Show Off

The last office behavior I will mention for now is Morey's attention seeking behavior during meetings in my office. Typically Morey just hangs out under my desk while I am meeting with students or staff and acts like a model service dog. But lately (as the pendulum has swung in the other direction-read my post Confessions of a Service Dog Partner for reference), he has begun to display some attention seeking behaviors that I have quickly responded to.

After a few repeated instances of this, I once again began to realize a habit in the making and have already put steps in place to eliminate it. When I have meetings, usually with people who like Morey and have a history of past affection/petting him, Morey has started to roll around on his back making moaning noises, going to get squeaky toys and make them squeak, and rubbing his face on the floor with his butt in the air. All amusing behaviors, but not in those circumstances. He seems to be wanting us to stop talking with each other and focus on him, the motivation behind most attention seeking behaviors.

This type of behavior has resulted in Morey being ignored or sent to his "bed" aka under my desk. He responds quickly to both and I don't think this will be a long-lived problem. But, it does make me aware of the repercussions of allowing people to give Morey so much attention when he is "on the job". Over the next few weeks I will be making some changes in Morey's office rules to get him focused back on acting like a service dog instead of a circus animal. He excels at both, but since I am currently needing a service dog so we will work on developing those behaviors and eliminating the circus behaviors...at least at work!