Team Captain

Morey quickly became a favorite with the guys on Team Force. When it came time to choose team captains, Morey was nominated to represent us. Unfortunately, he was ruled ineligible, so I was chosen in his place (I should be used to being the second choice when competing against Morey). Morey will instead represent Team Force as the mascot.

Morey has come a long way since last year when he was first introduced to the sport of wheelchair rugby. From fan, to mascot, to nominated to Team Captain for a national level team, my boy is moving right on up in the world! Rugby is a very important part of my life and I'm glad Morey can enjoy it along with me!

Bed Wars

Morey is used to sleeping all day at work. At camp, I would take him to the gym with me where he would stay on his mat during the sessions that lasted about 3 hours. Although he appeared to be sleeping, I think there was too commotion going on for him to really rest. I was also making him sleep on the floor on his bed instead of up with me (a twin bed is a little too crowded for a person and a big dog!) At the end of day 2 Kris looked at him and said "Wow, Morey looks really tired-he's got bags under his eyes!" And he really did. The third day I left him in my dorm room so he could rest. When I got back for lunch, you can see where I found him. He decided the dog bed was nice, but the real bed was much better!

That was the first, but not the last time I returned to find him up on the bed. I would always tell him "off" right away, but that just taught him to jump off the bed when I got back-not to stay off it in the first time. I didn't really care that much...until the day it rained. I took Morey out to hurry, then fed him and left him in the room so I could go eat. When I got back, the white comforter was no longer white. I couldn't really say anything to him so before our next session I put some of my bags and books on the bed to keep him off (although the damage had already been done). When I got back, Morey was nestled between all the stuff I had left there to keep him off.

This was obviously a bigger training project than I could take on at camp. It's not a huge deal, but another good reminder to me of how one small compromise on behavior can lead to a bigger problem later on. But in the meantime, at least Morey was getting his beauty rest!

Lakeshore Foundation

Laurie, the "dorm mom" at Lakeshore, made sure Morey feel comfortable and welcome as soon as he arrived. He was included on the rooming list and had a dog bed provided in our room.

The guys and staff on Team Force liked Morey right away (who wouldn't?) In the gym he would take his tennis ball and wander from person to person to have it thrown for him. Mike, our equipment guy, kept Morey company while we were out on the court. When he was busy, Morey stayed on his mat under the bleachers.

Kris, the athletic trainer for the team, loves Morey. She brought out a whole basket full of old tennis balls for him to play with, but he was either overwhelmed or confused because he wouldn't pick one to play with. Only when Kris picked it up and handed it to him would he take one. Silly dog!

Morey Goes to Rugby Camp

Usually when I go to rugby training camps in Birmingham Alabama, I leave Morey at home. Camps are pretty intense; we are usually on the court 8 hours a day and any off time is spent resting or eating. I know I wouldn't really have the time to give Morey the attention and care he needs, so it's better for both of us if he stays at home. This time, however, was a bit different.

Team Force, the Developmental National Team was having a training camp Monday through Thursday with a tournament Friday through Sunday. A whole week of rugby. Because of the length, we wouldn't be doing 3 sessions a day like we usually do so there would be a bit more down time each day. Usually I travel on the weekends and so most of his dog sitters are home during the day. Call me a doting mom, but I didn't want to leave Morey somewhere where he would be spending all day alone. I know he'd be fine (since all he does is sleep all day anyway) but it wasn't my first choice. While I was with Team Force, the Texas Stampede was going to a different tournament, which meant that Norm, Morey's usual dog sitter, wouldn't be available.

With all of this information (and the fact that I haven't been away from Morey for more than 4 days since I got him) I decided to bring Morey to training camp. He had met several of the staff members from Lakeshore, USA Rugby's training facility, at our national tournament in April and since then they had asked each camp when Morey was going to come. So, I packed my bags and Morey's and we headed to Alabama for a week of rugby!

Stimulus Control

As I have said before, working with a living breathing animal is fun because behavior and responses are always changing and evolving. That means that I am always training Morey because we are always being faced with new experiences and challenges.

Morey and I have lots of routines in life. We have predictable patterns that means I sometimes go on autopilot and act without thinking. Morey does the same thing. However, in the past few weeks, I have been challenged to evaluate the effect that patterning can have on Morey's responses. Because B always follows A in our pattern (or another way to look at it is that A means B comes next) Morey has started to jump ahead and do B without waiting for a cue. He likes to jump the gun and anticipate what I will ask next.

