Retrieving

A man in Grand Rapids, Michigan is upset because his service dog is trained to grab mail when the mail carrier pushes it through the slot in his door and then bring the mail to him, but the post office says they cannot deliver mail that way because the mail carrier might be bitten by the dog.  Now, I'm not sure how the dog can bite someone through the mail slot, but I also don't understand why the dog cannot pick up the mail from the floor.  In the article I read, though, it says it is very difficult or impossible for his service dog to retrieve mail from the floor.

Isaac has no trouble picking up mail from the floor.  Everyone I know that has a service dog says their dogs have no trouble picking up mail from the floor.  In fact, most service dogs trained to retrieve things for their handlers can pick up much smaller, more challenging things than mail.

Today, Isaac and I practiced some retrieving.  Here are the items he was able to retrieve easily from my living room floor:

A protein bar wrapper, a coupon, a Panera card similar to a credit card, a large magnet, a tiny magnet (anyone else remember magnetic poetry?), and a nickle.  Yesterday he picked up a paper clip and a quarter, too.

When I first got Isaac, I was a little concerned that he might accidentally swallow something small like a paper clip or a coin.  However, Isaac never eats anything that is not food (with the exception of bugs and cat poop, both of which he believes are food).  When he rips stuffed animals to shreds, he never eats any of the stuffing.  Sometimes I see him really working with his tongue to get a bit of stuffing out of his mouth because he does not want to swallow it.  He shreds basketballs to little tiny scraps and never eats any of those, either. 

I am very grateful that he does not eat things that are not edible (disgusting as it is, apparently bugs and cat poop are easily digested by dogs).  I never find non-food items in his poop.  I have a friend whose dog eats shoes and socks and all sorts of things that are definitely not edible, and Isaac has never ever done that.  Therefore, at this point, I feel very comfortable that he is not going to eat a coin or a paper clip when asked to retrieve it for me.  If he did, he would just poop it out.  One coin or one paper clip would not hurt him.  But I have no fear that he will swallow anything he does not intend to swallow.