[NAGDU] [nagdu] guiding in a heel

[Danielle Sykora]

Cait,

Thai is from the Guide Dog Foundation. I remember his puppy raisers
describing him as clingy but always wanting to do something for you,
and I definitely think this is one of those situations where that
could not be more true.

Danielle and Thai

On 4/18/16, Caitlyn Furness via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 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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>
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