Asking for Help... and Asking Isaac

I've mentioned before how much I hate asking for help.  I know many people feel that way.  We live in a society that encourages independence and looks down on people that can't do things for themselves.  I also grew up in a family where asking for help was considered a very bad thing.  Unfortunately, people with disabilities often need a lot of help.

A while back on a forum for people with service dogs (Service Dog Central, check it out if you want to learn more about service dogs), someone posted about how she hates to ask for help and she was wondering if, when she got a service dog, she would feel bad about asking the dog to do things for her all the time.  I thought it was a great question.

I don't feel bad about asking Isaac to help me with things.  Isaac loves helping me with stuff.  For instance, when I lived with Mike, Mike was willing to get laundry out of the dryer for me if I asked him to.  He never complained about it.  But I always felt like I was interrupting him when he was doing something else to ask him to get the laundry for me.  I felt like it was something I should be able to do myself.

But asking Isaac to do get the clothes out of the dryer is different.  Isaac loves getting the clothes out of the dryer.  Have you watched the video clip of him doing it?  Check this out.  See how hard his tail is wagging?  He thinks it's lots of fun.  He's excited to help me.

When I drop something and Isaac picks it up for me, he thinks it's a fun game.  He looks at me with those bright eyes, tail wagging, as if to say, "Drop something else!  Let's do it again!"  In fact, sometimes if I don't drop something else, Isaac looks around and spots something else to retrieve for me anyway - he might fetch my hair brush off the coffee table or my flip flop from the floor across the room.

It's very different than having to rely on a person to do things for me.