Guiding Eyes for the Blind – Opportunity Unleashed

Transferring Guide Dog Schools?

I am a proud guide dog user, and a proud graduate of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, based in Yorktown Heights, New York. Both of my beautiful black labradors were bred, raised, and trained through GEB. I got wonderful post-graduate support from my trainers there, and expected to continue attending for successor dogs for the rest of my guide dog working life, and then I moved internationally.

As far as I can tell, Guiding Eyes would still be willing to work with me as someone that has already worked with them twice. I actually already did meet up with my trainer about a month after I moved here (she just happened to be coming on vacation and stopped by to check in with us ha. That’s definitely commitment), but there are complications when I need post graduate support, with the distance being so great. Thus, I am considering transferring to my local guide dog school.

In some ways, I am quite bewildered by this idea, because I have loved my experience with Guiding Eyes so much, and even more so as a returning graduate. It is lovely to have that connection with trainers and staff, and have that whirlwind catch up session any time you have a field visit or go back for a successor dog. If I carried on going there for every one of my guide dogs, there could be staff there when I am fifty that were there when I was sixteen. In that way, it is a very special relationship that I do not want to relinquish too easily. That said, I am also a naturally very curious person, and would be interested to observe the various differences between the two schools by pursuing follow up support and training with my local school… that in addition to the minor factor that they are not located an ocean away, which does make any necessary extra support a bit easier to organize.

So, it is my local school that will be delivering a follow-up visit with Prim and I tomorrow, and I am looking forward to the process. I am hoping to get a couple of things out of the visit.

1 Work on impulse control.

now that Prim is not only responsible for my safety, but also my baby’s, I am much more conscious of the way food and dog distractions can be dangerous, even life threatening. We had a frightening experience not too long ago, which I will write about another time, that convinced me this is an area that needs a bit of work for us as a team.

If I were to work with a Guiding Eyes instructor on dog distraction, I would expect them to encourage me to use a combination of leash corrections and counter conditioning (rewarding Prim for looking at me rather than looking at the other dog). I would anticipate possibly some use of the touch command, which I have described in another post, and other obedience exercises in the presence of other dogs. I assume the trainer tomorrow will expect that my training may be slightly different to that of his school, but I hope he will describe what he would personally do to work on this. It can be so helpful to hear other perspectives, more tools in your tool box and all that.

2 Work on a challenging route.

Most of my daily routes are not all that complex, and the truly complex one is sadly a long enough walk that I think it would be a bit unmanageable to do with the trainer, but there is one I can think of that I have never quite gotten a firm handle on, and that seems always to be a bit of a struggle for Prim in the distraction department.

3 Obtain a harness from the local school.

This feels a little strange to do, because Prim was trained by Guiding Eyes, and represents them, to the extent that a dog can represent an organization, when she puts on the harness with their name stamped into the leather, but I have requested whether we could be issued a harness from our local school, as recent events have revealed that the GEB harness is much, much different from the one people expect to see here, and that has caused problems more than a couple of times.

The only major snag in all this is that my childcare plan got derailed last minute, which means baby has to be there while we work on all this. How will all this go? I have no idea… but I shall update here with any relevant thoughts.

Guiding Eyes Training (September 2017), Day 12|Yorktown…1781

We visited Yorktown on Friday. No no, not Yorktown like from Hamilton, Yorktown, New York. I know. These things can get confusing. Friday was our day for night travel, so we did the route in the daylight early in the morning, then repeated it after the sun went down that night. In between we had our visits with the vet.

Prim was very excited about the new route, so we worked on, you guessed it, steady. She did the route very well, only overstepping one curb and not at all distracted by the grass and street furniture that we passed. We encountered one loud truck that she stopped for, even though we were on the sidewalk. She was just being a bit cautious, I think leftover from our traffic check activity on Thursday. The night route went similarly, other than the fact that it was dark, but that didn’t change much about my perspective really. Our trainer huffed and puffed behind us like usual, and we had a blast.

