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

Tue Jul 18 18:04:55 UTC 2017

Hello all,

I use escalators with my current dog and my first with no problems. GEB, 
teaches the way that has already been described. Cash and I find the 
escalator, I verify the way the escalator is moving, step on and hell 
him. I loosen the leash as we get near the top or bottom; allowing hkm 
to get off first. I've had not problems.

Stacie Hardy <shardy at nfbtx.org>
President: NFB of Texas Houston Chapter
Voice and Text: (346) 704-0190 or (832) 779-7477

"A question never asked is an answer never known"
"Live the life you want!"

On 7/18/2017 12:30 PM, Danielle Sykora via NAGDU wrote:
> 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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