How My Service Dog Helps Me!!

- [Cole] Okay. And action. Go ahead. You got nothing to say? - [Charisma] You don't wanna talk to the camera? - [Cole] You don't wanna tell 'em about what you do as a service dog? - [Charisma] Say, hi, my name is Sophie. And today I'm gonna show you what I do as a service dog. - Yay. - Yay. (upbeat music) - Alright. Good job there. Sophie. You didn't explain anything, but why are you standing behind me? Come over here. Okay. Alright. What's up dog? Good girl. - [Charisma] You can't really see he

r. You just see the top of her nose. - Yeah, we see a lot of comments asking what Sophie does. People are like, oh, she just looks like a family dog. She doesn't really seem like a service dog. So we're here to dispel some of those illusions, because Sophie's most certainly a service dog. Yes, you are, aren't you? I know. You're the goodest girl. And we'll kind of talk about some of the things she does for me, how she kind of fits into our picture and why she's the way she is. Yeah. Can you even

see her face right now? - [Charisma] Yeah. You can see like the top of her head. - So it might help to give some context as to Sophie's history so you can kind of understand how she's gotten to this service level with me. I was looking for a service dog once I was in a point in my life where I was ready for more independence. Charisma and I were together. We got a house. we had the wedding on the way. And I was thinking to myself, I wanna do everything I can, and I definitely could use some hel

p, some service. So we started looking into service dogs. And the top program that exists for SCI service dogs, I think they do service dogs for other disabilities as well, but it's Canine Companions. And those dogs go through a rigorous program to learn very specific tasks and services that would benefit someone like me. Unfortunately, Canine Companions only does Labradors and Golden Retrievers? Do they even do Golden Retrievers? - [Charisma] No, they do mixed. It's a Labrador and Retriever mix

. - Yeah, and the problem with that is Charisma is allergic to dogs. So at one point she was like open to it, but we both thought about it and we were like, you're gonna be miserable. She would just be miserable the whole time. And that's not gonna be servicing anybody for Charisma to have allergies blowing up all the time. So we're like, all right, what do we do? We kind of put it out there in the world that we wanted a service dog. And we had a friend Blake reach out and he was like, "Dude, my

aunt runs a program out of Texas. It's called Bella's Buddies." And they train dogs for certain placements where they can provide a certain service. For example, they'll train, like one of Sophie's siblings to go into a school and hang out with children. Or right before exams they'll go to a college and make sure all the students are feeling, you know, ready for their exams and give 'em a little puppy break. Sophie's really, really good at that stuff. Her specifically, she was being trained for

a man with ALS. And I don't know what services that man needed exactly, so I don't know like the specific things she was learning for him, and he passed away unfortunately. So they gave us a call and they were like, hey, we have a dog that was being trained for this man with ALS. It's a little bit different than what you might need, but she's super well behaved, she's super well trained, she's a great dog. Like, would you be open to it? And we were like, absolutely. So that's how Sophie landed

with us. Even though she didn't go through like the elite service dog program, she came to us super well-behaved and really good at learning things. And that was an amazing start. But even more importantly, she's hypoallergenic. So Charisma isn't miserable all the time. She can be happy and snuggle, just like anyone would want to with a dog. And Sophie gets lots of snuggles. It's one of her greatest services she could ever provide are snuggles. Yeah, so when Sophie came to us, there were two big

tasks we knew we wanted from her. And she hadn't been trained on either of those two tasks. But what's so great about Bella's Buddies is when they place a dog, they don't just give the dog and that's it. They sent someone from Texas to Virginia to help us start training Sophie on those tasks. And not that, but also train me and Charisma on all of the commands that Sophie already had learned, which was a lot. I mean, they gave us literally like a binder full of all the things that she's been tra

ined to do. But the two big tasks that we really needed were picking things up off the ground, 'cause with my hands, I just suck at picking things up, and alerting someone if I'm in a position where I can't. There are times when I like kind of fall over or I fall down or whatever. When I do, I send Sophie to mama. And she loves that. It's like hide and seek for her. She loves that task 'cause she goes and gets mama. And then mama comes over and it's like, what's going on? And she saves me. Those

were the two big tasks we needed, and we started teaching her. And it took a little while, but Sophie has gotten really, really good at both of those big tasks that I need from her. (Cody laughing) What a goober. So Sophie is a certified service dog. She's got the documentation. Also, just with those two tasks alone, she fulfills any requirement that a business may require. Because a business can ask you, "Okay, is that a service dog?" I say yes. They can say, "Okay, what services do they provi

de?" And you have to be able to provide two. They're legally allowed to ask you that. And so just with those two, boom, that's enough. But the thing is, those are the primary tasks I need, in reality. Outside of that, the services she provides are more emotional for me. If we got a dog from Canine Companions who had been trained to do everything possible, I would probably still really be utilizing picking up and alerting people, because that's what I utilize on a daily basis a lot. - What is it?

