Morning workout
Today has gone smoothly again. We have some spare time before lunch so I decided to do a quick update of our morning workout. We worked our dogs in the local Safeway and actually used the follow command. Up until now we have only learned about the command and not practiced it. The follow command is one that is handy, but the dogs naturally like to do it. I found Maylee followed our instructor, the Karaoke Queen without command, but you still want to use a moving turn command if your dog moves that way regardless. The reason why is you want your dog to get the directions from you and not the person that your dog is following. During this you have to remember to have the sighted person you are following to tell you which way they are travelling so you can give your dog that moving direction command. We have been warned not to use this command too much because of the fact that our dogs are readily willing to let someone take control instead of working with you and they may try to follow other people you do not want them to follow. Don't quote me on all this, this is what is floating around in my head of what we learned, always verify info with your instructors and/or field managers!
After our grocery store experience, we headed to Northgate Mall and practised how to get on and off escalators with your dog. I won't go into the details, but the important thing that was stressed was if you don't really use escalators then your dog will lose this skill and if you don't use an escalator at least weekly or biweekly the trainers strongly suggest avoiding taking your guide dog onto them.
This afternoon is our first freelance route in downtown San Rafael and I'll try to update in another post tonight. Dogs kisses for everyone from Maylee!
After our grocery store experience, we headed to Northgate Mall and practised how to get on and off escalators with your dog. I won't go into the details, but the important thing that was stressed was if you don't really use escalators then your dog will lose this skill and if you don't use an escalator at least weekly or biweekly the trainers strongly suggest avoiding taking your guide dog onto them.
This afternoon is our first freelance route in downtown San Rafael and I'll try to update in another post tonight. Dogs kisses for everyone from Maylee!