At the vet, I learned Prim’s weight, birth date, and health history. The vet gave her a full physical, and pronounced her healthy but for a slight ear infection in one ear. She will be on medication for that for the next several days and we will visit the vet a second time before we leave to make sure it is all cleared up… which reminds me. I need to choose a vet for Prim in Nashville. If anyone has any good recommendations, please let me know. Oleta had a vet in Nashville that we loved and appreciated, but I would be interested in looking into others. Crazy, but I do need to start thinking about getting settled in at home. Only a week left of training now!

Guiding Eyes Training (September 2017), Day 11|Pizza

To continue the theme of food in titles this week…

Thursday was our country-travel/picture day. Country travel is the term we use to refer to traveling on roads without sidewalks. Our dogs are trained to walk on the left side of the road, but with no specific borderline on the other side it is easy to accidentally drift into the middle of the road from time to time. So, we use a technique called “shore-lining”, which means my dog does her best to keep the curb line directly on our left, and every once in a while (or when I hear a car coming) I check our distance from the curb or grass line by telling her “Wait. Left, to the curb.” When we arrive at the curb, whether that be one step later or five, she gets an enthusiastic “yes” and a treat.

Prim did fabulously. There were no distractions, and most times when I asked her to go to the curb, we were right on top of it. She showed me a big truck in our way at one point and we went around it then returned to the shoreline. She was pulling like crazy, so we did have to work on steady some, because my arm was hurting haha. Again, a problem I am okay with having.

In the afternoon, Prim and I got “gussied up”, as one of my instructors put it, for our ID and class pictures. The class picture was interesting, with 13 humans and their 13 dogs as well as six instructors attempted to get in the frame and get settled.

“Say pizza!” our photographer told us… so we all called out “pizza!” at random intervals while he snapped photo after photo. I found the whole thing very entertaining. After that, we trooped into the hallway to wait for our individual pictures with our dogs. I was second to go, so it wasn’t long before Prim and I got to hop onto the table together and pose for our photo op. Prim sat very primly and looked right at the camera. She is super photogenic. I think it came out well.

To close out our day of training, we had a traffic check activity followed by lecture. For the traffic check activity, the trainers set up a narrow isle that could only fit one guide dog team at a time. At one end was the opening entrance, and at the other a door, which served as motivation for the dogs to continue down the shoot. The first time we went down, we simply told our dogs forward, arrived at the door, and treated our dogs. When we returned to the entrance, we instructed our dogs to walk forward into the shoot, and one of the trainers pushed a cart directly at us. The only safe response in that situation is for the dog to back up to a safe distance, wait for the cart to clear away, and then continue down the isle way. Prim did so beautifully. The third time we walked through, a trainer drove the cart in front of us horizontally. In that case, the dog must stop, wait for the cart to pass, and then continue to the door. Again, Prim executed it perfectly. Given this activity and several real life situations where we have had traffic checks, I feel very safe with Prim in traffic, and in grocery stores… which is good, because drivers of both cars and carts are crazy in Nashville. You can handle’m Prim!

Guiding Eyes Training (September 2017_, Day 10|Pretzels!

Wednesday it was rainy and wet the entire day. We were scheduled to go into white plains, but no one wanted to work outdoors while it was pouring, so we stayed inside. The trainers set up a makeshift obstacle course in the hallways, then worked on targeting and revolving doors, followed by a mall route in the afternoon.

There isn’t much to say about the obstacle course as it went flawlessly for Prim and I. In targeting, the class split up into separate groups. Some worked on teaching their dogs to show them the elevator buttons, some worked on landmarking the hall intersection, and others (such as myself) worked on finding chairs. Prim was, of course, brilliant with it as she has been every time we have

with targeting since the very beginning. I am looking so forward to the day that she can take me to an empty chair in a meeting or on a train. Oleta got to that point but it took a little while and a lot of practice. First they have to generalize what a chair means in different situations. Chairs can look different depending on where you are. Some are in a line against a wall, as in a waiting room or lobby area. Some are pushed up against a table, as in a restaurant. Some are wooden, some are soft, some have arms, some do not. Once the dog gets an idea of what I mean by a chair, learning that I want an empty one is another layer of the process.

