Traffic Training

You've probably heard of Intelligent Disobedience. No, well for those of you who haven't. Intelligent Disobedience is when a dog disobeys a command that could put the team in danger. for example, if someone who is blind listens for traffic and determines its safe to give the dog a cue to cross a street, but the dog sees a car coming, the dog will disobey the command to cross the street. How do you train this...

I went out one day with the Instructors to follow them as they did traffic training. They explained it to me as follows. About a week before traffic training the Instructors do Preliminary Traffic Training. This involves introducing the idea of watching for traffic. They do almost the same as Traffic Training but at a slower pace. The car is slower in its approach to the dog and stays at more of a distance as the Instructor models the correct behavior with harness or leash cues. Preliminary Traffic allows the dogs to learn faster and with less stress when they get to Traffic Training. During Traffic Training the car does most of the teaching. The Instructors are there to work the dog on the Traffic Training route. For the first three dogs I followed the Instructors.

It went something like this. The Instructors walked to the first street crossing. Here you could see the Navy Blue Van lurking in the distance. Magnetic strips attached to the car read Traffic Training Vehicle to inform the general public of its purpose. The Instructors told their dogs to cross the street as the van slowly approached and turned the corner. What follow can be somewhat shocking to the first time viewer, although it is a controlled situation which is harmless to the dog. As the dog attempted to continue across, the van slowly proceeds to come near and even back up the dog with its bumper. The dog’s initial reaction is one of surprise. ‘A van just “attacked me”, how strange, well, maybe it didn’t see me.” The dog backs up and is praised by the Instructor. The van then backs up and the Instructor allows the dog to go forward. The consequence to this action - being bumped again. Some of the bolder dogs attempt to quickly pass in front of the van. Some of these dogs will need to be nudged a third time by the van before continuing on. Each time, the dog needs fewer cues from both car and handler to behave correctly. When the car finishes here it moves on to lurk at the next stop.

Here the Van attempts to pull into a drive way in front of the dog. The Instructor commands “Forward”, the car will continue to back up the dog, until the dog refuses to go forward and is praised. One dog liked the praise so much that it looked at the Instructor and forgot to look at the car. How silly. This introduces the idea of intelligent disobedience to the dog. Again some dogs take longer to realize they shouldn't go forward. Once the dog stops, the van backs out and moves on to the next location to hide in waiting.

As the dog walks along the sidewalk the view of the van is obstructed by a fence. The van then pulls out suddenly in front of the dog. Here, the dog begins to understand its duty. The dog stops and the van quietly moves on, no longer needing to bump the dog. At this point the Instructors sound like the dogs just won the Olympics, praise, praise, praise. The van then pulls up to the next street.

Here the van waits for the dog to pass in front of it, then attempts to pull through quickly after the dog, the driver banging on the door of the van with his hand to scare the dog away from it. The dog is thus encouraged to speed up to pull its handler from harm. Again, the Instructors meet the dog with enthusiastic praise to beat the band.

The van continues to the next stop and the next stop on this prearranged route, exposing the dog to traffic situations by coming at it from all angles. In about ten stops, the dog has it. The thirty minute route is all it takes to make the dog understand to watch out for traffic. Around a week later the dog will complete Final Traffic Testing before passing on to the next phase.

Following about ten dogs I began to see patterns, the preferences of the Guide and the Instructor comes out in their work. One dog may veer for the high curb where the other tends to go for the dip in the sidewalk. Some dogs, especially those with tall instructors, are more careful about overhanging tree branches. Some dogs will indicate sharp elevation changes in the sidewalk, others will not. Some are bolder and will try to take the van head on, others will hang back. Some are faster, others more leisurely. These personalities and traits will soon be matched to partners they will be with for the rest of their lives.