I became aware of this last week as we were leaving work. The door button is out of my natural path of travel to the door and so I drop Morey's leash and have him touch the button. The other day I dropped his leash and right then a person with a cart was coming through the door. I told Morey to wait and he took off toward the door button. He wasn't listening to my cue, he was following a pattern of me saying "touch" when I drop his leash. I called him back to me and told him to "sit". Once again, he started running toward the button. I gave him an "oops" and he stopped and looked back at me. I repeated my cue of "sit" and he slowly sat, giving me a look like "what are you doing? That's not how it works!" I gave him several more cues before I gave him the "touch" cue. Since that day, I have started to mix things up and ask for several different behaviors before sending him to open the door. I want him to listen to the cues I am giving instead of using the environment and pattern as a reference for behavior.

This experience made me go back into dog trainer mode. In dog training, we call that stimulus control. Training a behavior means not only that a dog will do the desired action, but that they will do it on cue and only on cue, kind of like an on and off switch. For example, although I ask Morey to retrieve objects I drop, I need him to do it on cue. If I drop a knife or a pill or something else that I don't want him to retrieve, I don't want his automatic response to be to retrieve it. I want him to wait and look to me for direction-usually either a "get" or a "leave it".

These situations are also true in entering and exiting vehicles. Usually when you open the door the next thing that happens is the dog is asked to jump in or out. Soon the cue to get in/out is the door opening, not the command. This can be avoided by opening the door and then asking for a sit or another behavior so the door opening doesn't always mean the next thing that happens is a cue to get in/out.

The longer I am with Morey, the more habits and routines we create. However, I am now much more aware of the need to vary our routines so that we are both thinking and responding, instead of just going on autopilot. I am often asked if Morey is fully trained. I guess a good response is that yes, he is trained, but he does require maintenance :)

Mornings with Morey

I am not much of a morning person. I like to wake up slowly (even after I'm out of bed) and don't like to interact much until I have been up for a while. Morey, on the other hand, hits the ground running.

We have our morning routine where he stays in bed while I get ready to go and only when I am heading out the door will he get off the bed. After our drive to work, Morey has his morning potty time and then he gets to start out the day doing his favorite job; opening the door. I've posted about this before, but the enthusiasm and energy he puts into this task can't help but make you smile. Once we get inside the building, he prances and trots next to me, making great eye contact. For some reason, he will sometimes turn around and try to grab his tail in his mouth. I think he wags it so much that he catches glimpse of it in the corner of his eye and then wants to snap at it. When he actually catches it, he starts going in circles. One of these days I'm going to bring my clicker and start capturing that behavior so I can teach him to chase his tail on command!

The other day as we were going through our routine, a woman came in the door behind us. As she was watching Morey go through his moves she said, "Watching him puts such a smile on my face. He's just happy to be alive today isn't he?" I agreed with her and said that it's hard to be in a bad mood when you see the enjoyment he gets out of life. Morey helps me-and others- start the day out right-with a reminder to love your job and embrace what the day can bring!

Where is Morey?

I work in the Student Services Building at UT, which houses many offices including Financial Aid, University Health Services, the Counseling and Mental Health Center, the Dean of Students offices, and Student Organizations and Activities, just to name a few. As a result there are lots of other staff members who I see several times a week when I am coming or going when I have Morey with me. If they see me without Morey (I usually leave him in my office if I have a meeting in the same building) they will always ask where he is. Typically I respond that" he is holding down the fort", but sometimes I like to mix things up a bit.

The other day I was in the restroom and a woman asked me where Morey was. I looked at her, pretending to be shocked and said "I can't bring him into the women's restroom!" For a moment she hesitated to see if I was joking and when she realized I was she burst out laughing. Had there been anyone else in the restroom who had heard that exchanged it would have made them wonder!

Sometimes I will tell people that he is answering me emails and I am surprised at how many people actually believe me. Morey is smart, but he is not quite that talented!

The Scary Airplanes

Morey isn't scared of much. He is rarely even hesitant to approach something to check it out; if he is faced with something new he usually just takes it all in, checks it out, and then moves on. Today, however, I found something that Morey is afraid of: remote control airplanes.

