In The trainer helps the dog get used to climbing both solid and open stairs, and become familiar with all sorts of public transport. Eventually the dog will learn the correct way to enter and alight from buses, trams and trains. On railway platforms a dog learns to stand back from the edge. They go to indoor shopping centres and the city many times, at first to become used to crowds and noise, and later to walk through department stores and learn how to travel on escalators and travelators and in lifts. Gradually the dog begins to initiate action, for instance stopping at a kerb without being told, and waiting to hear the word 'Forward' before proceeding.
Height is the most difficult thing to teach,' a trainer says.
The dog must learn to guide a person around something at human head level, such as a branch, so that they don't hit their head. They can weave through lines of cars because they're only looking after themselves and the bike. Footpath obstructions, such as a car across a driveway, or excavations, are hazards for a vision impaired person and the dog learns how to guide around them, perhaps by moving on to the road to walk past. Roads Dogs can see some colour, but we don't know exactly how much. We do know that dogs can't distinguish between red and green traffic lights.