After finishing with our chair activity some of us learned how to go through a revolving door with our dogs. Guiding Eyes has a revolving door on campus so it was easy to practice. I was a little nervous to do this, as there was one occasion in high school when Oleta and I were forced by a crowd unknowingly into a quickly moving revolving door, and Oleta came very near serious injury. It was very scary, so I tend to avoid revolving doors at all costs, but if I didn’t do the training here Guiding Eyes asks that we refrain from using them in the future, so I opted to complete the training, just in case it proves unavoidable at some point. She did fine and did not get her tail stuck in the door as I had feared. She even helped to push the door along as we went with her nose. Haha, thanks Primlet!

In the mall we worked on escalators, elevators, and suggested turns, but mostly the “steady” command. As we have been discovering, we cannot safely travel at our normal pace indoors. It was definitely a challenge for the both of us. It doesn’t help Prim that I don’t really want to walk slower either, but I know we have to, so I have to be the responsible party and show her what is acceptable pace-wise in that situation. We will get there, but I’m definitely anticipating having to work a lot on this when we get home. Honestly I don’t think I could ask for a better problem to have.

At the end of our route, I slyly persuaded one of my instructors, who had finished with her students, to snag me a pretzel and a strawberry lemonade from the Auntie-Anne’s downstairs before we left. My classmates really appreciated me, I know, because they got some pretzels out of it too. No no, don’t thank me… really, thank our instructor, dear classmates.

Seriously though… she’s awesome. All of our instructors are awesome. They have great senses of humor, are crazy about dogs, love people, are willing to snag pretzels for students at the risk of possibly getting in trouble later, and generally are a joy to work with. Just another reason to love Guiding Eyes.

Guiding Eyes Training (September 2017), Day 9|Chocolate

Tuesday we worked some different routes in White Plains. The first one we worked with our normal instructor to and from Dunkin’ Donuts. Prim made a clearance error around a trashcan, but in all fairness, it was a super tough situation. There was a woman coming at us with a baby carriage walking at a good clip, and at the same time there was a trash can on our left, part of which stuck out above Prim’s level, so although she could get around herself and she thought she had me cleared, I wasn’t quite. The funny part was the trash can was on wheels, so of course it started rolling away when I ran into it and my trainer had to grab it and get it to stay still again. She had to repeat the process several times, as it would not stay still! Oh the strange things that happen out on route!

Prim did really well getting through a non-linear area with a fountain and some trees, and slowing down for the door into Dunkin which wasn’t all the way open. Rather than just trying to run us through the small opening, she stopped to show it to me so that we could squeeze through together. At the counter, I used the “touch” command to position her in front of me and against the counter so that she was out of the way. I got a chocolate donut, then we scampered off back to White Plains to consume the deliciousness. As a side note, my classmates tell me I’m not allowed to have chocolate, because it has caffeine, and sugar… but I don’t think my trainer was aware of that rule so I got away with it! *Insert evil laugh here* Chocolate chocolate chocolate!

🙂

During our route in the afternoon, we worked with a different trainer who was filling in for our class supervisor that day. She is so chatty and funny. She described Prim’s body language as we worked. Her ears were pinned a little bit back, tail in the middle and out, she said she looked very relaxed and confident, and a bit like an arrow. We walk fast enough to be one, she said. Haha.

Prim full on ran me into a pedestrian, so that was awkward. We were coming up from a street crossing and, from what our trainer said, she had seen the pedestrian, thought she was going one way, but turned out she went another and we collided. We made our way to a bus shelter and used the clicker to teach her to target it with the word “bus”. She had it down in no time. I seriously can’t wait to get this dog home and start learning targets around our home environment. She is going to be fabulous.

Prim was right on with curbs this time. She is a quick learner, and we have ended up with our feet in the street far less frequently in recent trips. Our guest trainer said we looked great—much more like we were in the third week of class than in the beginning of the second. That’s very exciting to hear!

