# Teddy is doing great BUT..



## Lindsay Janes (Aug 9, 2007)

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since I have been here to visit. Teddy and I have been training for him to become a hearing service dog. I met with a trainer once a week and we try to work on getting him to alert me the cars coming from the behind. It is extremely important for him to alert me every time when a car drives by me because I can't hear it coming. 
I don't think he understands how important that is. It has been frustrating. 

My house is on a corner with a huge blind spot. I always worried about walking by two huge blind-spot bushes. I can't see or hear a car coming when it is making a left turn. There are two huge bushes blocking the view. Some people make a quick left turn and didn't slow down. I have had a close call where I would get hit by a car. 

We have been working Teddy's alerting with cars for about a month and we ran out of ideas how to teach him cars from behind. We taught him to alert me sounds like fire alarm, doorbell, and others. He did pretty good, but cars....... I don't know how trainers did with their guide dogs? Is it different because these blind people are able to hear cars from behind? 

Sometimes he alerts, and sometimes he doesn't. I know he heard them. The trainer and I'm getting kind of frustrated with that.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

hope it works out for you, but... 

if I was deaf, I would not rely on a dog to alert me when it is safe to cross a road...

LOOK BOTH WAYS, a few times....if it is too close to a corner, walk down a little farther...I learned that as a small child. 

A person using headphones or an IPOD cannot hear cars coming either, I see them all the time jogging, walking, and riding bikes all over the place...use your eyes first


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Are you training single cars? At what speed? At what distance should he alert? Are you training with idle or moving cars? Is the area with traffic?


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

In addition to what Anne commented on (ALL variables for your needs) I will add that you consider your timing on the reward and the value of the reward to the dog.


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

Chop the ****ing bushes down. Train the dog, and by the time you have that done, the bushes will be back in the way.

Maybe you get a different type of dog. You didn't say how long you have been working with him, but that seems to be fairly important. I would consider this before getting crushed by a car.


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## Lindsay Janes (Aug 9, 2007)

Joby Becker said:


> hope it works out for you, but...
> 
> if I was deaf, I would not rely on a dog to alert me when it is safe to cross a road...
> 
> ...


 Yeah, I really have thought about giving it up after the trainer and I had a long discussion about it. I decide to come here to see if anyone has another solution or suggestion how to teach him. I do look both ways, but it's annoying that I have to do it from the behind all the time. I do it like every 20 to 30 seconds when I'm walking on the street, not as often as I'm on the sidewalk, or the trail.

Even if I'm not crossing a street, but walking on the street I have to turn around so many times. When I'm on the sidewalk, I didn't need him to alert me. Unfortunately, not all road in Tucson have a sidewalk, but we do have them around. I never know when its coming so it will be nice to have a dog to alert me.


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## Lindsay Janes (Aug 9, 2007)

Anne Vaini said:


> Are you training single cars? At what speed? At what distance should he alert? Are you training with idle or moving cars? Is the area with traffic?



The handi dog trainer and I tried to teach teddy to alert any incoming cars that are about 8 to 15 feet behind us. It could be one car or two cars, but a few ones. We don't work with him around the traffic or if we are walking on a sidewalk. Maybe this is where he is confusing. He does alert sometimes, but not always. When he alerts me the cars, he would jump on me. With other sounds like ringing the doorbell or a clock alarm went off, he would use one of his paws to claw at me and guide me to it. When a fire alarm goes off, he was taught to jump on me similar with the car, we just get out. 

We used to work with him around a local park where there would be like a few cars driving by us from the behind.


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## Lindsay Janes (Aug 9, 2007)

Jeff Oehlsen said:


> Chop the ****ing bushes down. Train the dog, and by the time you have that done, the bushes will be back in the way.
> 
> Maybe you get a different type of dog. You didn't say how long you have been working with him, but that seems to be fairly important. I would consider this before getting crushed by a car.


 I really have thought about cutting the bushes down, but these bushes belong to the HOA. I planted an oleander in the front yard the other day and one of their guys took my oleander out. We aren't allowed to plant anything in our front yards except that we ought ask for a permission. It sucks. 