- What's that? - Did you get the orange? - Did you get that? - What are you doing, little goobers? What are you doing? - Go get the orange. - Come get it. Go play. What a goobs. So Sophie being a service dog does not mean that she's not a dog. Sophie is a dog all the time. She's also a service dog. It's just when she's in work mode versus when she's not in work mode. And she knows very well when it's time for which mode. When she has her vest on, it's time to work. When she doesn't, she can be

playful and energetic and go meet people and have fun and all that stuff. And we encourage that. We love that. That being said, even when she does not have her vest on, she is still providing services all the time. And a lot of times when we're filming our videos, we're at home, so she does not need to have her vest on. She can be free and do all the dog things. But one of the dog things that she loves to do is provide her services. She loves it. One of the big ones, when I'm in the bathroom, I

use my bungee cord to help me open up everything I need to, so I can do when I see, and sometimes my finger just slips and my bungee cord will shoot underneath the shower chair. When Sophie hears that sound, I don't even have to call her anymore. She hears it, and then all of a sudden I hear the pitter patter. She's running in there. She runs straight into the shower. She'll grab that bungee cord, drop it on my lap, and she's so excited. And then typically she runs off to tell Charisma what she'

s done. 'Cause she loves the praise for, you know, performing a task. And the same thing goes for when something falls on the ground. I think it was in a video recently. My toggle on my power chair falls off all the time, and now she's conditioned to hear that sound. So as soon as it hits the ground, she's like, wait a minute, what is that? And then she runs, she finds it, and she jumps up and she spits it in my lap. And that's great because that would take me minutes of effort to pick up just o

nce, and it falls off all the time. Or I might drop the remote for the TV on the ground. She picks that up immediately. Sophie is always there and ready to provide services, and she does so happily, but she's also big a dog at the same time. So I wanna kind of like break down that idea of service dog versus regular dog, because the lines aren't as black and white as you might think. What's she doing? Run, Sophie. Run, Sophie, run. Oh my goodness. - Run, Sophie. - Oh my goodness. Oh, she's so fas

t. Oh, she's got her (indistinct) on. - Bring Daddy your toy. - Sophie, bring me your toy. Come. Oh, leave it. Good girl. - Good girl. - Ah! - Good girl. - See, she loves bringing things and putting 'em in my lap. Oh, a quick story. One of my favorite examples is I really wanted my phone when I was in bed, but I couldn't reach the side table. I just was reaching as far as I could and I couldn't get it. And Charisma was not available at the time. I think she was like working out on the other side

of the house, something like that. So I said, "Hey Sophie." And she was like, oh. And she came over from her bed and she was looking at me. And this was actually the first time she picked something up off a table. And I was like, "Can you get my phone?" And she went and grabbed it. And the way I was positioned, I needed her to position or like drop the phone right in front of me. So I had told her, I was like, right here. And I pointed to where I wanted it. And she stretched so far and then gen

tly set it exactly where I pointed on the bed. I was like, "Sophie, you are fricking awesome. I love you." And she was thrilled and she ran to tell Charisma of course. And then Charisma came in 'cause she thought Sophie was checking on, was trying to get her to come check on me. - [Charisma] Yeah. I thought she was alerting me. Like that's what she does. When she comes to alert me, she runs over and then she's like, come back to Dad. I'm like, what's happening? - I did something good. Or he's in

trouble. It's one or the other. So all of that being said, she's a dog at home. She doesn't really have her vest on. However, when we're leaving the house, she is my service dog. And she knows that very well. And she knows if she's gonna be coming out in the world with us, she's gonna be with me. And so it makes it hard sometimes, 'cause when Charisma and I are getting ready to leave the house, Sophie picks up on that and she knows, okay, if there's a trip I'm going on, I'm gonna be with Cole.

And so she always just comes up to me and will like sit beside me. And then even if I move three feet, she comes over beside me and she looks at me again. She will not leave my side, because she knows I'm her ticket outta here. It's really hard sometimes. When she doesn't come with us, I'm like, aw, Sophie. She's giving me the puppy dog eyes. - [Charisma] What are times she doesn't come with us? 'Cause typically, she does come with us mostly everywhere. - Yeah, she usually does come with us. But

there are occasions where it doesn't really make sense. Like especially if we're in like a big group setting, if there's gonna be a ton of people around, that's really challenging. - [Charisma] For you and other people more than her. - Yeah. Disney for example. I don't think I'm gonna ever take Sophie to Disney, because that would just present a lot of challenges. She would not be making my life easier. That would be making my life more difficult. - [Charisma] And the dogs have to sit in a crat

e when you're on a ride. - I know. And I just can't do it to Sophie. I can't do that. But when she's in work mode, she is a very different dog. Right now she's very playful and energetic and she'll go and talk to everybody. But when we put the vest on, it's work on. And she's very calm. She's very chill. She doesn't try to go after people. She's not tugging on the leash, which is very important for me, because if I had a dog that wasn't leash-trained like that, I would be falling over all the ti

me. Like literally, I could be yanked over, and that is the last thing I need. So Sophie is very good. She stays right by my side and we push along like a power duo. But at the end of the day, Sophie is my service dog and it's our relationship. Everybody has a different relationship with their service dog. And this is kind of what ours looks like. And it's a really, really good dynamic. Obviously, when we're at home and we're filming videos and stuff, we're not gonna just have her in her vest si

tting there. There's no need for that. She's still ready, she's still available, and she still will come over and provide whatever service; enthusiastically, she will do that. But there's no point in just having her in her vest all day long. That's not how our relationship works. Maybe that's how it works for others, but not us. But whenever we go out in public and Sophie's with us, she's always in her vest and she's always in work mode. Even when I take her on walks around the neighborhood, she

