[NAGDU] [nagdu] guiding in a heel

[Caitlyn Furness]

Aw, what a sweet boy!!  He really wants to help!

Where did you get Ty?

My current dog will do this as well.

Cait

> On Apr 18, 2016, at 10:40 AM, Danielle Sykora via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I've noticed that even when I have my dog walk in a heel position, he
> still tries to perform some guiding tasks. It wasn't until about a
> week ago when I started actively working on heeling in more
> distracting real life situations that I realized he was actually
> trying to help, not just resisting loose leash walking. For example,
> if I walk close to the left of a sidewalk, he will use his head to
> push me to the right so that we will both fit, instead of just walking
> in the grass (and he has no issues with walking in grass). If I am
> using sighted guide and the person leads us into an area that is too
> narrow to walk through side by side, Thai will hesitate to walk
> through as if he were showing me a narrow space and then push me to
> the side to make sure I don't walk into whatever is on the left.
> I would expect most heeling dogs to simply move behind me so that they
> wouldn't walk into the obstacle. Also, if we are on a sidewalk that
> curves to one side, I would typically not realize this right away so I
> would end up finding grass instead of sidewalk in front of me, and
> then use my cane to trail the edge of the grass around the curve until
> I get to straight sidewalk again. When I do this, Thai lightly pulls
> to the left when he sees the sidewalk beginning to curve to the left.
> He thinks I'm going to  walk into the grass or maybe trip over the
> edge of the pavement which isn't exactly level with the soil next to
> it. This is completely different from leash-guiding, where he will
> perform every guiding task the same way he would in harness.
> 
> These behaviors don't necessarily bother me too much because he's
> usually right and he walks nicely on a loose leash as long as I'm not
> doing anything ridiculous, but I was curious to know if anyone else
> has had a dog that tries to guide in a heel? Or is my dog unique and
> showing me what the trainers really meant when they said he was
> switched from the non-guiding service dog program because he kept
> trying to guide people?
> 
> Danielle and Thai
> 
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