Guide Dog Training: Obstacles & Pedestrians

Video Transcript

"An important part of a dog guide responsibility is to guide the person around, - Good Boy Mambo!- to guide the person around stationary obstacles and pedestrians as well. O.k., so here we can see Mambo avoiding the stationary obstacles, but also a pedestrian. And he stops, avoids the pedestrian, and then carries on his way. And this is really important part in the dog's work that they avoid everyday hazards, not just ones, but pedestrians, pushchairs, strollers, anything that might be involved as you're walking down the high street. Our dogs are trained to have a high level of initiative, and as part of that, finding doors, shops, is very, very, important to their new owner. And here we see Mambo finding the door for Greg. And what do, we train that by repeating the exercise and then giving the dogs loads and loads of reward. Once he actually is successful. So, reward and repetition is the key. It's really vital, because in everyday life everybody, you know, wants to do their shopping, everybody wants to go to the bank, everybody wants to go visit their friends, or the store and a dog can really benefit someone by finding those destinations on a daily basis. So you don't have to be worried or stressed out about the fact that you've missed the door or don't know which door you're going in, or which shop you're going in. The dog will do that for you. Again by repetition and reward. Doing the exercise, finding the door, and then giving the dog bags of praise, bags of encouragement."