It's not time to hit "paws" yet. See what I did there?
A dog joke. [swoosh / music plays]
This question comes up more often than you think.
"Hey Tommy, how come you don't use a guide dog?" Well, to be quite
honest my situation doesn't call for it. I walk around with a cane.
I'm a cane traveler. I've been using it for a long time.
You've seen it in videos and stuff. I do very well with it.
You know, I can get pretty much anywhere I need to with my cane. If I need to go
some place really far, I can use Uber or Lyft or jump in a taxi.
I don't live in a giant city, right? So, I don't need a
dog for that. I certainly don't need one in the house. I know
my around my own home. It just doesn't fit into my life.
It's not for me right now.
Listen, this isn't to say I wouldn't get one. But for right now
I just don't need one. There's a lot of responsibility that comes with
having a guide dog. I mean, it's almost like having a child.
Every day I've got to do stuff for the dog.
And I've got to be home to take care of the dog.
It's also an added expense. It's a lot to do.
I mean, a cane - I just fold it up put it away.
However, I have had dogs in the past.
I had two of them. One for each hand!
I'm just fooling you. No, I had two separate dogs
at different times. At that time I needed one
because where I was living it was a far walk to anywhere.
You know, it was a long walk into town. It was a long walk to the bus stop where I was
going to go to work. Hell, I was walking on streets with no sidewalks.
So the dog kept me pretty safe and it was really, really helpful.
[music plays]
My first dog was called "Ivan" and he was a German Shepherd.
And he was young and you know what I was not a good
dog handler. He liked to jump and frighten people
and I wasn't correcting him fast enough
and it didn't work out with us. We were together for about six months
and that was it. So he went back and was re-placed
and a couple of months went by and I was given a new dog.
Now this dog was called "Clancy" and he had been with somebody
before and we got along great. He was older so
he was a little bit more chill. And it really worked out
nicely between us. And he was wonderful. He was a great, great dog.
I had Clancy for probably 3-4 years.
It was a good long time. He was probably about 5
when I got him and then by the time he was 8 or 9 his
hip dysplasia started to act up. He couldn't get on the bus anymore.
He had difficulty coming up and downstairs and getting
into cars and so I took him to the vet one day and
they told me, "yeah, he's got hip dysplasia and he can't work anymore."
Nice bedside manner. That freaked me out that day.
So, when it was time I just gave him back to the place where he came from
and they actually put him in a nursing home which is fun.
Kind of a flat place with no real stairs and stuff.
And all these people in this nursing home had a pet.
And a very well behaved pet.
[music plays]
Oh my god, having a guide was great. There was a lot of cool things about it.
I mean, they're so well trained. They can do all kinds of things.
Like on a train platform for example, if I get a little confused
or whatever and started walking towards the edge of the platform...
the dog would literally stand between me and the edge of the platform
and not let me go forward. I'll never forget one time I was going to work...
I got off the bus. And it was really noisy and I was
in front of parking garage. And I asked him to go.
And he wouldn't go. And then I heard a car come by.
And I was like, "Holy cow, you just saved my life, Clancy. Way to go, kid."
He was also very helpful on walking. I mean, my cane
does a good job on the ground, right? But if there's something low hanging
the dog would actually stop so I would have to reach around
a little bit and reach up in front of me and see if there were trees
and there were. And then I would touch the trees with my hand
and ask him to go ahead again and we would go.
You know what else he knew? Let's say you and me went somewhere
and we go in your car. The dog's right in your car and we go to the mall
or whatever. And then we come back out and I can actually say
to my dog, "Find the car." And he would find the car
that we were in before.
[music plays]
So, it was a lot of fun but there was a lot of responsibility that comes
with a dog. I mean, one of things I had to do was
pick up after him. And people go, "how the heck did you do that?"
I could take him outside for example and say to him, "Get busy."
And that would mean it was time for him to do his thing. And he'd start
to sniff and go back and forth and back and forth.
And I'd put my foot right next to his leg and then when he'd move
I could just reach down with a plastic bag
and just pick it up and flip the bag inside out and throw it in the garbage.
And people say, "why did you ever pick that stuff up?" Well, here's the simple
answer.. I didn't want to step in it. I can't see where
it is so if I don't pick it up, I'm going to be wearing it.
[music plays]
The other things I used to do with him as well. People would always say, "Does your dog bite?"
And I'd always say, "Sure." What I mean is
his food. [laughs]
I don't know whether he'd bite your not, but
I gave you a vague answer that way you won't try him.
[beep] I think we've come to the "tail" of this video.