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BLIt would be difficult for a guide dog team to work efficiently if the handler and the guide dog did not have compatible walking speeds. Programs will generally match the speed of a dog to the speed of their potential handler. As an owner-trained team, we got lucky that we are both fast walkers. I can, however, slow down when asked to do so. But how did Mum train this?
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It’s pretty simple. With a leash attached to me, she would drop my handle if I were walking too fast. She uses the command “slow” to ask me to slow down. If I do not do it, she will drop my handle which cues me to stop immediately. I can begin guiding again once she picks up my handle, but I must continue guiding slow, or she will drop my handle again.
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In this video, we are walking extremely slow, Mum sped up the video in a couple of locations just because it would’ve taken us 2 to 3 minutes to watch the whole thing through with how slow I was going. But sometimes we need to match the speed of the other people who are with us, which is what we were doing here. There are some guide dog teams who walk at this slower pace all the time, because that is their preference. For Mum and me, this speed is a little tortuous. The things we do for friends.
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Just another nuance of a guide dog team’s journey. I would say our normal speed is between 3 to 4 mph. How fast do you and your guide dog or service dog walk?💙🦮
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