TRAFFIC

My trainer mixed us up differently this week so that I have a different partner. I have always gone on the first trip, but today, I went on the shuttle to the down town lounge at 9:00 instead of 7:45. Instructor assistants shuttle us from the campus to the training center so that we don’t have as much time sitting and waiting.

During that first hour, I had some additional exposure to clicker training one-on-one. There are some very clever techniques developed to make best use of this training method without needing to see what the dog is doing.

We did the Elm Street loop again today, morning and afternoon. Since we are now encountering such different intersection configurations and continuing to have traffic checks on every session, I thought I would describe how dogs work in traffic. I have now listened to the lecture in class and listened to the mp3 files on this topic. Here is a sketch of what I have reviewed.

The initial decision to enter a street is made by the handler based on the traffic flow. By hearing the cars respond to changes in the lights at signalized intersections, we can tell when the light is in our favor. This is usually at the surge of the parallel traffic. However, computerization of traffic signals and quiet cars have made this whole process much more difficult in many instances.

What does the dog do? The dog waits for the handler to give a verbal command to go into the intersection. It is trained to watch for traffic and disobey the command if it is not safe to do so. This has limitations, though. The dog can judge traffic traveling up to 30 mph from a distance of 20 feet. Outside of these parameters, the dog is not reliable. The reason for this is that the dog does not understand the danger of traffic as potentially deadly as we do. Its nervous system was developed to judge the speed of other animals and this is at slower speeds. If a car is traveling 30mph, it travels 20ft in about ½ second. The dog is taught to stop, slow, or even back up if a car is heading its way. The dog must not fear traffic or it would not be able to cross in front of cars that are stopped at a light. It would not be able to travel on a sidewalk along a busy street or approach a bus to board it.

We need to be mindful not to push the harness forward as we prepare to cross or hurry the dog or it will go based on our body language and without checking to see if it is safe. It is a common tendency of a handler to want to hurry across the street, but we need to slow down and keep a pressure on the harness handle and let the dog do its work. There is extensive work done with the dogs throughout the training process with traffic. A supervisor is out in the Prius cutting us off in driveways and during street crossings. They must not do too much of this to make the dog anxious, but enough to make it vigilant. This varies; I’m sure with each dog. This is why we cannot practice traffic checks on our own. If, after graduation, we feel that our dogs are becoming to bold in traffic to be safe, we must call the school and they will work with each situation individually, and this may include a visit to the graduate’s home area.

Sometimes we will want an idling car to go through the intersection so as not to block the sounds of other traffic in the area. Oddly enough, well-meaning drivers or sighted pedestrians have told us to cross when they have been so taken by the dog that they have neglected to check for safety themselves. This makes us cautious about going on the advice of others.

There were no lectures today or this evening. Those who chose to do so watched a movie “Love In the Lead”. I took the opportunity to sit on the floor by Trinity and listen to more of the mp3 files they provided in the beginning of class.