Two boys at the rugby event this weekend had new remote control airplanes and were trying them out. Morey and I had just gotten done playing ball and he had his tennis ball in his mouth. At first it was the sound that caught his attention, then he noticed the strange flying things. It didn't help that the "pilots" were flying a little erractically-making the planes move up and down quite rapidly. There were two planes and the sight plus the sound sent Morey slinking behind my chair (still holding his ball of course). Then the planes would land and he would cautiously start to approach only to have them take off again. Finally he decided they were too dangerous and wouldn't go close to them anymore.

When we went in the gym and the planes came too, Morey kept a watchful eye from his bed. I would have liked to have the chance to have Morey check them out when they weren't moving at all, but unfortunately that never happened. That may have to be a training/desensitization project for the future.

Fascinated by Football...or Not

After a hard day of rugby, we were planning on going to dinner with the team, but then they decided they needed to stay at the hotel and watch the rest of the game first. Morey was invited up on the bed, but then he was blocking someone's view. So I asked him to crawl over to where I was sitting between the beds. I didn't expect him to keep crawling until his front end was on my lap and his back end was still on the bed. But apparently he was comfortable because he fell asleep (no, he is not dead!)

As you can tell from the picture, Morey and I were very enthusiastic about watching the game.

Road Trip Part 2

For the most part, Morey's life is fairly routine. This is not a problem, but when we travel and he is suddenly put into new situations I realize the importance of keeping him used to variety and not letting him get too stuck in his ways. Especially in the potty department.

The hotel had landscaping that used lava rocks instead of mulch. Morey tromped around for quite a while, needing to hurry, but not wanting to do so on this surface. There was no easily accessible grass available but when he still wouldn't go, I found some regular mulch he could use. I also usually let him have his morning time on a longer retractable leash and he didn't like only having 4 feet instead of 12. We will definitely be adding some variations to his potty routines so next time he will be ready to go (quite literally!).

Morey hasn't been to a hotel for a while, but he got quite excited when I let him loose in the room. He ran around sniffing everything and when I got out his water bowl and toy he became very playful. I was rooming with one of our support staff and she instantly became even more of his friend when she invited him up on her bed. He brought his squeaky toy up with him and looked quite comfortable. When it actually came time for bed though I made him come over and sleep with me...I don't mind sharing Morey to a certain extent, but I do have my limits. : )

Road Trip Part 1

This weekend Morey accompanied the Texas Stampede to a practice/scrimmage in Houston. Morey is a good sport when it comes to road trips; he makes himself comfortable in whatever space is available after all the people and wheelchairs are loaded up. I rode with a teammate and in his van we had 2 people, 2 everyday wheelchairs, 2 rugby chairs and Morey. Aside from the wheelchairs sliding around a bit, it was an uneventful trip.

At the gym I got Morey settled on his "bed" a blue rug that travels with us to practices and games. Some kids who belonged to members of the other team came over and very politely asked to pet him. From there they moved on to asking what Morey can do and when I demonstrated a retrieve and pushing the automatic door button they went running over to their dad yelling "Dad, you've got to see what this dog can do!" Ah, Morey has it easy when it comes to making friends and fans!

While we played, Morey hung out and watched. He gets pretty relaxed given the chaos going on around him but I don't think he really sleeps. If I had 8 iron-clad wheelchairs running into each other at high speeds mere feet from me I don't think I'd be sleeping either!

Holiday Helper

When people ask what Morey does for me I usually give several generic answers; retrieve items, open doors, pull my wheelchair, etc. But there is a whole list of things he does for me that fall under the "other duties as assigned" category. I think helping me decorate and undecorate for holidays meets that criteria.

I put my Christmas tree up in my office instead of my apartment because that is where I spend more of my waking hours. The box is big and so I shoved it under my desk after I put the tree up-out of sight and out of reach. Today when I decided it was time for the tree to go back into storage (it felt strange to have a Christmas tree up when it was 70 degrees outside) I had Morey retrieve the box. As you can see, it's long and awkward and required some careful problem solving. It took several tries, but Morey did it. He gets so excited after he completes a complex task!

Happy New Year!

As you can tell, Morey was excited about celebrating the New Year.

I'm glad I have a dog who will humor my sometimes crazy ideas and who looks pretty cute in glasses!

