Retrieving Meds

One of Isaac's tasks is retrieving meds for me.  I have a pouch that I have certain "as  need" meds in, like anxiety and pain meds.

The meds are in plastic bottles inside the pouch.  The reason they are in the pouch is because it's easier to find than a small bottle and because it makes it harder for a dog to chew through (Isaac never chews stuff like medication bottles but you never know with dogs).

Isaac is trained to bring the  pouch when I tell him to "get the meds" and he is also trained to bring it if he sees signs that I am getting anxious.  For instance, I start to rock back and forth when I am anxious, and Isaac knows that means to bring the meds.

I know I've posted about this task before but I just wanted to post about it again, including a pic of the med pouch, because it's a question I get asked from time to time, like what I keep the meds in that Isaac brings to me.

Here, I'll Get That for You

Sometimes my service dog is the most brilliant dog ever.

This morning I was in the kitchen and dropped a dish towel on the floor. For some reason, he was in the living room, not underfoot as he usually is when I am in the kitchen. I called to him so he could pick up the towel for me and he came trotting into the kitchen and before I could say anything, spotted the towel and picked it up and gave it to me. Apparently he realized it did not belong on the kitchen floor and figured he should pick it up.

Of course, he does not always do that.  Yesterday I had to tell him three times to pick up a plastic soda bottle on the floor.

But sometimes he is absolutely brilliant.

Juice Doggie Update

Isaac and I are still working on fetching a juice box from the fridge.  I had hoped he'd have the task down fully by now, but no, not yet.  He will open the fridge and retrieve the juice box and bring it to me, but only if I am not too far away.  This morning I stood in the living room, right around the corner so I was out of sight of the fridge but still fairly close, and I was also blocking the light switch.  That's because if I try to stand near the couch and tell him to get the juice, he gets excited and doesn't listen well and thinks I want him to turn on the light instead.  But since I was blocking the light switch and pointing in the general direction of the fridge, he quickly figured out what I wanted.

In the beginning, he had a problem with sometimes not opening the door to the fridge far enough and then it would swing shut again before he had a change to get around it to get the juice.  Then he would stand there looking at the closed fridge in confusion, like he didn't know how he was supposed to get to the juice since the door had closed.  I had to give the "tug" command again for him to open the door.  Well, I don't have to give the "tug" command at all now, I just give the "juice" command and he knows to open the door.  If it does happen to close before he gets the juice, he opens it again without any prompting from me.  But it hardly ever closes on him now because he's figured out how to get his head around it quickly, because it can close.  So he is making progress and figuring things out.  I love watching him think and solve problems and learn.

Update on the Juice Dog

Isaac and I have been working on fetching juice for seven days now. 

At this point, I can stand slightly inside my living room and give Isaac the command "juice" and point in the direction of the fridge and he runs to the fridge and opens it.  I don't have to give the command to open the fridge first, although I still give him that command at other times, because I want him to remember it, too.  Sometimes he immediately goes for the juice box after opening the fridge, other times he starts to come back to me and I have to remind him by giving the command "juice" again. 

I tried standing further inside the living room, out of direct sight of the fridge, but then Isaac seemed confused about what I was asking for.  He headed for the kitchen but instead of opening the fridge, started to turn on the kitchen light.  Like I've said previously, I don't know why he has trouble with a task the further away I am from where he needs to go to complete the task, but he had similar issues with turning on the lights and retrieving my meds.  I dealt with that by gradually moving further and further away and now he can get my  meds no matter what room I am in when I give the command.

I think I said, when I started teaching Isaac the task of fetching juice, that I thought it would take about two weeks to get it down well.  I think we are on track to accomplish that.

Juice Dog

Isaac and I are continuing to work on fetching a juice box from the fridge, as I wrote about the other day.

After fetching juice boxes over and over again, he managed to poke holes in two boxes, once causing juice to dribble all over the kitchen floor and once causing it to squirt everywhere.  I decided to put three of the remaining boxes out of his reach and to wrap the remaining three in clear plastic packaging tape.  My hope was that it would be a lot harder for him to poke holes in the boxes that way, and it does seem to be working. 

Of course, I'm not sure how I'd actually open the box to drink the juice.  I'd need him to also fetch a big knife to saw off the top or something, since the entire box is now sealed in tape.  And no, I would not really have him fetch a knife.  I never have Isaac pick up anything sharp like that.

These boxes are just for practice.  Hopefully when he has fully learned the task and is no longer picking up the boxes over and over and over again, he will be less likely to poke a hole in one.  Or perhaps I will look for a brand that makes sturdier juice boxes.  I don't know.  I'm not worried about how I will open the box at the moment.  Right now I am focused on training him to fetch it for me and that's all.

I have been giving Isaac the command to open the fridge, then giving him the command "juice".  He is accustomed to opening the fridge for me already.  And he has now, after three days, learned the command "juice."  He is also good at picking up the box.  He knows how to pick it up, the right angle to turn his head, that sort of thing.

I am now working on standing further away from the fridge when I give the "juice" command.  If I am too far away, Isaac looks like he's not sure what I want.  I don't know exactly why it works this way, but he did it with the lights, too.  For a long time, he would only turn on the light switch if I was standing near it.  Now I can be lying on the couch all the way across the room and say "lights" and he turns them on, but it took many days of practicing with me slowly moving further and further away from the switch before he would do that.  So that's where we are right now with the juice.

When Life Gives You Lemons

I found something Isaac does not like to pick up.

He will pick up almost anything. I think at first he wasn't too fond of metal, like my keys, but he does not mind those now. And he really loves retrieving things.

But yesterday I dropped a couple lemons in the kitchen and he was not thrilled to pick those up. He sniffed them and thought about it, then looked at me like, "Um, that's fruit. I don't like fruit."

He did eventually pick up two lemons, though, and got a lot of praise and a toss of his favorite toy. I guess we will practice some retrieves with fruit.

Impressive Retrieval

Yesterday at the grocery store, I dropped a container of yogurt on the floor.  It was one of those square-shaped containers with the foil tops.  I asked Isaac to pick it up for me and he did, right away.  I thought there was a good chance he'd puncture the foil top with his teeth, but figured I'd buy it anyway and just take it home and put it in another container if that happened.  But he picked it up very carefully, very gently, and gave it to me without a tooth mark on it.  Good job!