Guiding Eyes Training (September 2017), Day 8|A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White Plains Building

There are days I just have to step back and marvel at the incredible phenomenon that is the guide dog team. Dogs don’t naturally walk in straight lines. They don’t naturally refuse to chase other animals or deny themselves food lying on the ground. Most dogs don’t want to spend their days forging a path through pedestrians on crowded sidewalks, locating curbs, and playing in traffic… and yet these dogs do. They love their job, and most, if not all guide dogs, seem to realize at one point or another that they aren’t just doing this for the food reward. These are the sort of dogs that Guiding Eyes breeds, raises, and trains, and I feel so blessed to be able to experience life with now two of them.

Prim had a number of things thrown at her today. It is only our sixth day together and we had two major traffic checks, plus a skateboard check (yep, skateboard. You read that correctly), escalators, crowded, narrow sidewalks, indoor work, and major distractions in the dog food isle at CVS. That “major distraction” took the form of my class supervisor (who is also Oleta’s trainer and my instructor from 2011) tempting Prim with all sorts of very appealing squeaky toys while we did puppy push ups (sit, down, sit, down, sit, down, sit). It was pretty hard not to look, and she definitely did struggle to listen to a couple of my commands, but we got through it well enough. Honestly… can you imagine trying to concentrate while people danced around you with Chic-Fil-A and gift cards for pedicures and the latest technology gizmos, or whatever tempting treat might strike your fancy, and be expected to keep working at the same high performance without ever lunging for one of those waffle fries or gift cards or iPhones? Mm… Chic-Fil-A… I discovered today that Chic-Fil-A doesn’t exist in this area, bless their hearts. Anyway, what was I talking about?

Prim handled it all very well. I was impressed with the way she dealt with the traffic checks. One was on the left side of the street with a legal right turner. She saw it coming ahead of time and stopped about ten feet away from the car. The second was a car turning very illegally on the wrong side of the road. That was slightly more startling to me as it was completely unexpected, but Prim just came to an abrupt halt, let the car pass, and continued to the curb. It didn’t seem to throw her at all. She got a cookie and lots of praise upon reaching the sidewalk. She did her job very well.

Prim loves escalators. I am sure that her trainers used a great deal of positive reenforcement with them, as they can be scary for some dogs at first, but I think Prim also just likes the ride. She did very well pulling me to the edge of the metal plate and showing me exactly where the escalator started. She is brilliant with targets. When she hears the name of a familiar target (like the steps in this case) and recognizes it, she is there and fast, and she doesn’t stop pulling until we are all the way on top of it. Since I have practically no vision, this is extremely helpful for me, because she makes it very clear where whatever I am looking for is, whether it be the curb, the escalator, the door, etc.

We are still working on slowing down a tad in certain situations. For example, when we entered the CVS in the afternoon, we were moving so quickly the automatic doors didn’t quite have a chance to open all the way, so I got clipped by the still slightly closed sliding door. We also had to slow in the isles so as not to knock any displays or innocent bystanders to the floor. On our way back from CVS, we had a slight sniffing distraction with some trash cans (which, in her defense, did smell very strongly!), but as my instructor observed, Prim seems very responsive to my voice and a “Prim, leave it” was all she needed to get going again.

Shortly after that we crossed a street, made a right, and then I felt Prim angle over to the left a bit toward a building. She approached the wall of the building, then made a quick right and continued along the block. I wasn’t sure what had happened, until my instructor came up from behind to inform me that Prim had seen herself in a glass wall. Apparently, Prim got all puffy and upset like, “who’s that over there?!”, until she realized it was her own reflection, got embarrassed, and quick changed her direction like, that didn’t just happen. We laughed all the way back to the White Plains building. There are days you have to marvel at the incredible phenomenon that is the guide dog team, and then there are days you just have to laugh… and with Prim, that’s every day. This dog cracks me up.

Guiding Eyes Training (September 2017) | Meet Oleta’s Young Padawan!!!

And now the post you have all been waiting for. This is Oleta’s Young Padawan. She is a black lab female named Prim! Prim in my Lap

So far, her nicknames include Primrose, Primie, Prie, Piglet, Primlet, and Wild Woman upon occasion. She may be small, but have no doubt, she *IS* mighty. There is an incredible amount of power, personality, and intelligence packed into that little bundle of fur on my lap. My class supervisor (and Oleta’s trainer) told me that she had “hand-picked a nice one” for me. She wasn’t kidding. She did pick a nice one!

