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At Home Everyday Gear Gifts Nursing Home

Golden Retriever — Reacher/Grabber with a Different Grip

After years of faithful service, my dad’s old reaching tool finally bit the dust when the grabbing blades somehow got twisted sideways, probably in an encounter between a power chair and the wall.

Golden Retriever ReacherA couple of weeks ago, I picked this one up as a replacement. The central rod is gold-colored metal — yes, it’s a “Golden Retriever.” On the face of it, this was a natural for Dad — just the phrase ‘Golden Retriever’ pleases him immensely. On a more practical note, though, Dad prefers this grabber’s handle to the pistol-style of the old one. The Golden Retriever handle is kind of U-shaped — you put your hand into the U, with your thumb around a bar across the top. You pull a lower bar with your fingers to close the grabber. Very little pressure is required.

The flat grip, as opposed to the pistol-style grip, seems to give my dad a greater sense of control. (Although I’m not sure he’d feel the same way if he were reaching for cans on an overhead shelf — I think most people might prefer the pistol grip in that case.) The packaging says that you can pick up a dime with it. I haven’t tried that, but it does pick up a nickel from industrial carpeting, which I thought was a pretty neat trick.

Whether it can stand up to less-than-delicate use by dad remains to be seen, but I’m betting it will. The construction is solid, and the gripper arms look carefully designed, with sturdy fittings. Because it’s flat (the grabbers aren’t at right angles to the handle, as they are in the pistol-grip style), it’s easier to store, too, and, as a result, might be less likely to be squashed by an errant wheelchair.

Golden Retriever at ArfArf.com (I kid you not!)

Dad also has a different Golden Retriever companion at his nursing home — read about her here

5 replies on “Golden Retriever — Reacher/Grabber with a Different Grip”

Thanks for your comment, Barbara. I don’t sell anything on this blog; I just write about useful things. You can order a Golden Retriever directly from the company website at http://www.arfarf.com/.

According to the site, the currently available sizes are 19 inch, 25 inch, and 31 inch.

I have a Golden Retriever. It came with two rubber bands around each of the two rubber tips. Thay have been lost. Is it possible to get a couple of the small rubber bands to go around eacn of the rubber tips. It holds much better with the rubber bands on the end.

Thank you
Gary

GearAbility is an informational blog; nothing I write about is for sale here. You will need to contact the manufacturer if you would like replacement parts. There is a link to the manufacturer in the post above which you can click if you like, or you can search in your browser for the company.

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