Wednesday, January 25, 2012

THANKS TRINITY

A huge thanks goes to my previous dog, Trinity. Without knowing it, she has helped my transition to home withPuffin. WithTrinity, my friends and relatives learned to ignore her when working and to avoid making contact with her. Thanks also goes to all of you from my community who are remembering these rules for Puffin’s smooth transition to her working life with me.

I thought people would see the similarities between Trinity and Puffin. They are both yellow labs and both light in color. However, people see them as different in their body type and facial expression. This is interesting to me.

I have had some questions that I will answer here in case others may be wondering the same thing.

I have been asked how my new dog knows where I want to go. The fact is that I am the one who needs to give directional information to my dog such as Forward, Left, or Right, and it is Puffin’s job to follow these commands and negotiate crowded areas without bumping me into things. Now, she knows the basic commands. As she learns my routines, she will show me places we often go, by slowing or turning her head toward a door. It will be my command to continue on our way or turn in that will determine our course. These become very subtle and possibly seen only to those trained to observe our movements. We can travel anywhere now with the basic training she has learned if I know what directions to give her, but it will take us six months to a year to be a smoothly working team. We will learn more and more to read each other’s body language. The harness handle is a two-way communication device between us in addition to the words and gestures that she knows.

A dog’s field of vision is about 250 degrees where as humans have about 180 degrees. This means that Puffin sees farther behind her on either side and is aware of my hand movements even though I am walking farther back near her back legs.

Huffin' and Puffin

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