I have been working with Teddy since he was a puppy. It was just basic obedience training, but the hearing service training didn't start until last December 2010. We have been training with Handi dog program for about three months now. We have worked with him around the cars for about a month. 

I could just cut the bushes and let them grow back.  I swear... the HOA is going to be furious with me.


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## Lindsay Janes (Aug 9, 2007)

Bob Scott said:


> In addition to what Anne commented on (ALL variables for your needs) I will add that you consider your timing on the reward and the value of the reward to the dog.


I think timing could be a problem because I can't hear the car coming and knew when he alerts it correctly. There were many times where I would reward the dog at the wrong time or it was a little too late.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Lindsay Janes said:


> I think timing could be a problem because I can't hear the car coming and knew when he alerts it correctly. There were many times where I would reward the dog at the wrong time or it was a little too late.


"many times" could be a critical point! The dog may believe that the rewards are just random treats if it can't connect it with a particular behavior.
The fact that it alerts "sometimes" would make me think about Anne's post. Dogs can be very situational in their understanding. More variety in when and where you can train. 
It also sounds like you may need someone to cue you on when to reward but that can change the dynamics of timing. Similar to a person with sight impairment needs to have their dog trained separately THEN the handler is trained "with" the dog.
That could be an expensive situation in particular if you don't have the correct dog to begin something like that.


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

Lindsay Janes said:


> I could just cut the bushes and let them grow back.  I swear... the HOA is going to be furious with me.


pay some punk teenager 20$. 

"I don't know what happened, I did not do it...."


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

So once a week is 4 times with the trainer. Probably not enough time considering you are not able to hear the car and are probably not geting the training right. 

Get a e-collar with the pager on it and have the person in the car buzz you when they are in a certain distance. ORRRRRRRrrrrrr throw the dog in front of the car so he learns to be batshit terrified of cars, and I think that will only take one try and there you go. HA HA

THe HOA should be making allowances for your safety with those stupid bushes.


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Where there is no sidewalk, why not walk on the opposite side of the street so that you are facing oncoming traffic, rather than having to keep turning around to see if any cars are coming? Also can't you cross on the far corner or a different corner then walk to your house, rather than the corner with the blindspot?


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## Stephen Bowerman (Apr 8, 2011)

I haven't seen much advice to your problem other then a few off hand remarks. My dog is trained to alert me when cars come from behind and he's very good at it. What I did when we started working on that was to teach him to heel from both the left and right side. If you walk with your dog in heel and hes between you and the road he will almost always turn his head either towards the car coming from behind or turn his head towards you. When ever your on any street without side walks and walking with your dog make sure he is always to the road side with you on the inside. It does work. Make sure though when he does this you have something to reward him with. He will eventually make a connection between the two acts. Remember if your on the road side and he is on the inside there is no reason for him to turn or to alert you. Sometimes the easiest things are those you you try to hard to find solutions for and the easier you keep things the faster he is going to learn.


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

My remarks were not meant to be offhand, but were dead serious, and practical. Seems like the easiest and most practical thing would be to walk on the side of the street which would allow her to face and therefore see oncoming traffic rather than walking so that cars come from the rear, at least that's what my best friend's deaf parents use to do when we were kids and they went for a walk or a bike ride.


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

OR you could threaten the HOA with an American w Disabilities Act suit and they'll cut down the damn bushes for you?


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## Anne Vaini (Mar 15, 2007)

Thomas Barriano said:


> OR you could threaten the HOA with an American w Disabilities Act suit and they'll cut down the damn bushes for you?


I like that.




I'm trying to picture this, your dog is at heel and jumps up on you every time he hears a car behind? My *personal opinion* is that alerts in public should be unobtrusive.

I use a command we call "Q-ing" (queueing). The behavior is the dog moving from heel to standing sideways in front of the handler. It's useful for saving space in a line. I use it a lot at a counter (like a cash register). I use it unloading out of the car to sit the dog next to the rear tire. (Dog has to stay withing the lines of the parking space).

You know what went wrong? So start over with a new behavior, new command, start over. Instead of your dog jumping all over you, he steps in front of you. The behavior is effective in preventing your forward movement. It is unique to the situation so you won't screw up his other alerts in which he jumps on you. It's unobtrusive. It doesn't interfere with heeling.


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