[nagdu] working up to obstacles

[Deanna Lewis]

Hi Julie,
I guess it really depends on the dog and the obstacle. I think for a fallen branch Pascal will stop in front of it so that I can feel it with my foot or reach out to see what he is stopping for. If it blocking the sidewalk, we will try to find the best way around it. If it is something like a garbage can blocking only half the sidewalk, Pascal will usually just breeze past it.
He is my first guide dog, so I don't have anything to compare him to. On a side note, on this day four years ago, I was matched with Pascal.
Deanna

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Julie J.
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 10:00 AM
To: the National Association of Guide Dog Users NAGDU Mailing List
Subject: [nagdu] working up to obstacles

I’m wondering how everyone else’s guides work impassable obstacles?  For example, let’s say there’s been a severe thunderstorm and a largish tree branch has fallen across the sidewalk, entirely blocking it off.

How would your guide work that situation?  If you’ve had more than one guide did they work something like this differently?

Do they go all the way up to the branch and then stop to wait for further instruction?
Would they alter course from a distance, so you never get close?
Would they stop a few feet away, at the most obvious turning point to go around the thing?
Something else?

Monty has always worked obstacles from a distance, meaning he will choose a clear path from as much as half a block away.  Of course, I never taught him this.  I have no idea what obstacles are that far away so I could offer instruction from that kind of distance.  This is just how Monty has interpreted his job duties.  Mostly I appreciate not walking up to the obstacle only then having to double back and go a different direction.  Sometimes though, it is rather annoying, not having the slightest idea why he is insistent that we go a different way. He is zealous about safety to the point of insanity.   If he views something as unsafe, no amount of coaxing, prompting or encouraging will get him to budge.  

I do appreciate his stubborn insistence on safety, I just wish I understood better what we were going around.   I also wish I knew how I managed to give him the impression that he should stop so far away.  *sigh*
It’s not really a problem so much as a curiosity to me.  He’s a very smart dog.  I wonder what goes on in his fat head.   

Julie
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