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OUT OF SERVICE?
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Retirement is a peculiar thing. Humans, even those who thought they were not all that fond of the job they did, sometimes find themselves at loose ends when they no longer have that singular thing they did each day. Work is something that can give us a sense of purpose in the world. See Ya is almost ten years old and still working. This is longer than many service dogs stay in their jobs, I’m sure there are people who think it is wrong to let her work at all. She ‘deserves’ to retire and enjoy life as a senior citizen. She started working when she was 15 months old, she’s put in nearly nine years of solid hard work. Together we have navigated airplanes, hospital stays, court rooms, and all the regular day to day stuff. She has unfailingly alerted me when I’ve needed to take medications, she’s taken me to my car when I couldn’t find it. She has picked up things I’ve dropped, helped me to stay upright, and done all the things she’s needed to do, putting me first, making sure I was OK every moment we’ve been together. The reality of See Ya’s retirement has been creeping up on us lately. Her back injury this Fall and her illness in December required prolonged time off work. We got an opportunity to have some trial runs at this different kind of life together. It’s true that See Ya enjoys many things, she is thrilled to wrestle with Know Me in the morning, work on tricks with me, catch a disc, go for hikes, hang out while I write. She has a rich, full life with our without service. And yet… See Ya’s life and mine are intertwined too deeply to simply sever with a word. I can call upon her to retire, stop asking her to put in the effort every day to save me, but she is not interested in the offer. She might sleep more, go out less. She might accept that Know Me is, little by little, taking over some of the menial chores. She takes seriously her job as his mentor, showing him just how to pick up a phone safely, how to find a car in the parking lot. But she is still present, monitoring my every breath, keeping me safe, because that is the thing that she does, the dog who she is. She may be retiring, but she will never be out of service. Most of our dogs do not hold such serious jobs, but our dogs fill purposes in our lives, and what they do for us gives them purpose. |
DOG POTENTIAL UNLEASHED
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(WARNING - this is longer than usual and the topic is death, although no one dies) When we bring a dog into our life, we know, although we try not to, that at some point we might be called upon to end their life. It is profoundly important, when having to make these literal life and death decisions, to understand that there is no objective right or wrong. When we couch these choices in terms of ‘doing the right thing’ it can infer that those who make different choices are, by definition,...
The DPU tag line, 'The art is in remembering to play' comes from an essay I wrote a number of years ago. I have printed it in this newsletter before, however, I have gained many subscribers since then, so here it is again: Dog training, we are fond of saying, is as much an art as a science. Of course it is, because we don’t keep our dogs in Skinner boxes, they live with us as family members, privy to our moods and secrets, sharing our lives intimately, in a way that precludes us from keeping...
I briefly touched on this the other day, how taking pictures can help you to become a better teacher to your dog. Since it's something that I do on an almost daily basis, I thought I would delve a little more into the topic. After all, who doesn't want to get great pictures of their dog doing stuff and who doesn't want to improve their timing? The set up The ability to clearly see and react to the exact moment a behavior is happening is the single biggest factor that separates the best...