What Hermione does for me
[edited cos I forgot a few things]
Hermione walks in sync with me quite close which I need because as I have discovered in working with her..my left knee sometimes locks up and sometimes I get momentarily disoriented.
She will stay under a table or just down anywhere I tell her even a hospital operating room or a noisy restaurant where people drop food on her. Since I take her everywhere very useful.
She is my window to the walking world since she reacts ten times faster than me. Ears cocked or ears down mean I have a better idea of what we're walking into.
She positions herself under verbal commands so I don't have to steer her around. That took a little getting used to.
She also alerts me if she's on leash and I'm uncomfortable or off leash and in a lot of pain. An extra bonus feature. I think it's because I get quite cranky after a while but have poor body awareness. She likes me to be happy since happy means more praise and petting. And now that I finally figured it out alerting me is an easy way to get praise.
She pushes the disabled push plates on doors.
Hermione opens and closes my fridge and freezer doors with the help of a tug strap attached to each side. It actually takes some force to open the doors so this is very helpful. She also carries a plastic carton of milk.
She turns off and on lights which I've found unexpectedly helpful as we have regular light switches so it requires some dexterity to flip them. Eventually C will replace them with the broader push ones.
She opens doors with french door handles and open these doors if they have a tug strap. Right now just one door in our house has a french door handle and no tug strap. So I need to work on that.
She also retrieves any items which I find helpful but less helpful than I thought since high dexterity items tend to be breakable hence not good for a dog to carry in its mouth and she can't carry anything that heavy. However she does help my back by picking up some things off the floor.
I use vest to carry light items which I've discovered are all I need anyway for walking trips.
She toilets on command.
She already does so much for me and yet I feel she can help more. She'd like that cos she likes to get praise and use her brain. I just need to figure out more what works for us. Some of my original ideas like doing laundry I could have her do but my human family are more suited to. However as you can see... she's incredibly useful to me in several ways I didn't expect. What we're working on is another post.
Hermione walks in sync with me quite close which I need because as I have discovered in working with her..my left knee sometimes locks up and sometimes I get momentarily disoriented.
She will stay under a table or just down anywhere I tell her even a hospital operating room or a noisy restaurant where people drop food on her. Since I take her everywhere very useful.
She is my window to the walking world since she reacts ten times faster than me. Ears cocked or ears down mean I have a better idea of what we're walking into.
She positions herself under verbal commands so I don't have to steer her around. That took a little getting used to.
She also alerts me if she's on leash and I'm uncomfortable or off leash and in a lot of pain. An extra bonus feature. I think it's because I get quite cranky after a while but have poor body awareness. She likes me to be happy since happy means more praise and petting. And now that I finally figured it out alerting me is an easy way to get praise.
She pushes the disabled push plates on doors.
Hermione opens and closes my fridge and freezer doors with the help of a tug strap attached to each side. It actually takes some force to open the doors so this is very helpful. She also carries a plastic carton of milk.
She turns off and on lights which I've found unexpectedly helpful as we have regular light switches so it requires some dexterity to flip them. Eventually C will replace them with the broader push ones.
She opens doors with french door handles and open these doors if they have a tug strap. Right now just one door in our house has a french door handle and no tug strap. So I need to work on that.
She also retrieves any items which I find helpful but less helpful than I thought since high dexterity items tend to be breakable hence not good for a dog to carry in its mouth and she can't carry anything that heavy. However she does help my back by picking up some things off the floor.
I use vest to carry light items which I've discovered are all I need anyway for walking trips.
She toilets on command.
She already does so much for me and yet I feel she can help more. She'd like that cos she likes to get praise and use her brain. I just need to figure out more what works for us. Some of my original ideas like doing laundry I could have her do but my human family are more suited to. However as you can see... she's incredibly useful to me in several ways I didn't expect. What we're working on is another post.