Today Amy and I had the pleasure of giving a demonstration of my working commands to a group of women at a local church. She started out the demonstration by showing them how I could carry things, tug off a pair of socks placed on her hands (how a graduate who needs their dog to tug off their stocks would begin to train the command) and get her seatbelt out from behind her wheel and hand it to her. She said she discovered that I could do that last one by accident, but really as with any other command she has me do, it was discovered out of necessity. Amy was home alone one day and her seatbelt had fallen down beyond her reach, she thought to herself, “oh crap, how my going to get this now?” Then she thought, duh, have your dog do it! She called me in to the room and said, “Yazzen get” pointing my snout in the general direction of the belt, then she told me to “hold” until she could get her hand around the belt, then she told me to “give.” From that moment on, getting the seatbelt became something that I could do for her and she doesn’t have to tell me anything special other than “get”.
Amy also spoke a little about her life before me and said that she will never forget the time(s) when she had to go to the restroom all the way across campus, down to a basement where her cell phone never got good reception. She remembers telling her aunt “okay I am going to the restroom, if you don’t hear from me or see me in 20 minutes come rescue me because I have either fallen or I can’t get out of the room. Before Amy had received me, one of the things she had asked CCI to ensure that her dog knew how to do was pull open a heavy door. In team training we worked on tugging open the heaviest door they had. We figured that if I could open that door than I could open any door. Shortly after team training, we went over to the University and practiced on the restroom door to see if I could be successful in opening it and I was. This was a huge moment for us and for Amy who would no longer have to wait on someone else to come and rescue her from situations where she needed help because I would be there to rescue her and she could become more independent than she had ever thought possible, changing her life for the better.
Amy also spoke a little about her life before me and said that she will never forget the time(s) when she had to go to the restroom all the way across campus, down to a basement where her cell phone never got good reception. She remembers telling her aunt “okay I am going to the restroom, if you don’t hear from me or see me in 20 minutes come rescue me because I have either fallen or I can’t get out of the room. Before Amy had received me, one of the things she had asked CCI to ensure that her dog knew how to do was pull open a heavy door. In team training we worked on tugging open the heaviest door they had. We figured that if I could open that door than I could open any door. Shortly after team training, we went over to the University and practiced on the restroom door to see if I could be successful in opening it and I was. This was a huge moment for us and for Amy who would no longer have to wait on someone else to come and rescue her from situations where she needed help because I would be there to rescue her and she could become more independent than she had ever thought possible, changing her life for the better.