Yesterday Nathan picked Autumn up early from school and brought her by the office. At one point she had to go to the bathroom so I tried to usher her out the door as quickly as possible. As we passed the front desk, we spotted a woman in a wheelchair with a service dog sitting beside her.
Autumn reached out to touch the dog. “You can’t pet that dog, honey,” I said and pulled her away. The dog was still sitting with her owner by the desk when we returned, and when we opened the door to the office the dog issued a brief salutation with a wag of her tail.
“I want to pet that dog, mama,” said Autumn.
I know service dogs aren’t supposed to receive attention from strangers, though I have known at least one who abandoned protocol and solicited both attention and food when she should have been working. She belonged to the HR manager at Target, a blind man who had the misfortune of having his office placed right next to the break room. His dog, a Golden Retriever named Dusty, would frequently sneak into the break room, place her muzzle right on the table and look up at us with pleading doe eyes that begged us to share whatever we were eating.
I’m pretty sure Dusty was the exception rather than the rule, so I told Autumn she’d have to ask the lady first before attempting to pet the dog.
“Can I pet your dog?” she asked.
The lady shook her head. “I’m sorry, she’s a working dog and she’s on the job. Petting will distract her.”
This lady was cool, though. She could have just let it go at that and left the job of explaining the difference between working dogs and pets to me, the mom, but she went above and beyond by offering to demonstrate exactly what this dog, a Golden Retriver named Maui, does for her.
“Let’s say I drop my cell phone on the floor and can’t reach it.”
The woman dangled her cell above the floor and let it drop. She then issued a command to the dog.
“Maui, phone.”
The dog bent it’s head down and gingerly picked the phone up in it’s mouth.
“Now if I want her to give me the phone all I have to say is ‘Maui, bring.’”
And the phone was returned to its owner.
Autumn thought that was the coolest thing she’d ever seen and looked up at me with a huge smile on her face. “I wish my dog could do that!” she exclaimed.
I sighed. “Sorry honey. Molly is a lost cause. She’s only good at grabbing things off the kitchen counter.”
Maui’s owner smiled. “It took Maui two whole years to learn to do that. It takes a really long time to train these dogs.”
It wasn’t until later that I flashed on an image of my kid tossing cell phones on the floor and barking out orders to fetch.
Oh yeah. I can see it now.
“Molly, phone!”
Waaa?
“Molly, phone!
Did you say “Molly” or “Mommy?” Because I’m pretty sure I just saw your mom walk by.
“Molly, PHONE!”
Dude, that’s not even edible.
“MOLLY, PHONE!”
Right. Talk to me when you’ve got a bowl of Goldfish crackers in your lap.
Fin.
{ 4 comments }
What a sweet lady for taking the time to demonstrate for Autumn. But Autumn will have to get over wishing Molly will do anything other than eat the entire house!
By the way, is Molly coming to Oklahoma with you?….
Meg, wouldn’t that be a lovely trip? She’s actually an excellent rider, but no, we’re going to arrange for someone to watch her while we’re gone. We’ve asked my brother, who said he’ll house sit if he doesn’t have a job by then, which he probably won’t.
Were you asking because you wanted to meet her or you were afraid to meet her?
I was asking partly because I thought it would be hilarious to try to keep Molly from eating all the random crap in our house, but more because I knew you would groan at the very idea of taking your dog on any vacation with you!
.-= Meg´s last blog ..Things I Wanted to Post on Twitter…And Some I Already Did =-.
The article is really funny! I like dit immensely! I’m very fond of dogs and when dogs do tricks like this then it’s really amazing. I think you should be proud of your daughter who was trying to do a really interesting and difficult job despite she was so young.
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