[Cagdu] Mixed Feelings

Thu Oct 11 14:50:02 PDT 2007

Mixed Feelings Hi all.  Bryant doesn't cross the street at the lines.  He can't even go in front of cars stopped at a light.  He goes behind them instead.  It feels like we're going around something in the street like, say, a storm drain.  I can't correct him because I don't know for sure what's going on.  At school, I would try and second guess Bryant and would be told, "Follow your dog".  Velvet saw this debacle and called Charles Nathan and gave him an ear full on his voice mail.  He's not answering his phone when this number calls.  Bye for now.  This would be funny if it weren't so dangerous and sad.  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: tina thomas 
  To: cagdu at nfbcal.org 
  Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 12:16 PM
  Subject: Re: [Cagdu] Mixed Feelings

  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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