[Oagdu] FW: [nagdu] Buddy Brannan's article.

Sun Oct 26 21:40:09 UTC 2014

Hello Deana, 

this was very interesting! Thanks for sharing. 

Kathy Zolo and Piper  

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Subject: [Oagdu] FW: [nagdu] Buddy Brannan's article.

Hi all,
Here is the email that Debbie Baker was referring to on the call Sunday. It
is a comparison of guide dog breeds. 
Thoughts???
Deanna and Pascal

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From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Buddy Brannan via
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Sent: Friday, October 03, 2014 4:55 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Light Reading From Twitter

From
http://thebark.com/content/difference-between-guide-dog-breeds#.VC78oktBAYo.
twitter

The Difference Between Guide Dog Breeds

In honor of national guide dog month, I'm reprinting excerpts of an
interview I did several years ago with seven experienced blind people who've
used guide dogs most of their lives.  Here they compare problem solving
strategies between 36 dogs representing six breeds.  Compared to my usual
posts, it's a lengthy conversation, but if you've lived with a Lab, Golden,
German Shepherd, Aussie, Border Collie, Flat Coat,  Poodle or hybrid of
these breeds, you'll be fascinated by the comments.

 "Because we can't see, we don't know the particulars of what we're
commanding our dogs to do. The dog has to stand up to us, to get it through
to us that something is there that we don't know about, then find a way to
get us out of a dangerous situation. A dog that isn't comfortable holding
his ground isn't suited to the job."

Some blind handlers argue that there are marked differences in each breed's
approach to guide work, while others think that the traits that make good
guides neutralize the larger behaviors that characterize each breed. 

One blind handler who has worked with a German Shepherd for 10 years, a Lab
for seven, two different Golden Retrievers for 15 years, and now has two
years' experience under his belt working with a Golden-Lab cross says that
there are some physical characteristics that are different among breeds,
such as the gait and how the dog feels through the harness. "Even so, the
dog's unique personality, combined with the person's - how they work
together and what they expect of each other - that's where the differences
are." 

"It's a 50-50 relationship," says a handler who's worked with one Lab, two
mixed-breed Labs and two Goldens, and now is partnered with a Lab-Poodle
cross. "Neither one of us is in total control at any given time. Both of our
lives depend on what the other one does. Neither of us may be able to make a
safe street crossing alone, but together we do it gracefully."

"How my dogs dealt with obstacles isn't, in my opinion, a function of
breed-specific differences," says a seasoned 25-year guide dog user who has
partnered with an Airedale, a Border Collie mix, an Australian Shepherd and,
briefly, a Siberian Husky. "My Airedale, as I recall him, was quick to
generalize about the concept "obstacle" but wasn't particularly good at
scoping out his environment and making decisions in advance." The Aussie and
the Border Collie mix seemed to generalize quickly.

"The Border Collie mix had very high head carriage and was by far the very
best dog I've worked when it came to overhead hazards," he said. "The Aussie
has been harder to teach naturally occurring overheads like tree limbs, but
whether that's a breed thing or a result of their tendency to work with
their heads a little low, I'm not sure."

Another woman who has worked with two Shepherd guides and one Lab-Golden
cross said, "In my opinion, you might say that the retrievers' style
provides more information about the specifics ofthe environment, but the
Shepherds' style makes for more efficient travel. My Shepherds, in
comparison to my retriever, both typically looked farther ahead as they
guided. They corrected for upcoming obstacles from a distance and our travel
path was typically a smooth line. Sudden turns or stops happened only in
response to an obstacle that unexpectedly crossed our intended path. My
retriever cross clearly does not take the same approach. In general, this
dog will stop and show me the obstacle, and he will almost always seek
prompting from me on which way to go next."

Another typical difference between dogs, explains a blind handler is their
approach to routes."Personally I find that my retrievers enjoyed familiar
routes. In comparison, my Shepherd gets bored with routine, so you have to
get creative with routes and mix things up," she says.

