Doing Laundry with Isaac

One of the tasks Isaac does for me is to help me do laundry.  I have a herniated disk in my lower back and bending forward aggravates it.  So does lifting heavy things, like a laundry basket full of laundry.  Since Isaac has been helping me with these things, I've had significantly less back pain.

People have asked me a lot of questions about how Isaac helps me with the laundry.  This is how it works.

I have soft braided ropes attached to my laundry baskets.  Isaac pulls a basket by the rope from the bedroom into the hallway, where the washer and dryer are.  He really likes doing that!  When he first started doing it, he would only pull it a couple of feet, then stop.  I would have to tell him "tug" again and he would pull it a few more feet.  Now, he usually pulls it the whole way in one shot.  I stand in front of the washing machine so that he stops when he gets to me.  Otherwise, he sometimes keeps going all the way out to the living room because he likes pulling the basket so much!

Here he is pulling a basket of dirty laundry.

Isaac gets a treat when he gets the basket to the washing machine.

Then I point at the clothes in the basket and tell him "get it."  He picks up an article of clothing with his mouth and gives it to me, so I don't have to bend over.  I put the clothes in the washing machine as he hands them to me.  This takes a little while because he usually only picks up one item at a time.  If there are a lot of socks in the basket, for instance, it can be slow going.  Isaac gets a treat after he gives me about half the clothes and another treat when he's done.

When the clothes are done washing, I put them into the dryer.  When they are dry, Isaac takes them out of the dryer for me.  I stand beside the dryer with an empty laundry basket by my feet and point at the clothes in the dryer and tell him to "get it."  He pulls out an item of clothing with his mouth and gives it to me.  I think it's interesting to watch because he doesn't always go for the item that is on top.  I wish I knew how he decides which item to pick up first.  Sometimes he noses around in the clothes like he's looking for a particular item.  Sometimes when he's pulling something out of the dryer, some other things fall out on the floor.  He picks those up for me, too.

Here's a picture of Isaac taking a pair of Mike's boxer shorts out of the dryer.

And yes, sometimes the clothes have a bit of doggie spit on them when he gives them to me.

I use felted wool dryer balls instead of fabric softener sheets and for a while, those were Isaac's favorite things to get out of the dryer.  He would dig around with his nose to get those out first.  Then he wanted to play with them instead of giving them to me.  I would offer to trade him a treat for a ball, an offer he always accepted.  He's less interested in the dryer balls now, though, and usually gives them to me right away.

When Isaac first started helping me get clothes out of the dryer, he would happily get all the items he could easily reach, but he didn't want to stick his head very far in there to get items in the back.  Now, though, he puts his front feet inside the dryer and reaches all the way in when necessary.

Isaac gets a couple treats during the process of emptying the dryer.  When all the clothes are in the laundry basket, I point to the basket and tell him "tug" and he pulls it out to the living room, over to the couch, where I sit to fold the clothes.  Isaac likes taking clothes out of the dryer, but he likes tugging the basket more, so sometimes before he gets all the clothes out, he grabs the rope and starts to pull the basket toward the living room.  I tell him "not yet" and stop the basket with my foot if necessary, then redirect him to the clothes in the dryer.

Because he is so enthusiastic about pulling the basket of laundry, Isaac occasionally tips it over or tilts it sideways in the process, spilling some of the clothes onto the floor.  If that happens, I walk over to the clothes, point to them, and tell him to "get it" and he picks them up and gives them to me.

As you might imagine, doing laundry with Isaac takes longer than it would take to do it myself.  It is so much easier on my back, though!