's in work mode because other people are walking their dogs, and she knows that she can't get excited and go chasing after them 'cause she's gonna pull daddy over. (dog barking) You're such a good girl, Sophie. So she's always in that work mode. And it's important too to make sure she is wearing her vest, because that reinforces that there's a separation between work mode and regular, have fun, play, while also providing services mode. But, you know, that actually does make it challenging someti

mes, because we wanna have fun with her too. It's like on her birthday when we first got her, we put a pink tutu on her. And we did not realize that she was gonna think it was her vest. And she's sitting there in work mode with this pink tutu on. And we're like, Sophie, you can have fun. It's your birthday. And she like wouldn't move. You remember that? - Yeah. - Come to mama. Mama's gonna tie this around you. Do you see it? Ooh, you gotta put on your new booty. - The pink looks so good on her.

- Does it? - You're so cute, Sophie. You're the cute girl. - Aw, you're so cute. Okay, hold on. - Oh, Sophie, sit. Oh my gosh, what a princess. - Wait, let me put her ears in the front. - What a good girl. - You're a good girl. - You're the princess. So- - We learned our lesson. - We learned our lesson. We can't dress her up because she's gonna think she's in work mode. But Sophie's just been such a blessing in our lives. Such a joy and a convenience in my life. She probably picks up something f

or me minimum 15 times a day. Alright, that might be a lot. - 10. - 10 to 15 times a day. And she loves it every single time. And I love her so much. - [Charisma] Aw, she was looking at you when you said that. - Oh, I love you. - [Charisma] So come gimme a kiss. - Come and gimme a kiss, Sophie. Oh, did you miss me? Sophie. - You gave mama a kiss. - Make contact. Oh, she's bowing. Come here. Oh, that was a big one. Right on the forehead. Thanks, Sophie. Dang. Do you like being a service dog? Can

you tell the camera? What do you think? Yeah. Do you enjoy it? Would you like to pick something up for me? Should I throw my phone on the ground so people can see? - Don't throw it. - Or gimme the lens cap. - [Charisma] Do you think she can pick, If it's in the grass, she can pick it up. - Yeah. She's gonna be thrilled. See? - [Charisma] She also knows the differences between her toy and a not toy. - See, she's already interested. I think she has a feeling where this is going. - She pooped it. -

You booped it. Grab. Good girl. Come. Up. Leave it. Good girl. Thank you. You put it right on my hand. Thank you. - Good girl. - She's so good at it. It did take her a while to learn that. And I give Charisma huge props, because Charisma really led the charge in Sophie's training. I have never trained a dog before, so I'm not gonna lie, I didn't understand how patient I needed to be with Sophie. I was like unsure, because Sophie was kind of struggling to get it in the beginning. But she's gotte

n it so masterfully and Charisma stuck to it. And now I realize it just takes time. It takes time. Part of the reason too is I'm pretty sure she was trained not to pick up anything that was other than a toy, because that's not a service that I guess the man needed. And so we had to overcome that barrier. And now she picks up whatever we tell her to grab. It could be any object and she'll try; she'll give it a good Sophie effort. - [Charisma] Wait, tell them about her trying to pick up your credi

t card. - Oh, I feel bad about this one. Because she'll go for anything now, I'll try anything with her. And there are some things that are just hard to pick up. And I dropped my credit card in a parking lot once and Sophie tried so hard to pick it up. She was giving it her best effort, but she just could not get it. Which makes sense. I mean, it's hard for a human to get a card like that off the ground. - [Charisma] She was trying everything. She was like pawing it, trying to flip it over so th

at she could get it. - Yeah, she got close. But someone else, a human, had to help me on that one. - [Charisma] It's just 'cause it was too like flat to the ground. She had nothing to grip. - It's very flat. But I'm so happy with Sophie. And Sophie, come here. Come here. Thank you. I'm so happy with Sophie. She's amazing. She's been such a joy, like I said. And she's provided such great service. Thank you for your service. - Give him a high five. - High five? Oh, good job. Good girl. Well, I hop

e that cleared up a bit about Sophie's role in our family. She has an amazing role. Sophie. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Don't forget to, or thanks for watching. Don't forget to like, comment, share, subscribe. And stay positive. - Stay positive. You wanna boop the camera, Sophie? - Sophie, boop it. - Here. Say boop. Kiss. - [Cole] The microphone. Oh, you wanna give me another kiss? - [Charisma] I wanna see if, kiss. Sophie, come. Kiss. Right here. Kiss. She doesn't know where to go. Kiss. Oh, good

girl. - Oh, good girl. (light music)