A Naughty Service Dog

When you live and work with the world's best service dog, there are times when you forget that he is still a dog. He is perfectly behaved and responsive, loves to work, is fun and goofy, social yet focused on me, and all around an awesomely amazing dog.There are really only 2 things that would make Morey more perfect: less shedding and the ability to live forever.

I get spoiled by Morey. I can put him in a down stay and know he won't move until I come back, leave food in his reach and be confident that he won't get it, and let him off leash knowing he will come when I call him. Yet every once in a while Morey does something "dog-ie" and it takes me by surprise. Then I am forced to stop and readjust my expectations and realize that even though he is practically perfect in every way, he still is a dog. A domesticated and very well trained dog, but still an animal that does not think from a human perspective. And sometimes his partner has trouble thinking from a dog perspective.

Last week I left Morey at home during rugby practice. I like to leave him alone every once in a while just so he stays used to it. He always expects to go, but I just tell him "You're going to stay" and then he knows that I'm going and he's not. Usually when I get back he will just be getting up from a nap on my bed (sometimes he's waiting to greet me at the door but sometimes it takes him a while and he will poke his head out the bedroom door with squinted eyes as if to say "Oh, you're back. You woke me up.").

When I came home from practice Morey greeted me at the door and when I came inside there was trash and bits of paper and Kleenex all over the floor in my hallway. Surprised, I looked at Morey and pointed to the stuff strewn all over the floor and asked in an accusing voice "Oh Morey, did you do this?" He slunk over to me and sat down, wagging his tail just a bit.

[The dog trainer in me knows this reaction is because of the tone of voice I used. The anthromorphic human in me said this was because he was feeling guilty for his actions.]

Still amazed that my perfect service dog had done something so common and vulgar as digging through the trash, I continued, "Morey, I'm kind of ashamed of you." (And yes, I do frequently have conversations with Morey!) Hearing the displeasure in my voice Morey turned to do something that usually results in lots of praise: retrieving. He went around the room and one by one he retrieved each piece of trash and brought it to me.

[The dog trainer in me knows that Morey was thinking that retrieving=praise so if I retrieve something that will make her praise instead of scold me. The anthromorphic human in me was thinking that he was trying to apologize for his bad behavior.]

The sight of Morey cleaning up his own mess made me laugh which made Morey happy too. Only a service dog would get into the garbage and then clean it up on his own! The conflict of dog nature vs. training was clearly demonstrated in this scenario. When left alone with a trash full of goodies the dog part of the service dog may not be able to resist, but the service part will help you clean up the resulting mess!

This situation was a good reminder that my expectations for Morey may be a bit unrealistic. I will now be a bit more careful about what I leave in the trash on his level. I will also be more aware of the battle between the dog trainer side of me that views Morey and his behavior from an appropriate dog perspective and the anthromorphic side of me that tries to ascribe human emotions and thought processes to Morey's behavior and reactions (he "should know better", look how guilty he looks, etc.)