[NAGDU] A dog? a cane? which will it be

[Raul A. Gallegos]

Hello Dan, I am not good at reading sarcasm in emails. So, I'm not sure 
if your message is an attempt at humor. I have zero vision, nada, zilch. 
So, to answer your question, let's say that I'm shopping for groceries. 
Let's say that I'm in what clearly smells like the coffee aisle. I want 
to make sure that I'm near the left side so I can browse the shelves and 
get the can of coffee and the container of coffee cream I desire. If I 
use the normal commands to tell my dog forward or left, he will take me 
down the aisle, clearly not guiding me to the part of the shelf I want. 
So, letting go of the handle, whipping out my trusty cane, I will use it 
to guide me to the shelf, where I can do fine motor mobility and get to 
the exact spot I want, which I may not be able to communicate to the 
dog. Then I can have him lie down on the ground, use the Stay command 
and I can go about looking for that can of coffee I want. Another 
example, I'm walking down several aisles at an office supply store and 
my dog has taken me to an area which is a bit open. I can tell via echo 
location that there are some shelves around me, but I need to know what 
is on those shelves. What do I do? I don't use the dog because he will 
do what he is trained to do in taking me around the obstacles. Instead, 
I drop the handle and use the cane to guide me to the area I need so I 
can see what is there. Last example, I need to teach my dog the location 
of a mailbox. I use the touch command for that, followed by some treat 
rewarding. However, I need to find said mailbox first. I know that it's 
located halfway down the block, but not sure exactly where. So, when I 
have walked down part of the block and I know I'm near, I drop the 
handle, use the cane and walk down the rest of the way, until my cane, 
who is meant to hit objects, finds the mailbox. Now, I can use the 
training of the dog to have him learn the mailbox so the next time I 
need it, he can take me there without me using the cane. There are a lot 
more examples of how a cane is used to help me find things, most of 
which are not directly guide dog related.

I hope this answers your question, if it was one and not a joke. I take 
this very seriously.


--
Raul A. Gallegos
Assistive Technology Trainer - RGA Tech Solutions
Voice and Text: 832.554.7285
Office: 832.639.4477
Personal Email: raul at raulgallegos.com
Work Email: training at rgats.com
Twitter: @rga7285 and @RGATrainer

“Any teacher that can be replaced with a computer, deserves to be.” - 
David Thornburg

On 2/10/2017 12:17 PM, Dan Weiner via NAGDU wrote:
> Hmmm and how is your cane supposed to help you find eanything, Raul, unless
> frankly you have a lot of vision in which case I understand, after all, use
> what you got--smile
>
> Dan