Seeing Eye dog Luna has been working with me in Chicago for a year-and-a-half now, and somewhere along the way she has picked up a tendency to veer when leading me across certain intersections. We could be, say, on a sidewalk along a busy street with the traffic at our left-hand side going the same direction we are. We get to a busy crossing, I listen to when it sounds safe to cross, I command , “Luna, Forward!” and for her first three or four steps into the street she veers left into that parallel street before curving back into the crosswalk we’re supposed to be walking in.
I contacted the Seeing Eye about this, they asked if Mike could take a video, and after he forwarded that video to the Seeing Eye they called to assure me Luna is not the only guide dog they’ve known to develop this bad habit. “We even have a name for it,” the instructor on the phone told me. “It’s called “arcing’.”
The Seeing Eye is sending instructor Chris Mattoon out tomorrow to spend three days here helping Luna think straight.
Likely he’ll be teaching me a few things, too – I could be inadvertently holding the harness incorrectly at intersections, not facing my shoulders in the right direction before giving the command, delivering my commands too quietly. These dogs pick up on such things.
Longtime Safe & Sound blog readers might recognize Chris Mattoon’s name.
Chris in a photo taken back in 2010 with his own dog Gilda.
Ten years ago he came out to help me decide to retire my third Seeing Eye dog, Harper. In 2011 that heroic Yellow Labrador Retriever saved me from getting hit by a car at a Chicago intersection, and when Harper developed PTSD behaviors afterwards, Chris helped us make the decision to give our hero an early retirement.
From there Chris spent months training Golden/Yellow Labrador Retriever Whitney to become my fourth Seeing Eye dog. I flew to the Seeing Eye in 2012 to spend three weeks working with Chris and Whitney before bringing her home to Chicago. Since then, and especially during the pandemic, Chris has become the Seeing Eye’s main troubleshooter, the trainer they send on house calls to fine-tune the work of people — and dogs — who need a little extra help after graduating from the training program in Morristown, New Jersey.
Please don’t worry that Luna and I are having a terrible time working together! Really, we’re doing very well. We just need some helpful suggestions and reassurance, and I’m grateful the Seeing Eye is sending Chris to provide just that. Cutting this blog post short now to start getting ready for the next three days training — and oh, if you are reading this and are in the memoir-writing class I lead Wednesdays at Admiral-at-the-Lake, don’t fret. Chris is meeting me early this Wednesday morning. We’ll see to it that Luna and I are done in time to lead your afternoon class!
I’m sure Luna and you will benefit from his visit and help. She’s a great dog.
Carol
You and Luna are getting a “tune up”. Happy to know you have your friend Chris to check up on you two:)
She sure is! Thanks for the encouragement, Carol.
“Tune up.” Wish I’d thought of that description when writing this post earlier today. That is exactly what it will be.
Glad to ,know there are specialists for “tune ups”.
Me, too. And they even make house calls!
Wishing you and Luna successful sessions and safe travels in the future. It is always so interesting to learn what’s going on ‘behind the scene’ – thank you Beth.
I wonder if the pandemic caused this. When you first got Luna, you two weren’t going out much. Maybe she lost some of her learning and now needs a refresher. Good teaching and learning for both of you — and for Chris.
You know, I was thinking that same thing, but with a slightly different flavor. Luna and I started working together in Chicago in march 2020 when “sheltering in place” had just started. There was such little traffic in Chicago back then that, for all I knew, she was veering into the parallel street without my noticing.
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