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

Tue Jul 18 17:30:07 UTC 2017

My dog is also from GDF, but I was taught a different method from what
David described. I tell my dog to find the escalator, and use my right
hand to locate the railing. Then I use my right foot to find exactly
where the edge is. I typically wait a few seconds to make sure there
is some space between where I am standing and the people in front of
me. I drop the harness handle, pick up the leash, and tell my dog
forward. He leash guides onto the escalator and maintains the leash
guiding position, where I am standing next to his shoulders. Once I am
more than half way, I tell him forward again and we start walking
up/down the escalator. That way, he is already moving once we reach
the edge and fluidly steps right off.

I personally have never really liked escaalators and will take the
stairs or an elevator if they are close by; however, I have no problem
taking the escalator if an alternative is a far distance away. One of
my friends has a service dog from a program that does not allow
escalators under any circumstance, and I would find it pretty annoying
if I had to walk completely out of my way all of the time to find the
elevator.

Danielle and Thai

On 7/18/17, Tracy Carcione via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 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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