She has big paws to fill as Oleta’s successor, but so far she is doing brilliantly. I was immediately in love with her name, and I’ve totally fallen for her. How could you not?! ❤ ❤ ❤

Guiding Eyes Training (September 2017), Day 7|Rest Day

Sunday was our rest day. That meant we got up at 6 Am, cared for our dogs, attended obedience, attended breakfast, took our dogs for a mandatory play session (I know, how terrible to be required to play), and lecture in the evening. For Padawan and I, that meant we wandered around aimlessly looking for an activity, since we both have a bit too much energy to stay still all day. I was blessed to be able to spend four wonderful hours with a close friend of mine who came to visit, but before and after that, we occupied ourselves talking to our classmates, walking the halls, playing various and sundry instruments, cuddling (Padawan and I were cuddling I mean), and talking on the phone. It was a very relaxing time, and the food was particularly delicious for a rainy cold September day. We had grilled cheese with tomato soup for lunch, followed by spaghetti, meat sauce, and garlic bread in the evening. Comfort food.

Obedience in the morning went quite well, even with a dog wandering around the room as a distraction. At one point, Padawan was in a stay, nose to nose with the distraction dog and she didn’t move. Very nicely done. Distractions during obedience will continue to increase in difficulty as we go along. I might not write about obedience every day from here on out, but I may mention it if something particularly impressive happens.

Guiding Eyes Training (September 2017), Day 6|The Afternoon Mystery Revealed

Saturday morning brought the first obedience session with some level of distraction. Our class supervisor tried to catch Padawan’s attention by bouncing a tennis ball all around us while we concentrated on our commands. She did look once or twice, but got refocused quickly. Everything this dog does is quick. She is like a jack-in-the-box when she sits up during obedience. She takes off like a rocket when she is working. She spins around and throws herself to the ground in seconds when I tell her “close” (which is the command to lay between my feet under a chair). She does everything enthusiastically and virtually nothing halfway (hahaha, other than when she doesn’t want to lay down, that is, and remains for a minute or more in the downward dog position in order to trick me into thinking she’s all the way down).

We had a route in White Plains in the morning. It started out as a relaxed Saturday morning route, with little traffic and fewer pedestrians, but we soon ran into several challenges. The first was the construction. A fence blocked off an entire section of the sidewalk, so Padawan had to stop and show me the fence before we could go around to the curb. She did so, but when we arrived at the curb there was a loud engine being used in the construction zone and I could not hear a thing in order to make the decision to cross the street. My trainer helped me so that we wouldn’t have to stand there all morning. Padawan didn’t seem bothered by the noise. A block or two down, Padawan approached the curb and veered a little to the right. I was not sure we had approached it correctly until my trainer informed me that there were two pigeons standing right where she would normally have stopped at the curb. She had treated them as an obstacle so as not to get in trouble for going after pigeons. She is too cute!!!

Evidently, she did not have the same reservations a block or two on from that when she glimpsed a pair of dogs ahead of us. Her pace increased to warp speed. Needless to say that when the next curb arrived, we both ended up with our feet in the street, rather than the sidewalk, by the time we managed to stop for the curb. We walked back several paces and approached the curb again with a steady command, and she fixed her mistake. Later though, Padawan was in a sit waiting for a fellow classmate to go on ahead of us (we tend to catch up with people) when a pigeon landed about a foot away. She thought it was great fun to watch him, but didn’t move a muscle to chase or lunge at him. Good girl! I was also very pleased with her reaction to a complicated traffic situation at one crossing. There was a bus at a bus stop, and a mail truck was pulled up behind it waiting to make a delivery. That placed it right to the left of us as we approached the far curb on the crosswalk. With that on our left and turning cars on our right, it got a bit narrow and Padawan ran for it. I did not treat her for it since she missed the curb, but honestly I was just glad she got us out of there. My trainer and I agreed that it was a fairly appropriate response given everything going on. I love working this dog.