Pictures with Santa

While we were on our way home for Christmas, Morey got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. We didn't even have to go to the North Pole-Santa was at the Austin airport! He said Morey was the biggest dog he had had his picture taken with and the most well-behaved. I bet that earned him a few extra Christmas surprises.

Santa's fuzzy suit made it hard for Morey to stay on his lap for long enough for a picture. Who knew that fuzzy material is also slippery?

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

What more can be said about this picture? Morey loves to keep a tennis ball nearby and judging by the amount of fun he has in his dreams (complete with barking and toe and ear twitches) he probably has tennis balls in his dreams as well!

On the plane

I have had several requests from people to show a picture of how Morey rides on the plane. Depending on where my seat is and how big the plane is this situation can change, but for the most part Morey rides at my feet (and usually the feet of the person next to me too!)

Morey gets tons of compliments about his good behavior from both the crew and other passengers. He likes to watch the people go by as they board and will sometimes sneak a sniff if the line stops by him. Then he settles down and takes a nap for the rest of the flight. He does like to take advantage of the beverage service and I will sometimes get him a cup of ice. It's one of his favorite treats!

Back to the Beginning

One of the highlights of Morey's Christmas trip was getting to see 2 very special people from his puppyhood. Sally is the director of ICAN and helped raise Morey during his furloughs from prison. Morey is named after Sally's dog Maury. We met for dinner and decided to have the initial reunion outside which was a good idea. Morey was quite excited and greeted Sally very enthusiastically.

Another person Morey got to see was Jamie Young, the woman who whelps and raises the pups and mom in her home until they are 8 weeks old. During their first few weeks of life she goes the extra mile to give pups a great start by introducing them to a variety of sights, sounds, textures, smells, etc. that will help them to grow into confident and responsive assistance dogs. She had seen Morey at various times throughout his training and he obviously remembered her. Even with all the excitement of seeing some of his favorite people, Morey was able to transition back into his working mode and act like a respectable assistance dog while we had dinner.

Morey is my dog now, but he has a special place in the hearts of many people. He never would have become an assistance dog without the time, attention, effort, and expense of a lot of people. It truly does take a village to raise an assistance dog and I am grateful for everyone who plays a part in making that a reality for me and many other assistance dog partners.

Christmas Cuddles

The dogs like to come with us when we go places in the van. Although we didn't do any major traveling while I was home, we made several short trips to meet up with friends. When I came home last time Jessie and Morey had to negotiate over the space on the seat, but this time they seemed to have reached a truce by using Buddy as the middleman-quite literally!

There were 3 in the bed and the little one said...

Buddy, Morey, and Jessie are best friends. They have no personal space issues (obviously) and love to cuddle or snuggle whenever they can. This can make the bed a little crowded when you have 3 dogs and a person on a twin bed! As you can see, Morey is quite good at creating a space for himself!

Morey's Coat

One of Morey's Christmas presents was a nice warm coat. This was a present from Grandma who decided that Morey would probably get cold when he comes to visit Indiana in the winter after being used to the mild Texas climate (today it was 72 degrees and sunny!)

His coat is reversible. The side showing in the picture is soft and fuzzy. The other side is burnt orange and is more water resistant. Morey is all set to play ball outside no matter what the weather! Jessie got a coat as well but hers is a purple and green plaid. They look quite cute when they are both wearing their Christmas coats!

Morey's First Christmas

Well, it's not really Morey's first Christmas since he is 3 years old, but it was his first Christmas as a member of the Shryock family. Last year I got Morey on December 29th so this was the first time he experienced a Christmas at the Shryock house. I think he enjoyed it!

He had his own stocking and found some very tasty things inside from Santa. He also got a new big orange ball and a Kong Rocket (ball launcher). He got to test both of these presents outside with his grandma and aunt and decided he definitely approved! We did not have a white Christmas in Indiana, more like a mud brown one. This made things a little messy which meant Morey got lots of foot baths.

Morey spent lots of time snuggling and bonding with his dog and human friends and family. He enjoyed the time off from working and Jessie picked up the slack when I needed help (at one point when I asked him to retrieve something Jessie rushed in and grabbed it before Morey could get to it.)

Morey and I both enjoyed the chance to reconnect with family and friends in Indiana. It was a great way to finish 2011 and start off 2012. Looking forward to many more good times and adventures in the coming year!