My Work Out Partner

Usually when I work out at the gym I leave Morey at home or in my van. The past few weeks I have been working out directly after work and it's obviously way too hot to even consider leaving him in my van. So, Morey has become my work out partner. He's not great at motivation, but he is faithful. He watches my everyday chair while I push in my rugby chair. When I do laps around the gym he will lift his head up to watch me go by and then put it back down when I leave again. Although, last week I pushed a mile (which is 7 laps) and after the 4th lap he didn't bother to pick his head up to watch me. That kind of hurt my feelings...

This week I was practicing passes and the ball accidentally rolled under the bleachers where I couldn't reach it. Morey to the rescue! I've worked with him before on getting the rugby ball (similar to a volleyball) back to me, but never really had much success. Obviously he usually uses his mouth to retrieve but he can't get his mouth around the ball and I don't want him trying in case he pops it. So, I encouraged him to use his nose or paw. He batted it around for a while, but the direction of the ball was hard to control and he ended up pushing it farther away. In confusion, he kept picking up his leash so finally I took it off. He kept trying but couldn't quite figure out how to get it to me. As I sent him under once again I was getting ready to admit defeat and go get someone else to help me when in a burst of frustration he gave a huge paw swipe and batted the ball to a place I could reach it. YAY MOREY!! We had a huge celebration in the middle of the gym and by his body wiggling I could tell he was very proud of himself. After some excitement and bouncing, I sent him back to lay down so I could finish my work out.

Instead of going to find someone else to help me, I was able to rely on Morey. That's independence! When people ask what Morey does for me, I usually say retrieving. That one task can be put to use in variety of ways and I guess now I have one more example to use when I talk about how my service dog makes my life easier!