Dekker Continues His Story
Woof woof!! Have you seen the first two pieces of my life story, before I came to live with my person? Part one is mostly about growing up in prison, and part two is about my life at NEADS where my person was trained.
I was going to tell you about settling in with my person, but I want to share a letter she wrote to me first…
___________________________
Dear Dekker,
When you first came into my life I thought I would be receiving a yellow lab. The five other people in my class all received a yellow lab, and somehow a yellow lab is what I expected to see.
Then the trainer came out with this big tall British black lab and walked you right up to me.
I could have focused on your sleek strong body, or the lightness of your step as you approached.
I could have moved into question mode which is my usual modus operandi. But all I could see were your big brown eyes.
They were trained right on me as if you had had special training for this moment. I could not tear my eyes away from the gaze of your beautiful big browns.
For the next twelve days, you and I began to walk together, play together, and work together.
I needed to learn how much you knew. I was mostly struck by how you focused on me instead of the many distractions around you.
I need to learn how to focus as well as you do. Even now, over six years later, you will look up into my eyes when we are walking, or before we settle down to some project I’m working on, and you are totally present.
I look back into those eyes as I read the questions I see written there.
- “Are you coming?”
- “Where are we going?”
- “Do you need to slow down?”
- “Do you have kibble in your pocket?”
This last question is ever present and I know it is one of my existential questions too.
Whoever I am talking to, or wherever I am going, I want to know what’s in it for me.
I want to know what reward is waiting for me when I finish with a project. Why should you be any different?
But you are different.
You are happy to receive a tiny piece of kibble from my pocket, words of encouragement or direction, or even just make eye contact.
Tiny things satisfy you in the course of a day, whereas I need to be stimulated with ideas and images and beautiful places to walk—not to mention a paycheck would be nice.
I want free access to the cookie jar and I don’t like being told “No.”
I don’t always trust the people I am with to love me no matter what, as you trust me.
You trust me to always have your best interests at heart, like your health, your need for social activity, and a good bone to chew.
Sometimes I think I would like to be a dog like you, filled with unconditional love for anyone who is kind to me.
Thank you, Dekker for showing me how to be a better person.
______________________________
Oh Woof!!! Isn’t she great?
My person is a fast learner. She has to be because they wouldn’t let me go home with her until she could demonstrate that she knows all the commands I know, plus how to keep me on the straight and narrow.
Funny—I thought that was my job as her service dog.
She learned the difference between ‘nudge’ and ‘tug’ so I can open and close doors, or even move things out of the way.
I have a special rope for ‘tug’ and because I am big and strong I can actually pull her up from a chair. I don’t need to do that often, but we have a lot of fun practicing.
A rope on a door handle makes it very easy to open. I especially like the rope on the refrigerator.
I was trained to open the door, pick up whatever is on a special spot on the shelf, and then nudge the door shut before bringing her the item.
One day she told me “fridge” which is one of my commands, and with great joy I grabbed the rope, tugged the door wide open, and waited for her to tell me I had done a good job.
She seemed a bit upset when all the shelves fell off the door, and bottles of stuff landed everywhere.
I wiggled with excitement for I just knew I had done a good job. I thought an extended game of “Put it away” would be coming next like we do with my toys.
In that game, I pick up each toy and carry it back to the toybox and dance a little happy dance when I get a piece of kibble.
I looked at all the bottles rolling around on the floor and just knew I would be able to earn a lot of kibble by putting them away.
No such luck! I was told to go lie down—and I have never been asked to open the refrigerator again.
Go figure!
We still play “put it away” though, but only with my toys.
Another favorite thing to do is to be with my person at her rehearsals.
She makes a lot of noise with instruments and I like to be right in the middle, whether that is with her friends here at the house, or in a place called ‘church’.
People in the church are so friendly! They know they shouldn’t pet me because it is hard to pay attention to my person when someone is scratching my ears.
But lately, I have a new command that I love. It’s “Say hello,” and I get to greet people who all seem to love to scratch my head.
I wonder if people have itchy heads and that is why they do that. No matter…I love it anyway.
If you haven’t signed up for TheReflectivePen you won’t get more of my story…or perhaps I should go back to answering people’s questions.
They are starting to pile up. Let me know if there is something you have wondered about service dogs and I’ll answer next time I get to write. Woof!
WOOF! I get to write on the first Sunday of each month…but you will miss it if you don’t sign up! I bet my person will give me a piece kibble if you do!
