[Cagdu] Mixed Feelings

[tina thomas]

Hey Ken, The problems you described with Bryant is one of the reasons I have
A problem with clicker training. I want my dog to do her job because she
enjoys it and is loyal and loves me. I do not want A dog that is always
looking for food awards when she does what I want her to do. Praise and
encouragement should be enough. I don't know what is going on with GDB, but
it seems that they have lost focus on what is important. Putting out good
guide dog teams. Oh did you hear about GDB's buddy program and how the
graduates are up in arms. GDUI even wrote A letter to GDB about the buddy
program. I do have the emails discussing that issue. If you would like I can
send them to you. Hang in there.  
Tina and Nina          
 
 From: cagdu-bounces at nfbcal.org [mailto:cagdu-bounces at nfbcal.org] On Behalf
Of Ken Volonte
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 11:47 AM
To: Cagdu
Subject: [Cagdu] Mixed Feelings


            Mixed Feelings
Ken Volonte
 
            This is the story of transition between my old guide Gulliver
and my new dog Bryant.  It is a work in progress, a little window into the
future.  
 
Sunday night was my first night here.  I had forgotten how lonely the first
night was without a dog.  We were all nervous trying to figure out who we
would be with each other.  It wasn't like we could just be ourselves.
That's how it felt.  There were some liberals in this class; a nice
counterbalance to the military structure of guide dog school.
 
            Monday, I got my dog; a little yellow lab named Bryant.  I had a
real issue with the new Swiss harness.  So did Bryant.  He developed an
aversion to it almost immediately.  
 
            Tuesday was our first route; the basic one from the downtown
lounge just to get used to our dogs.  Bryant just flew down the street.  It
felt good.  Yet there was no movement from the harness handle, no way to do
a harness check-and Bryant was getting more scared every time I tried to put
it on. I'm annoying my class mates with this mantra.  I asked for the old
familiar harness.  This one came complete with an off set handle which made
my thumb turn and put me further to the right of my dog. 
 
            Wednesday.  I'm relaxed enough to actually play the piano and
sing in the Day Room.  Tuesday and Wednesday are so sad.  I'm thinking I'll
have to switch my dog for a taller one.  I'm 6ft 4, and Bryant was built for
someone about nine or ten inches shorter. I realize that I can't journal
like this because the bond between Bryant and myself means much more.
 
            Now adays, Guide Dogs for the Blind uses what is called clicker
training.  I think they do this because of programs on Animal Planet.  Keeps
the money flowing in.  Of course, there's an inherent flaw with clicker
training.  You have to click as soon as a behavior occurs.  That level of
precision isn't as practical for a blind guide dog handler on a busy street
as it is for, say a sighted dolphin trainer who must teach the dolphin where
the free throw line is. That is, incidentally where clicker training first
started: training marine mammals. 
 
            Did you hear about this trainer at Sea World who had her leg
chewed off by a killer wale she had been working with for years?  I can
imagine that wale thinking, "if I hear that whistle one more time, I'll go
nuts", and so he did.  Where was I going with this-- oh yah clicker
training. 
 
            Clicker training was developed by science.  Whose science, I'd
like to know.  I can't go there because I'll get lost again. 
 
            Before you go to Guide dogs for the Blind,you get a packet of
cds containing all the lectures so you can read up on how to work various
situations.   The cd says, "This is the sound of a clicker.  Two quick
tones.  This is the sound of a clicker when it is incorrectly pressed."  As
I drifted off, I thought, " This is the sound of a golf ball."  Two Ambien
and I was away.  
 
            Everything revolves around positive reinforcement.  Our dogs get
food rewards for crossing the street, for not being afraid of loud noises,
for just lying still. 
 
            Whereas the bond between a guide dog and her person used to be
based on love and trust and so much more, our dogs now guide for nuggets of
kibble.  I know a trick dog when I see one. 
 
            I thought that these were just idle thoughts, but I just heard a
class mate walk by.  When I said hello she said, "I'm  going to get some
kibbles so our girls will be good on the outside".  In one fell swoop, guide
dog school has drained the smarts out of our dogs and us as well.  It's
about numbers.  You got to keep the money rolling in, and nobody works for
fre e.  Such is the claim. 
 
            The one thing I thought about using the clicker for does not
involve a specific enough target: bathrooms.  You could teach the dog to
find a specific bathroom in a specific building.  To find another bathroom
in another building, you would have to teach where that place was, and you'd
have to call it something else than bathroom.  They actually said that.
Thus, clicker training might be popular, but it is almost of no practical
value for the reasons stated above. 
 
            I took a bad fall two weeks ago.  There was some construction in
the area, and I fell over a traffic cone.  Everybody has falls, but this had
come after a series of diagonal crossings.  It was not an auspicious
beginning for the teem of Bryant and myself.  Two days ago, I almost lost my
balance on a high curb in Berkeley.  The result is that my guide dog,
trained with food rewards and clickers and all kinds of behavioral
techniques is trying to avoid up curbs and just go around the corner or out
into traffic instead.  My instructors can spin this and explain this all
they want, but I'll be just as dead.  
 
            Now we work on curbs.  For two days, we work on curbs, and then
it's graduation day.  
 
            I met Bryant's raiser, a high school girl wise beyond her years.
She told me of all the cute things Bryant did as a puppy.  We talk for a
long time, and she too has questions about food rewards and clicker training
and they are the same questions I have.  
 
            There is something else too.  She understands that she is only a
small part of a larger process.  Suddenly, I understand that my instructors
have shown us a little of how the magic works with our dogs.  If I want or
need to teach Bryant a complex route, I can, using back chaining.  If he
needs to target a pole or a bus stop, I can teach him with the clicker.  And
all the troubles in class, troubles with Bryant, troubles on the street,
trouble around missing Velvet, it was all just stuff.
 
            Graduation gets longer every time.  There are the speeches, the
overview of the program.  We even had a song written and recorded by
Tamara's raiser.  It's about money.  It's always about money and satisfying
the general public.  Now that it's over, I have just one question.  How did
Rupert Murdoch manage to get so much power over the process of getting a
guide dog? 
 
            Now that we're home, I'm learning some other interesting things
about my dog.  Clicker training has thrown his timing off.  He really does
wait for the click or for the kibble.  He's scared of traffic and still
tries to avoid curb cuts and will look for something else, anything else.
In a new situation, he has no confidence and no sense of what he's supposed
to do.  Remember my  posting wherin I quoted my instructor?  "This dog's not
going to make it", the training department of GDB knowingly sent me home
with a dog with whom I didn't feel safe.  
 
            I am the first to admit that sometimes my orientation suffers.
Sometimes, I start out for a destination without knowing exactly where I'm
going.  I'm the person who really needs a guide dog to guide, to think, to
know that when I say Forward, he's committed to the process of getting me
safely across the street.  At this point, Bryant doesn't know what to do.
I'm so sad. I'm going to work with him with every trick I know.  It's early
in the morning.  I'm going out now while there is no traffic armed only with
a clicker and a food pouch.  Wish me luck. 
 
            I'm back from the simplest of routes: across the street to the
store and back.  Bryant is now scared even of the little alley way between
my house and the neighbor's.  He was so scared and confused that I just came
on home.  He's asleep now.  He's had a hard day.  It's 7:15:am. Why am I
going through all this sadness and worry?  After all, it's not my job to
Beta test guide dog school's new training program.          
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