[NAGDU] Guide dogs aroundthe world, current developments

[Dan Weiner]

Very interesting, Bianka, now I have no answers but a comment, first of 
all I think our schools should work more on find commands and spend more 
time training the dogs on off leash recall.

I asked several different schools about why the European dogs seem to 
have a lot more in their repertoire of find commands and I never got a 
good answer other than them saying things like "oh well the dogs there 
only work in familiar areas so it's more that the dogs are used to thing 
they find daily" I'll leave that one without comment.

As far as off leash running around say in a forest, you know it's never 
that I objected to the idea but I do think it could be pretty difficult 
here to find a safe place. I have no idea whether there are good places 
for that in Europe and I imagine there is, also the requirement of an 
hour a day seems like it would take some doing to work in to your 
schedule...I'm wondering, those few Germans I've heard of who came to 
the US schools, or other Europeans who come to our schools, how did they 
deal with that in Europe, I'm interested also o for selfish reasons I'd 
love to live in Europe some day as it's been my desire for a long time 
and I'd be using a guide dog pretty much the rest of my life I 
suspect--smile


Anyway, I wish you will and will see what people have to say.



My honest idea about off leash running around here is that it's not a 
good idea here in the States and better to have a fenced in area, I say 
that based on  the environment traffic, people, hazards in the 
environment generally, and of course I don't see how you would guarantee 
that 100 percent of the time that your dog comes back to you. I talked 
to a lady from Denmark who takes her dog to off leash play time in a 
forest but she goes with a sighted person...


Cordially from Florida,

Dan W.

On 4/21/2018 7:51 AM, Bianka via NAGDU wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> A few days back I was watching a Youtube channel about a guide dog puppy in training, I think it was a GdB puppy. The series got me thinking. When I considered first training with a guide dog I joined Buddy-l and found out that there are major cultural differences in guide dog training. For example, in Germany, you have to provide your guide dog with free running time, no leash, no harness and ideally you have to find dogs your dog can sozialize with. My school requires us to provide about one hour a day free time for the dog in which he/she does not wear  a harness and preferably some of this time should be off leash outside in a park,  or in the country or the forest. Also, we don‘t use hand signals or position to convey commands to the dog and tie downs or crates are a rarity. No prong collars are allowed, although some people use head collars like Haltis or Gentle leaders. Also, our dogs are taught to go into the street when something is blocking the curb, to go around the obstacle and then return to the curb. Slowly, schools start teaching blind handlers to pick up after their dogs. We have about 30 to 40 commands a dog is required to know when fully trained, a lot of them find commands.
>
> I was wondering, how is the policy in the U. S. Or in other countries around off leash recall these days? Did something change in the last years as clicker training and food rewards have been introduced regarding the training and handling of guide dogs?
>
> I am just currious here.
>
> Thanks for reading. ..
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Bianka
>
>
>
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