In case I haven’t mentioned it previously, the class schedule is quite variable. Though today (the second Tuesday) reflects several testing scenarios, the next class may have today’s events broken up across multiple days, or they may be on a different day altogether.
Class instructors and supervisors appear to maintain a checklist for each client. In addition to some mandatory items, the client can request optional training opportunities that suit their particular needs. Mandatory items are intended to provide the client information about how their dog works, or provide essential skills that are necessary for all teams. For example, teaching your dog a standard route is a mandatory item, while working escalators is optional. The entire class will work some mandatory items as a whole, while others are worked with only a few at a time.
One of the most common reasons that people seek the assistance of a guide dog relates to traffic. The handler is expected to read his/her own traffic while standing at a street corner. However, automobiles may, like pedestrians, threaten to impede the team’s line of travel at unexpected times. These are called traffic checks.
The team’s first traffic check can happen any time after they first hit the streets. My earliest traffic check with a particular dog involved a delivery truck that overran a corner on my first ever route with my second dog. It should be no surprise that he and I started bonding fairly early in the class experience.
Traffic checks exhibit a trained behavior called “intelligent disobedience”. The dog, who we normally expect to obey commands, may refuse or even perform a completely opposite action as to the one asked. For example, telling a dog to step into the path of an oncoming vehicle should result in no reaction from the dog. The dog recognizes the safety hazard, and waits for the handler to acknowledge that the correct decision was made.
Again, we don’t always encounter traffic checks at street corners. . They can occur at any time, and do not always involve a moving vehicle. With my current guide, we encountered a running vehicle blocking our line of travel on our second route on the streets. The driver was attempting to turn left out of a parking lot, and my dog, properly, refused to closely approach or circumnavigate the vehicle. Why is this a good reaction? Because I can’t see the driver. I have no idea if the driver has seen me, and I don’t know when they might start moving. Why not just travel behind the car?...Which end is the front, and which is the back? We did the safe thing and waited until the obstruction was out of the way, then continued with heaps of praise.
GDB does not expect that we will encounter all forms of traffic checks during class. In fact, I expect that they hope that we don’t, as some of them, such as the overrun curb, could be quite dangerous if encountered “in the wild”. Therefore, a route is planned during which the handler gets to see how their dog reacts to a variety of traffic incidents. This route is not intended to frighten or disrupt either the dog or the handler, although I can admit that it can be stressful to all involved. It features a number and variety of traffic checks, each of which exhibits a different behavior.
If You Can Dodge A Wrench…
One of the primary objectives of class is to gain the dog’s attention. This means that, if presented with a distracting situation, the dog will turn to the handler for guidance and support. The end goal is to have the dog work past a distraction in order to reach the destination. We do this through the use of positive re-enforcers like food and praise. If a dog is truly distracted (and it is safe to do so) we can use a negative re-enforcer called a “time out”. Finally, there are situations where a traditional leash correction may be appropriate.
Yet the first option is the positive re-enforcers. Over the days since receiving the dog, the handler has been developing the dog’s recognition that the handler will, if a distraction is ignored, provide the positive re-enforcers. Again stealing a phrase from the instruction staff, we have “built a bank” of trust with the dog. And today it’s time to test that out.
Pet stores in general are extremely distracting for dogs. A normally well-trained dog may have trouble maintaining composure when exposed to so many distracting opportunities. A guide dog must overcome these distractions to safely move his/her handler through the store. Although we are not at the end of class and we do expect to continue learning and bonding, we can view the pet store as a major test of our abilities and time. I should specify that this is an internal test. GDB expects that working in a pet store, at this point in the process, should have some level of success. In other words, this is a kind of proof to the handler that the re-enforcement techniques and concepts work. Not to mention the fact that it displays the level to which the relationship between dog and handler has already grown.
With the growth of Internet shopping, it is now possible that a guide team will not have to work a pet store outside of class. On the other hand, how many stores could possibly pose as many distractions as a pet store? Perhaps a butcher that is nearing a health code-related shut down. In other words, if the guide team can work successfully in a pet store, we can expect that they will be able to work in just about any other building.
Shake It Off
Teams could be excused from feeling a bit stressed after a morning of traffic and an afternoon trip to the pet store. The reality is that this kind of day might not be uncommon for some teams. And so we find ways to blow that stress away. Dogs, like humans, like a bit of stretching and relaxation to decompress.
In my experience, we stretched it off with our first real long blocks and a quick trip through a suburban trail. For me, and hopefully for my new dog, this opportunity to get some speed and distance was exactly what was needed.
And then the harness comes off and we play. Because at the end of the day, he’s still a dog.
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