need to go and what's up ahead so what is wrong 
with this obnoxious poodle? Every time -- every single time -- I have 
remembered that I'm the boss, I make the decisions, it's Mitzi's job to 
guide to my command, blah, blah, blah, I command us right into a fuddle, 
if not a mess that Mitzi then has to get me out of. She has her ways of 
saying "I told you so." /lol/ She's predictive enough in her style to 
respond to new things way up ahead, so that adds to my confusion because 
I just don't detect them. You would think I would have learned, but no. 
Just last summer, I decided to stay on the north side of the street a 
few blocks longer than usual, realized my dog wasn't making the turn to 
do that and was being a little obnoxious about the whole thing, so I 
cracked down and we made our crossing and started down the sidewalk, 
with Mitzi in sulky poodle mode, kinda slow and balky. You would think 
that would have clued me in, but I was being the boss, so... A block and 
a half up, the way was barred by construction that came out into the 
sidewalk and partway to the street. We had no choice but to cross 
without a light or turn around and go back to the light where Mitzi had 
insisted we should cross. Sigh.

It's extra confusing when the behavior of everyone else has changed as 
well, so spring is always full of surprises for me. With all the smells 
coming out after waiting under the ice all winter, Mitzi feels unfocused 
even when she's not being ultra sniffy, and I can feel her noticing all 
the interesting spring stuff going on around us, so I grow suspicious of 
her motives when she insists we go another way and there's also 
something distracting there.

Mitzi's not above taking advantage of new distractions along the detour, 
or trying to. But it depends. If the detour is a smooth one, she will be 
distractable. If it's tricky and has lots of obstacles or difficult 
footing, she's spot on, the most focused guide dog ever. She's funny 
that way. Strange to think she's ready for retirement, if not 
effectively retired. I haven't made a final official determination, 
but... I've often thought it might be nice to have something a little 
less complicated and quirky, but I'm used to her quirks and will miss 
them. :(

Good luck navigating all the nastiness!

Tami


On 03/10/2015 04:05 PM, Daryl Marie via nagdu wrote:
> So, I have come across this twice today, and have a sneaky suspicion it will happen again before we get everything all melted away, so would like some advice, pointers, or reassurance.
>
> I live in northern Canada, and we are experiencing a very fast thaw. One portion of our walk includes half a block of sidewalk that is buried under 3-4 inches of water, with ice underneath.  Today, both to and from work, Jenny has guided me around it.  This morning, we walked down the street, parallel to another 1 or two dogs.  Jenny watched them, but didn't seem overly interested, and we kept on walking straight, got me to the sidewalk safely, no problems.
>
> On the way home, we hit that portion of the sidewalk, and I found out later that another dog was approaching us from the opposite direction.  Jenny and I walked across the street, made it up to the opposite sidewalk, and made it to the corner, where the other dog and its owner - which Jenny was watching intently - approached us.  I asked them to keep moving, which they did, but Jenny kept turning to the right, in the same direction they were traveling.  I told her no, we kept going straight, and I realized that her instinct was right: going the same direction as the other dog took us home.
>
> Writing this out has been helpful.  I think the other dogs just happen to be coincidental to the issue of keeping us dry and safe from the ice and sidewalk lake... but would love any other impressions, advice, etc.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Daryl
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/tami%40poodlemutt.com
>