She adds that retrievers are looking to please the handler, as if asking,
"Did I do what you wanted, am I making you happy?" whereas her shepherds
have been motivated by doing the job and solving the problems. "With
Shepherds, it's not so much about what pleases me as it is about pleasing
themselves," she says.

A guide dog handler who has worked with three Labs, a Lab mix, a Golden
Retriever and a German Shepherd explained, "If I were to generalize," she
says, "I'd say my Labs often worked up to an obstacle before deciding what
to do about it, while my shepherd would decide in advance what to do,
perhaps starting the turn more gradually as we approached the barrier. My
Golden would stop to show me before trying to work it out."

Eight guide dogs and 34 years later, a handler  contemplated her experiences
with four Labs, two Goldens, one Shepherd, and one Flat-coat Retriever. "My
Flat-coat solved problems by coming to a full stop. Sometimes he would just
stand there and I could feel his head moving. People said that he looked
like he was weighing all the possibilities. Then he would make his decision.
And in nine years of partnership he never made a mistake."

One woman got her first German Shepherd in 1996 after working with three
Labs. She says she had to learn the body language that was unique to the
Shepherd. "At first I thought when my Shepherd would insist on going a
certain way and I wanted to go another that she was being stubborn or
willful. I soon discovered that if I acknowledged her for what she was
showing me, and then asked her to go the direction I wanted to go, she was
totally fine with that. My second Shepherd is the same way."

Regardless of genealogy, each dog takes a unique approach to problem
solving. "I noticed that the Aussie I'm working with now had a very strong
preference for traveling on one or another side of a street when we walked
home from work," explained his handler. "Eventually, I figured out the
preference stemmed from whether it was or had recently been raining. One
side of the street was commercial, the other had lots of trees with branches
that hung low when wet."

"My Goldens were much more attuned to my reactions to things. If I did hit a
branch, I needed only to flinch and they both acted as if they had been
corrected. I would describe my Labrador as being solid, but she had the
attitude that things would move for her or she would move them. She was
careful, generally, but also had no compunction about moving me through some
tight gaps. It wasn't always pretty, but she would get you where you needed
to go safely and with enthusiasm."

Person and dog work as a team, each contributing to a relationship built on
trust that begins during class, then deepens and broadens over time. Says a
guide dog user with 35 years of experience, "I think developing trust is
incumbent on the person. That's who sets the tone of the partnership so that
the dog learns to be, in essence, not just a guide, but responsible for the
person's safety."

A blind woman who has traveled with guides since 1968 said, "My assumption
is that my dog is acting to keep us safe until he proves to be distracted or
is putting his agenda ahead of mine. Sure, if that sudden plunge proves to
be because my Lab dove for a French fry, the appropriate correction needs to
be made. Extra work to minimize that behavior may be called for, but 'follow
your dog' has to be the first response if we are going to learn to trust and
read each other. My safety depends on my ability to read their reactions and
go with it and figure out the 'whys' later."

"Working a guide dog is like dancing," she explains. "And being responsive
to my partner's moves is how it works best for me. I've had had two very
large Labs both with a lot of initiative. They seldom asked for my input,
made quick swift movements and expected I would be able to keep up and go
with them. They were more likely to try to interpose their bodies between me
and muscle me out of the way or into safety. My Golden, and my small Lab
were likely to be cautious and refuse to leave the curb until they
determined that a car they watched was not going to move toward us."

One man described all his dogs as having been keen observers."They've all
had similar complex personalities," he says. "They enjoyed their work and
have been more than willing to guide and do things such as squeeze into
small spaces and stay for hours, only because I have asked them to."

A thirty year guide dog veteran summed it up. "I've owned plenty of dogs as
pets, but my relationship with the half dozen guide dogs I've worked with
was different: All of my guide dogs seemed to own me rather than the other
way around."

-
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: 814-860-3194
Mobile: 814-431-0962
Email: buddy at brannan.name

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