Morey the bodyguard

Last week I mentioned Morey's "task" of keeping me warm when my heat was out. This week I have am grateful for another one of his unofficial jobs...body guard.

As a disclaimer, I have always been a strong advocate for educating people that service dogs are not trained to be protective of their human partners. This is a questions that is often asked and I am always quick to point out the need for service dogs to be accepting of people doing strange things with/to their partners (imagine an EMS worker needing to put someone on a stretcher or firefighter needing to evacuate a person). People often will ask if a service dog bites (the sarcastic part of me wants to say "yes, that's why I bring him out in public" but I usually resist!) and for a long time I was eager to dispel the image of biting service dog by saying "oh no, he's very friendly". However, after an experience a few years ago, my answer has changed.

As a woman who uses a wheelchair, I am very aware of my vulnerability in certain situations. I am not paranoid, but I try to be aware of my surroundings and sensible about the environment I am in. Having a service dog makes me feel more comfortable since I think people are more hesitant to approach you-especially with ill intentions- when you are accompanied by a dog. The dog doesn't have to do anything necessarily, their presence is often enough to give me confidence and make people think twice about the easy target I could be.

One time I was on an elevator and was joined by a man made me a bit uncomfortable . As the doors closed and we began our ride he asked "So, would your dog bite if someone got close to you?" "Oh no, they are trained to be accepting of people." I responded with my usual answer and then something clicked in my mind as I thought "so go ahead and rob me since I just told you my dog will just lick you". That was probably just my overactive imagination, but since that point, I am more careful about how I phrase my responses. Usually it is something along these lines.. "Well, service dogs need to be accepting of people since they work a lot in public, but some of them do sense when their partners are being threatened or are in trouble." That leaves it open to interpretation as to how my dog will react if a person decides to take advantage of me. And many service dogs have come to the rescue of their partner when they've been in dangerous situations. Both Jessie and Morey are friendly laid back dogs and I have my doubts whether they'd do anything but roll over and ask for a belly rub, but I like to think some instincts would kick in if needed.

Anyway, this all was brought to the front of my mind because yesterday I came home to my apartment and found someone had been inside, messing with my stuff. It took an hour and a half to sort out (turns out it was the maintenance people who forgot to leave a note-thanks a lot!) and during that time my mind was thinking of all the possibilities of who had been in my home. Just having Morey made me feel so much safer.

So, all that is to say that although Morey is not trained to be protective, having him with me does make me feel a lot safer and more confident in going out and doing things on my own. And that is exactly what a service dog is supposed to do. Good dog Morey!