How Does a Guide Dog Know When to Cross the Road?

I’ve been asked many times, as I’m sure other guide dog owners have about how my dog knows when to cross the street.

The short version of the answer is that the guide dog knows it’s okay to cross when it’s owner tells it.

It is up to the person who is blind or has low vision to listen to the traffic flow, figure out what kind of crossing it is and decide when it is safe to cross.  Once it is safe the dog is told “forward” (or another command to go ahead and cross the street).

If it is safe, the guide dog will listen and cross, however if the dog thinks it is not safe it will practice intelligent disobedience. This is where the dog chooses not to listen to it’s owners commands if it will be a danger to the owner or dog.

When I was at guide dog school training with my first dog we were all lined up facing some railway tracks and told to give our dogs the “forward” command.  Once our dogs took us close to the edge and stopped we were told to tell them “forward” again.  Sophie, my guide dog refused to move.  We were told to keep telling them forward.  Sophie moved across in front of me and braced herself, blocking me from moving forward into danger.  This was a trust exercise and it worked!

This means that if a guide dog is given a command to cross a street, and it notices a vehicle hasn’t stopped, or is blocking the way it will not listen.

It reminds me of a story where a retired guide dog and a pet dog escaped from a back yard.  The owner drove down the street to find them, and saw the retired guide dog stop at street crossings, watch until it was safe and then proceed across them, while the pet dog just ran across streets without even thinking!