Service dog

[Seshat]

The whole fetcher of small stuff and heating pad sounds great to me.

I'm certain you have the skills to train a dog, too, Drone. You may/may not need assistance with keeping her groomed and exercised, but dogs will learn to be very, very responsive to whatever signals the human they've bonded to can produce.

(IE, I don't know if you even have a voice, or how much hand signal you can provide, but they're wonderfully responsive to both. Vi prefers hand signals for her obedience tricks, but picks up on tone of voice and knows many human words by the way they sound.)

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I'm certain you have the skills to train a dog, too, Drone.

I'm quite sure. My old dog I had for 15 years would:
Stay in the truck when I told him, for hours if need be, and when I called him would grab the keys, jump out the window, and bring my keys to me before going to run around.
Find the remote
Spit out food that was in his mouth if I told him to (donuts and crap he found on the ground that I thought would make him sick)
Watch my plate of dinner and not let the cat touch if I went outside or something and had to leave it
Among many more random things

The extent of my 'training' was to sarcastically point out that he could have grabbed the keys when he jumped out of the truck, and to randomly ask the room where the hell the remote was when I was looking through couch cushions and under the chairs. I would also tell him things like 'don't touch' (my food) or 'spit, yuck' (the food in his mouth). I never tried to teach him what any terms meant. I'm not sure exactly how, but I think dogs are self training. He really did enjoy the praise when he'd done something I appreciated though.

Also I did put the effort in to teach him 'down' 'stay' and 'bad-to bed' at the beginning, before I figured he had learned enough to be safe and people broke.

[mathnerd]

The whole fetcher of small stuff and heating pad sounds great to me.

That's too bad that that particular dog won't work out. They really do a very good job as a heating pad. I currently have one stretched across my belly and another on my left hip. This is a good thing, as I was actually thinking about getting an actual heating pad before the little wiener dogs settled in (my own little dog is at my knees). They just seemed to know what was hurting and curled up to comfort me. The amazing thing is these two aren't even my dogs. They belong to a friend, yet they're still attuned to the needs of the human who needs them.

[AccountingDrone]

I'm certain you have the skills to train a dog, too, Drone. You may/may not need assistance with keeping her groomed and exercised, but dogs will learn to be very, very responsive to whatever signals the human they've bonded to can produce.

(IE, I don't know if you even have a voice, or how much hand signal you can provide, but they're wonderfully responsive to both. Vi prefers hand signals for her obedience tricks, but picks up on tone of voice and knows many human words by the way they sound.)

I am very functional, just stuck with crutches and wheelchairs. I play and groom the cats - for whatever you consider fishing for cats and using a laser evil red dot =)

The extent of my 'training' was to sarcastically point out that he could have grabbed the keys when he jumped out of the truck, and to randomly ask the room where the hell the remote was when I was looking through couch cushions and under the chairs. I would also tell him things like 'don't touch' (my food) or 'spit, yuck' (the food in his mouth). I never tried to teach him what any terms meant. I'm not sure exactly how, but I think dogs are self training. He really did enjoy the praise when he'd done something I appreciated though.

Also I did put the effort in to teach him 'down' 'stay' and 'bad-to bed' at the beginning, before I figured he had learned enough to be safe and people broke.

I can do sarcastic

That's too bad that that particular dog won't work out. They really do a very good job as a heating pad. I currently have one stretched across my belly and another on my left hip. This is a good thing, as I was actually thinking about getting an actual heating pad before the little wiener dogs settled in (my own little dog is at my knees). They just seemed to know what was hurting and curled up to comfort me. The amazing thing is these two aren't even my dogs. They belong to a friend, yet they're still attuned to the needs of the human who needs them.

I can use the cats as little heating pads but they suck at playing fetch

I generally don't have issues training dogs, I had no problem with being pack alpha for a 7/8 wolf I picked up from a retiring breeder. Best friend I had for 8 years of the 15 he lived. I would kill to have Llugh back. I felt amazingly safe with a 150 pound wolf/shepherd cross around when Rob was at sea. He even learned to fetch the chicken eggs and herd the sheep.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

My grandma recently acquired her sisters service dog, a small muttxmutt (about 22lbs). Among other services he provides are assisting with changing socks and slippers, fetching (she had my uncle drill small holes and attach string to the remote, phone, door buzzer - to talk to people outside and let them in - so that he would not drool/wet them while fetching) fetching the charger plug for the wheelchair, opening and closing the bathroom door so the wheelchair can fit around it and 'pre-rinsing' dishes before they go in the dishwasher (okay, he licks off the scraps). I am sure there is more he does, the next time I visit her I will try to notice for ideas for you.

[Seshat]

Thank you, NC, I really would appreciate that.

And I was wondering how I'd get a dog to bring me stuff like the phone without damaging it. Using a string or a cord is a great idea! I can even braid a 'tail' for each in a different pattern, so the dog can more easily distinguish them.

I'm imagining a hole in the case, a narrow-but-strong string - maybe fishing line or a keyring - through the hole, then a 'tail' braided of a different sort of cording, in a different knotting pattern, for each device. Dog brings it to me using the tail.