One job I dislike is unloading my van when I arrive home after a long day of work or after doing errands. I like to be able to bring everything into my apartment in one trip, but depending on how much stuff I have, this is not always possible. The other day I was assessing the number of bags I had versus the number I could pile on my lap and realized I would have one extra bag I would have to come back for. Then I looked at Mr. Morey standing beside me and wondered if he could carry it in for me. It was a plastic grocery bag and wasn’t too heavy, so I handed it to him and said “get”. He willing took it and took a few careful steps-trying to figure out how to walk without having it hit his legs. He dropped it once, but picked it up again and continued holding it while I unlocked my door and we went inside. Once again, Morey got lots of excited praise for doing this new job and once again he reacted with wiggles and bouncing. It’s fun to see how much Morey likes his job!
Since discovering Morey’s new talent, I have put his carrying skills to good use. Today I had two bags of items to recycle and rather than making two trips, I handed one bag to Morey and I balanced one on my lap and we both carried our bags out to the recycling items to the bin behind my apartment. Later on we went for a walk and he pooped and there was no trash can sight. I bagged it up and handed to him to carry. He carried it for about ten minutes without dropping it before we found a trash can. Every time we passed someone they smiled when they saw him happily carrying his own trash.
Morey looks very proud when he is carrying something. This could be because he has to hold his head up high so the bag doesn’t drag on the ground, but the way he trots and the excitement he has after I take the item back make me think he really does enjoy it. I will have to continue to think of new ways to apply Morey's commands]to make my life easier!
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