This is Ryker, service-dog flunkie:
From the YouTube comments: ‘I'm confused now... Is he supposed to help disabled people... or create them?’
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I have a sweet but hopeless ‘yellow-lab mix’ from the local pound. Her previous owner wanted her as a hunting dog, but no luck. She's afraid of loud noises. She's afraid of the sight of a shotgun. She gets excited and runs around in circles instead of following directions to her missing toys, ball, etc. If I tell her to sit, she does so facing me after which pointing is more effective – unless the missing item is more than twenty feet away, in which case she starts running in circles again. She tries to anticipate commands, with mixed (Oy!) results, and then panics and runs for shelter in her kennel when the actual command is different from expectation. She always imagines that she's in trouble when a male voice speaks loudly, even if that voice clearly used another dog's name. Finally (off the top of my head), her mouth is too small to hold any bird larger than a ruffed grouse, and that's pushing it. Pheasants and ducks are right out, never mind geese! This was obvious to me at first glance even though I don't hunt birds, so I don't know how her previous owner missed it. Just throw the ball high and far and let her fetch, and she's a very happy dog! But hunting is a no go.
Surprisingly, although she reduces ordinary tennis balls to shrapnel within five minutes, she does have a proper retriever's ‘soft’ mouth with actual birds. Last summer, a robin was down but alive in the back yard. She quickly ‘retrieved’ it. I told her to drop it and she did, having done no injury, and the bird recovered. There's still no hope for her as a hunter, but Good Girl!
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