My husband’s journey with his assistant dog (D) has come to a pause this year- rehab for his assistance dog (fortunately mostly covered by insurance!), and some medication for anxiety mean he’s a doggy on ‘on sick leave’ for a while. This absolutely lovely, gentle, kind and of course helpful boy has always been a complete wreck if anything unexpected appears- which has made for interesting situations- and is the reason behind why our wheelchair lead hooks are STRONG! Possibly the only Labrador who abhors water, too- while my girl will jump in the river, D gently steps nervously around puddles, has taken four years to cope with bubbles, and will vanish if he sees the hose pipe…
While he’s been ‘off sick’, he’s been spending lots of time with me, as I’ve had a lot of joint pain flare-ups this year and have been working from home a lot. Although he’s not trained to listen to me, we’ve developed an agreement (involving cheese when he’s off the lead) and in the house, he considers what I’m saying, thinks about if its to his benefit, and then decides from there if he’ll comply or not! He also adores small children (they often have biscuits low to the ground!).
The summer holidays have been a break from our normal routine, which I think he’d raise a complaint about if he knew how. Now there’s less than two weeks until schools go back, so we’ll soon be back to normal, and hopefully he’ll be back at ‘work’ soon himself, as sometimes I do feel like the assistant to the assistance dog, when he’s asking me to rescue a toy from under the sofa!
