I remember JulieT talked about how, at ClickerExpo, she was given a "Good Job!!" for walking around corners the "right way". There's a corner I walk around fairly regularly and, every time I do, I think about what this meant. I assume that it means the handler going first, but could you give a bit more detail, please? Thanks!
It was in the context of walking along hotel corridors - I got a couple of stickers for this. People gave others who they saw doing good things stickers to put in a prize draw - I got loads! Mainly because I volunteered to make a fool of myself in learning Labs, because I "was just a pet owner" so I didn't care if people thought I was hopeless. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to put the stickers in the draw bucket so I didn't win anything. They showed a video in the introduction section of the conference to demonstrate how to walk round hotel corridor corners with your dog! Bad is to walk round with your dog pulling in front of you, and on the 'tight' side of the corner. Your dog is likely to run slap into another dog and handler doing the same. So you are supposed to have your dog at heel or behind you, and walk on the outside of the corner, pause and look round the corner to make sure there isn't a dog/waitress/kid about to tear round into you and your dog.... I'd never heard it before though, and isn't something I had thought of doing on walks - I suppose it's applicable to pubs and so on too. Although I do call Charlie back when he is off lead and there is a corner in a lane or something - but that's because I never like my off lead dog to be out of my sight, even briefly and/or don't want him to run up to other dogs or people who might be round the corner.
This particular corner, I'm walking up a little lane and coming out onto the pavement on the main road, with a shop on the corner. So there are potentially people I can't see walking along the pavement until I get there. Not too dissimilar to the hotel corridor scenario. Dog is already on my left at this point, and the blind corner is on the right, so as long as I don't let the dog get ahead, we're already doing it right. Yey, us!
I always prepare for one particular corner as its very busy and I have nearly been knocked over by a bike rider before now. all my dogs are on the left as its a righty and I keep them slightly behind me and try to pop my head round just before so I can get a good look. its a terrible corner for kids bikes and unavoidable. If I can hear the school kids i wait until its clear they can be such s*ds one ran at Rory shouting and growling a few weeks ago. If I've got 2 or 3 dogs with me i just take it easy 4 can be interesting though, just have to prepare and be calm thats all i can do
I bring Tatze to heel before corners in case we come across children or doddery people. She still sometimes jumps up - it's really unpredictable but she's more likely to do it if the person is wearing a white coat/doesn't like dogs. Twiglet is fine, she keeps four feet down and wags her whole body. Her recall is 110% - so I don't feel the need to bring her to me for corners (or anything else - she's a star!)
I don't know why, but everyone seems to take a tight line on a blind corner, cyclists, joggers, etc, so I always ensure we take the long way round the outside of the corner, with me between Tara and the apex, so anyone/dog we meet, I am between them and Tara. At training, we were told to take the corner with the dog on whichever side we felt comfortable with, but that was round cones, not blind corners.