In the afternoon, our mystery work was practice with the clicker/targeting as well as a supervised grooming session. A clicker is a small plastic box with a button that makes a loud popping sound when pressed. The dogs have learned to associate the sound with food. It is used as a marker during training to indicate to the dog that, at the moment of the click, they were demonstrating a desired behavior and will receive a food reward. Targeting is teaching a dog to recognize and target a certain thing according to it’s name. For example, Padawan has already learned generic targets like curbs, doors, and steps. If they are in the general vicinity, she can recognize a door and take me to it when I say, “too the door”. If taught, she can also target particular doors and other objects. Yesterday we worked on my dorm room door specifically. I placed my fist on the door and told Padawan “touch”, which prompts her to bop my fist with her nose. This helps her to understand that I want her to target the thing under my fist. When she response to the touch command, I click and feed. After a few repetitions, I added in the word “door”, and then took away the touch command all together and only said, “door”, still clicking and feeding when she bopped my fist. After a few times doing that, I backed up from the door, picked up the harness handle, and told her, “too the door”. We continued like that several times over,backing up further and further first in one direction and then in another, until it was pretty clear she knew exactly what I wanted from her. I have to remember to slow her down a bit with the “steady” command, because we get going so quickly it becomes difficult for her to turn and target with so much momentum. She LOVES targeting and I can’t wait to see her show me her awesome skills with other things as well.

Guiding Eyes Training (September 2017), Day 5|My Tiny Mack Truck

Friday, Padawan and I were first to go out at White Plains. She was happy to get her energy out first thing rather than wait an hour or more before hand.

For the preliminary few days, a trainer usually works beside the team on the left with their own leash attached to the collar of the dog. This gives the dog a confidence boost and keeps the trainer close so that they can easily communicate with the handler. Our support leash came off halfway through our morning route

There was an immediate difference in the way it felt to work together. It was a little bit freer and required more trust that Padawan would guide me safely. She did some excellent podestrian avoiding in a couple of street crossings, including an entire family with grandparents, children, and squeaky cart. There was also a small dog disraction. A dog passed behind us. Padawan looked, but quickly turned her attention back to me, and I got to reward her for her calm demeanor and attentiveness. Immediately after that was the right turn… we have had a bit of trouble with this right turn every time. There are multiple other obstacles in the way, so that we cannot turn directly to the right. Padawan first has to curl a bit around me to get us around something to our left, and then avoid something on the right in order to continue on our way. It took a little bit of finagling for both of us, but we figured it out.

A lot of what I am working on during our routes is learning to understand her movements in the harness. Oleta was a gentle glider. She was very calm and moved in a way that reflected that. Padawan is more aggressive. She’s a city traffic driver, not a country Sunday driver. Her pul is very firm, and her movements are decisive. At our best pace, following her feels easy and clearly defined. At our fastest, I feel like I am trying to keep up with a tiny mack truck (as my trainer referred to her once) plowing around curves down a mountainside. The Mountainside Mack Truck pace is fine when we are out for a joy run on a track or something with no obstacles to avoid and no curbs to find, but on a busy city sidewalk it’s less desirable as it makes accurate obstacle avoidance a bit more challenging, if not impossible. That means we are utilizing the “steady” command to slow her down at some points and refocus her attention when she gets a tad too excited, especially in areas with a lot of pedestrians. I may have used “steady” a grand total of one time with Oleta, so it’s kind of new to me, but I think we are both getting the hang of it.

In the afternoon route, we encountered a 2 year-old, and thankfully didn’t knock him over, although I think it was close. Children are difficult obstacles in some cases because they are unpredictable, so we did a bit of a dance with the child and the mother before we could go on our way. We also had a small distraction with some men loading things into a van. Padawan was briefly curious about who they were and what they were doing, but got right back on task with a leash cue.

Other than that, our routes were fairly uneventful, and we returned to GEB for our lecture and some time to rest. Saturday, we have the same route again in White Plains in the morning, followed by individualized mystery work in the afternoon. Can’t wait to discover what the mystery might be.