City travel provides fantastic training opportunities for budding guide dog teams. Extra traffic, strange and often loud noises, lots of sidewalk obstructions, and the bane of the guide dog…pedestrians.
In general, any kind of obstacle requires a “clearance”. Obstacles, or obstructions, can be categorized into three general groups. Standard vertical clearances are unmovable objects rooted on the ground. With the dog on your left side, these will commonly hit the right side of your body. Next, horizontal obstructions extend across the “line of travel”, but may not be directly rooted, such as tree limbs, hanging signs, and the like. Finally, we have the moving obstacles such as people and cars. By far, they are the worst!
A guide dog will try to find the straightest line from point A (usually a street corner) to point B (the next street corner). The problem is, that line is rarely perfectly straight. Let’s walk through the typical block:
The team has just finished crossing a street. They are lined up and ready to walk down the block. The magic begins with a forward request from the handler. The dog assesses the first steps of their chosen line down the block. They start walking.
The first obstacle, on the right, is a light post. The dog can easily avoid the post as the rest of the sidewalk is clear. Vertical obstructions with plenty of room to maneuver are easy for the on-track dog. With the slightest jog to the left, the team avoids the post at their usual traveling speed.
Next, the team passes a café on the left with outdoor seating. Tables and chairs obstruct a significant percentage of the sidewalk, but there’s still some room along the street. The team heads slightly back to the right to avoid the first of the tables, but the dog slows as the narrower walkway requires greater care and attention.
Before leaving the café, the team meets a pedestrian coming the opposite direction. The fun is about to begin. The dog has to judge where the moving obstacle will go, and how s/he will impact the line of travel. The person could turn right into the door of the café before reaching the team. In that case, the obstruction is cleared by default, and the dog had to take no action. Instead, however, our friendly pedestrian continues to walk down the block toward the team. Now, the dog has to make a decision. It most likely slows further to provide processing time. The dog is hoping that the obstruction goes away, so that a further move to the right is not necessary. The dog does not want to approach the curb, which is now only about two feet from the right side of the handler. Unfortunately, our moving obstruction doesn't go away, and the dog makes a decision to trade space to make the clearance. The team moves further toward the street on the right. The pedestrian, not realizing that s/he has been reduced to something mentally equivalent to a moving garbage can, passes by the dog’s left side.
Once clear, the dog moves back to the left to regain the safe distance from the curb. The handler, who heard the pedestrian pass, provides praise for the excellent work. The dog still knows, however, that the line of travel has not been re-achieved. That won’t happen until the team passes the café’s seating. Once the line is available, the team speeds up to its normal pace and drives for the next intersection.
The light pole, tables, pedestrian, and curb to the right of the team count as an obstacle, as neither member of the guide team wants to come into contact with them. In fact, guide dogs require special training exercises to find a particular obstacle. For example, a bus stop (commonly marked with a post) counts as an obstacle. The dog will avoid it, unless otherwise directed. The handler uses special techniques to say, “Yes, all those posts are not happy places for us, but this particular one is this block’s version of Disneyland.”
My example may lead one to believe that a guide team swerves and dodges its way down a block. In reality, the dog will try everything possible to maintain the line for as much of a block as it can. Dogs love consistency. They will attempt to generate it by maintaining a behavior that they know gets them to a reward. A consistent block with a reward at the end makes the dog feel comfortable, while giving them a form of fulfillment (food, praise, etc.) when the goal is achieved. The handler, through attentiveness, provides contextual rewards such as praise when an obstacle is successfully bypassed, which supplies immediate re-enforcement for a behavior. Then, with the major goal (walking down the block, in this case) achieved, the handler provides additional re-enforcement.
Of course a primary objective could be the up-curb after crossing a street, our previously-designated “happy place” bus stop, or any number of other concrete spots. The trick is to get from where I am now to that point. The dog needs to successfully navigate obstructions, while dealing with distractions (more on those another day), to achieve the primary goal.
And cities provide lots of opportunities for the new guide team to practice this very point. It was a focus today, and will continue to be throughout the rest of class; not to mention the rest of the dog’s career.
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