[NAGDU] Following and Forward

[Danielle Burton]

Hey Julie, 
I've had some of these issues with Willa. What did for safe guiding while following is I went with a friend to a familiar place and had her follow them. But I made sure there were things like a curb or step or something that she would have to stop or indicate. If she stopped appropriately while my friend kept walking I praised and treated, if ar I corrected her and we went back and again had my friend walk in front of us and I again gave the follow command and went through it again. Hope that makes sense. If not let me know. Also, had my friend go through various obstacles and twists and turns so that Willa could have a challenge of following but also needing to pay attention and not walk me in to things. If she did I corrected and back tracked and redid it until she got it. I started out in familiar places with familiar obstacles to teach her the concept of yes you need to follow but you also need to guide safely. As for losing inititive she had some of that issue of wanting to slow down to follow but I  had my friend stay way behind us so that Willa wouldn't be able to really do anything about it and she got the idea. But I also had to teach her to follow them even if I couldn't hear where they were... That was interesting. But anyerys hope some of that helps.
Danielle 

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 12, 2016, at 10:53 AM, Julie McGinnity via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm wondering if any of you have dealt with this problem: my dog loves
> to follow other people.  Now, I know some schools and trainers teach
> the follow command, and some teams do very well with it.  For some
> reason, Bill cannot handle it.  When he follows, he loses initiative,
> does not guide, and won't even listen to my commands.  I have not been
> able to turn follow into something productive because it is unsafe for
> us.  I have run into things because he was following a friend and not
> paying attention.
> 
> My solution?  I stay in front whenever I walk with a friend, trick him
> so that if he starts following I give him a command and work with him
> until he follows it rather than blindly (haha) traipses on after the
> other person.  Now his issue has reached new levels because he has
> recently begun slowing down to try and follow.  I have to encourage
> him to speed up and stay ahead.
> 
> I would like suggestions so that I don't always have to walk ahead of
> everyone.  Yes, I am faster than most people, but sometimes I just
> won't be ahead of them.  That's life.  I would also like suggestions
> for working on his initiative when we move forward.  I believe this is
> related to his following issue, but Bill has been hesitating or
> refusing to move forward at all.
> 
> Any ideas, suggestions, sympathetic understanding?  :)
> 
> Thanks guys!
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Julie A. McGinnity
> President, National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division,
> Second Vice President, National Federation of the Blind of Missouri
> "For we walk by faith, not by sight"
> 2 Cor. 7
> 
> _______________________________________________
> NAGDU mailing list
> NAGDU at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NAGDU:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/danielleburton94%40gmail.com