[NAGDU] Escalators, and how different schools handle them?

[Tracy Carcione]

The method I use is similar to Heather's.  I learned at GDB, and use pretty
much the same with my Seeing Eye dogs.  I do the same as Heather getting on,
but, when I feel the rail flattening out, I give some slack in the leash,
say happily "Let's go! Krokus, jump!" and step briskly off.  He takes a
bounce, and we're safely over the dangerous bit.
It's my understanding that some old escalators have a wide gap, and so are
more dangerous.  A worker at Macy's once warned me that their escalator was
old and had a wide gap, and some dogs had gotten hurt on it, so I give that
escalator a miss and wait for the elevator.
I prefer stairs, especially if they're close to the escalator.  No worries
with stairs!

For a long time, GDB didn't teach escalators, and I'd have to hunt for an
alternative or scoop up my dog and carry her up.  Not the easiest thing in
the world.  I can carry Krokus, but only if it's really necessary.
Tracy


-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Heather Bird via
NAGDU
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2017 12:04 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Cc: Heather Bird
Subject: [NAGDU] Escalators, and how different schools handle them?

David, you mentioned picking up your dog by the chest strap. I have heard
that some schools teach you to pick the dog up at the end, but I have never
seen it done. None of the schools I have attended teaches it that way, or at
least they did not at the time I attended their training programs. Could you
refresh my memory as to which school Clair Rose is from? Also, what exactly
is the procedure that you were taught? I've been taught to work the dog up
to the escalator, where they will stop at the near side of the plate. Then
you touch the hand rail and verify that the escalator is running away from
and not towards you, and to confirm the slope, up or down of the steps.
Then, you drop the harness handle and make a very short leash, pulling your
dog up pretty close to you. Then you heal your dog across the metal plate,
stopping right at the far edge. Then you give your dog the command to heal
or to come with you. I use "let's go." Then you step quickly and decisively
onto the moving steps, bringing your dog along with you to make sure that
they move briskly and smoothly over the gap from where the stairs issue.
Then you stand beside your dog, and very slightly ahead of them, with their
leash wrapped around your arm to keep them from moving ahead of you or
dropping back behind you. You ride with your right arm extended out far in
front of you and your hand on the right hand rail so that you will know
right away when the slope starts to level out, indicating that you are
approaching the end of the escalator. When you are getting close you remind
your dog to stay, in my case, "rest" then when you judge that you are about
one or two steps from the gap, you tell your dog "break" and give them the
full length, all the slack, of the short configuration of the working leash.
Your dog will leap off the end, with a small jump over the gap, but not one
so big as to pull the handler off balance. You pick up your toes and step
across the gap at about the same time that your dog is jumping off. You move
along with your dog forward and off of the metal plate, then pick up the
harness handle and continue on. This was pretty much the same procedure I
was taught at GEB, Fidelco and the Seeing Eye. I do not know if GEB or
Fidelco have changed since I was working with them, but I just did
escalators last summer at TSE and what I currently do is in line with what
they are teaching most or all of their students at this time. I have heard
that some schools absolutely refuse to teach their teams to do escalators,
and I understand that some schools teach it, but use different methods. So,
I am interested in the methods that are being used by other programs. I
believe that extremes are foolish in most cases. Absolutely outright
forbidding grads to use escalators, ever, under any circumstances and never
exposing the dogs to them, seems to me very negligent. On the complete
opposite end of the continuum would be the completely lax attitude of a
program that would give little or no guidance for handling escalators,
assuming them to be safe and having no dedicated commands or specialized
procedures for teams to negotiate escalators. So, a school teaching them,
but doing so with prudent caution seems to be the most sensible and also
seems to be how the majority of schools are doing it these days. I've always
taken my dogs on escalators and I will always continue to do so, but I will
also always maintain a healthy respect for them and treat them with caution.
For instance, at convention, I used the escalators rather than the stairs
for almost every single instance of floor changes that we did, because Ilsa
absolutely adores escalators and loves finding them for me, and asking her
to locate them was a great way to quickly get from the main hotel to the
main convention area or from the far flung meeting rooms to the transition
from the convention space to the entertainment and sleeping room portion of
the hotel. However, when I was helping a wheelchair user who could stand and
walk a little bit, I put Ilsa's leash around a railing, far from the
escalator, so that she could not try to follow me, and I helped the friend
to stand on the escalator and ride down. Then I folded the wheelchair and
carried it down as I rode the escalator. Then I ran up the stairs, collected
Ilsa and then road down with her. I could have physically carried the chair
down while riding with Ilsa, but I would not have had appropriate control
over her to help to ensure her safety, so I worked her and carried the chair
separately and it worked just fine. Last comment, it is not generally
advisable to work your dogs on the moving sidewalks, but I think it is
important to know how they work just in case of emergencies. I was once
working through an airport with an individual who knew very little English.
We were in a hurry to catch our plane and they wanted to take me to an
elevator at one point, which was about ten minutes of walking out of our
way. I told them that my dog could do escalators and that I did not have
time to go and take an elevator. We did the escalator fine, then we
encountered what the man referred to as an escalator. It sounded like an
escalator. I didn't feel a hand rail, but I thought that perhaps it was very
wide to accommodate people with suitcases, so I stepped on. I realized right
away that it was a moving sidewalk. I immediately asked English speaking
passengers along with me on the sidewalk questions about how long it was and
how close we were to the end. I made Frieda stand and stay using the rest
command and I moved quite a ways ahead of her. I pointed my toes slightly up
so that they would clear the gap and warn me so that I could step off. The
audible warning that the walkway was ending was a good ten seconds before
you actually reached the end so it was not a good marker of the end of the
moving belt we were standing on. I timed it such that as I was exiting I
gave Frieda the command to jump off, and she did so, and it worked just
fine. I would not recommend intentionally taking these moving sidewalks with
a guide dog, but my knowledge of how they worked from riding them with a
cane and my school's training regarding escalators helped me to make a
potentially dangerous situation a heck of a lot safer, for which I am very
grateful.



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