HELPFUL HOOLIGANS

Me and Mom are smiling all over ourselves this afternoon! Mom just got an email from a lady that she helped to train her Labrador Retriever a few years ago. The lady gets around in a wheelchair and needed her dog to be able to pick things up and bring them to her. Chickie also learned to bark when her lady needed help (sometimes her lady gets dizzy spells).  Well, Chickie is almost nine years old now and the lady is starting to look around for another dog to step in when Chickie retires.

We’re gonna be on the watch for another lab for the lady and Chickie will be able to help with training her own replacement. Last time, it was our Jack that helped train Chickie to do all that cool stuff. But Jack’s been retired himself for a long time. And the kind of work I do to help Mom is not what the new dog will need to know, so I’m not the right one to do this training.

I mainly help Mom with support when she’s getting up from a chair and also brace for her to support herself when she’s walking and her leg starts to feel odd. She has stuff going on with her back and spine that I can’t pronounce but sometimes it bothers her awful bad and makes her wobbly. I can tell when that’s going on and sometimes I surprise her by doing the “come around” and moving to stand on her right side before she even tells me she needs help.

ANyHowl, we’ll be going to local rescue groups in the next few weeks and months to look for a lab or lab mix that might be able to help Chickie’s lady. Even though the new dog will be young, he or she will learn fast when and where it's okay to be rowdy and when and where it isn't. Just look at me! The only place I ever get into hooligan shenanigans is at home because I know Mom needs me to be completely focused on her when we are in public. That's not a problem for us dogs that love our hoomans.

I know Chickie is looking forward to being retired. And she deserves a golden age because she’s worked hard. Mom says service dogs are love in action.

To which I say: "AAARRROOOOOO!!"