IAADP
International Association of
Assistance Dog Partners
Unsolicited Soda Retrieves
by Lynn Houston As I read your article, "Help! How do I Turn Him Off," I was wondering how you had been able to describe my situation so perfectly!! As you know, I too have a new trainee and one of the first things that Chance needed to learn was the soda retrieve, however, I have him retrieve from the refrigerator. It seemed like it took forever for him to learn that after getting the soda that he had to go around the refrigerator door and close it. In reality, it took less than a week, when one day during practice, I saw the light bulb go off over his head as he headed around the door. Then, again, it seemed like an impasse when he would go away from me to get a soda if I was in the hallway and would bring it to me in the bedroom, but, he wouldn't get the soda if I tried to send him from the bedroom. This was a critical impasse since most of the time I send him for the soda retrieve, I am in bed. Then, of course, there was the big day when he left me in the bedroom, opened the fridge, got the soda, closed the door and returned to me with a soda. He got the jackpot of rewards!! I thought, all was right with the world. I couldn't have been more wrong......
As I was sitting in my office one day, I heard a "clunk" from the kitchen. I immediately placed this sound as a soda being moved around on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. My mind raced - what should I do if in fact Chance is bringing me a soda......? I can't praise him for an unsolicited command, but I also didn't want to extinguish his new found enthusiasm for the soda retrieve. As it turns out, I didn't have to worry about it because he never got the soda, just opened the fridge door and left it open! I thought, "This is going to be a problem!" I closed the door as my goofy dog just stared at me.
A few days later, "the boys" (Chance and the retired SD Empire), were dancing around the food bowl trying to convince me that they hadn't been fed yet (typical Lab behavior). I ignored them since they had, in fact, been fed. A few minutes later Chance comes prancing into the office with a soda. I took the soda in silence and put it in my lap. He disappeared out of the room and a few minutes later came prancing in again with another soda. Second verse, same as the first. Realizing that I was slowly running out of lap space, I headed to the fridge to put them away. Again, both dogs were dancing around the food bowls. I finally looked down and noticed that the water bowl was bone dry! I filled the bowl and both boys took a long drink. Chance was thirsty, he brought me a drink? Naahh..... couldn't be... must be a coincidence.
As I was relating this story to a friend of mine a few days later, she said that if Chance had been really smart, he would have brought me the water bowl. Just as I was getting off the phone with her, Empire came walking into the office with the near empty water bowl. There's something to be said for the experienced Service Dog!!
Epilog: To date, 5 unsolicited sodas AND, whenever I give any command in the kitchen it sounds amazingly like, "get soda!" At least, that's what my service dog tells me.
Published in Partners Forum in 2002Return to Writing Contest Winners | Return to IAADP home page