[NAGDU] intersections/quiet cars/issues loosing line of ssight and recovering from it

[Tracy Carcione]

Hi Dianne.
Yikes!  I've been caught in the middle of the street myself, and it's not fun.  And my nerves aren't what they used to be, either.
Lukas Frank at TSE knows traffic and dogs real well.  He says it's harder for a dog to judge far traffic--traffic in the lane farthest from you.  So it seems possible to me that Jaxie saw it was clear to go, until she came up to the car in the far lane.  Maybe that car even came up after you started.  It's my understanding that quiet cars do not make a noise if they are moving slowly.

I've had young dogs lose the line of travel and start wandering down the street.  Eeeeek!  It sometimes happens when some idiot has pulled across the crosswalk, at least around here.  I'm not sure what to do about it, though.  I have a good sense of direction, and, if I feel the dog is going off-line, I tend to give strong hand signals toward where I think we should go, and say Straight!  A command the dog knows which means "Find the curb!"

Can you call your school and at least get phone follow-up?  Nowhere near as good as in-person, but possibly of some use.
Good luck.
Tracy



-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Diane Vlasoff via NAGDU
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 11:32 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: Diane Vlasoff
Subject: [NAGDU] intersections/quiet cars/issues loosing line of ssight and recovering from it

Hello all-

My current guide dog, Jaxi, and I are soon to reach our second anniversary. For the vast majority of her guide work I have only accolades.  However…

This afternoon as we approached the curb of a t shaped intersection a car crossed our pat to make a right turn.  We stopped at the curb and let the car make its right turn.  Assuming the intersection was then empty I told Jaxi “Forward” and we began to cross the street.  Before we crossed the entire right lane Jaxi stopped.

Since we were standing in a traffic lane with who knows what traffic heading towards us, I asked her to go forward again a few times but she stood still.
Finally I heard a car in the next lane over make a left turn.  It was entirely silent until it moved.

Jaxi is my 4th guide dog and I have not had this experience before.
It unnerves me that Jaxi should start across an intersection that she cannot cross without stopping.  It concerns me that this behavior left us standing essentially in the middle of an intersection. And I am concerned that I could not hear the silent car which might enable me to ask Jaxi to work around the car waiting to make a left turn.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?  What did you do?  How can I reduce our risk in possible future scenarios like this?

My three previous dogs came from GDB.  I wanted and am happy to have a guide of a breed that I could not get from GDB but I do not think any of my GDB dogs would have had this problem.

The trainer Jaxi and I worked with at school was extremely elderly and did not present us with the vast majority of skills necessary to work at home.  For example, during our “final exam” we were asked to complete the following skills we did not cover in class and being it was my first time with a dog from this school it would have been nice to know how she was taught to:
Go through revolving doors;  go up or down staircases; leave or enter escalators; or enter or leave elevators.

My second question is:
Jaxi has lost her line of travel while crossing streets before.   If a
car is preparing to make a right turn at the far side of an intersection we have either ended up floundering somewhere across the street or actually walking down a lane of traffic with me commanding her to “left find the curb” over and over until someone at the bus stop came to rescue us.

I know the school I got Jaxi from does not have the follow up support I could have gotten at GDB, so I appreciate your help particularly any of you who train your own dogs.

Diane and Jaxi

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