(VICT) Guide Dog Blocks
- From: "Karyn and Thane" <bcpaws4me@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Vi-clicker" <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:23:02 -0700
Yesterday Thane and I had an incident. At first I freaked out a bit. We were
coming back from an afternoon potty on the street. To turn onto our street,
we have to come quite a bit more forward than I would like to be doing in
order to be seen or for Thane to see. He halted good and then forged
forwards. It was then I got a glare in my eye. I knew there was a car and I
sorta freaked and fell back into correct mode. I am not proud of freaking or
correcting Thane. The more I mull it over, the more I am sure the car had
not been there when Thane forged forward. Though they said something, I have
no idea what it was. Ironically they had just come out of our complex too
which has a speed limit due to the limitations of those who live here.
Anyway it got me to thinking about what I might be able to do in further
training with Thane to enable him to prevent my traveling forward in unsafe
scenarios. Those who are ambulatory, use the body block from what I have
read in many cases including Rox'Es marvelous post of LaVeau's work today.
Obviously that would be a safety concern for a wheelchair guide. I am just
curious for thoughts on what we might be able to do here. Thane communicates
a lot with me by body position/ language- such as turns of the head, tail
movements, etc but I am wondering what I can do as *continued education* to
prevent scenarios like this from being disastrous. We were lucky yesterday.
In many situations he can pull me off to the side in the meridian strip on
sidewalks etc but when you are crossing a driveway entrance, you are really
at the mercy of the cars coming out to use their heads. I don't like that
feeling. This had come on the heels of the most superb work during the
earlier part of the day and yes, I was still revelling in the feeling of how
well we both handled a leash-less owner-less dog. He was totally aware of it
and let me know of its presence, but also ignored it once I acknowledged
him. For me to be able to put my *dog ptsd* in check- it was quite an
accomplishment (for newcomers this stems from a pretty intense unprovoked
attack on Met in 2003)
Before you ask how I handled this type of scenario with Met, I have
substantially less sight now than I did when working with Met. Met also gave
a larger bumper between us and traffic obstacles, but it was often unnerving
how far back he stopped. Smile
I intentionally trained Thane to give less of a bumper. I still feel it's a
good bumper, but now I am just wondering how as a wheelchair team we might
be able to work something that is adequate for a block without running the
risk of Thane being run over by my wheelchair. If it is a communication with
his body, like all the other alerts- it needs to be different. We work with
him quite forward so communication with such aspects like a nudge just are
not feasible.
Karyn and Thane
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