Ryder Was Approved For $360 Per Week In Unemployment Benefits. He’s A Dog.

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Lots of Americans rely on unemployment benefits when tough times hit.

Take Ryder, for instance. Laid off from his gig at a Michigan restaurant, the state approved him for $360 a week in unemployment. Pretty sweet, considering that he’s a German shepherd.

“So my dog Ryder gets approved for unemployment benefits of 360 per week,” Ryder’s owner, Michael Haddock, wrote on Facebook, according to ABC affiliate WZZM. “Not sure what he is going to do with the money but should be interesting. I knew he was clever but he surprised me on this one.”

Haddock, an attorney from Saugatuck, told reporters he received a letter from the state unemployment insurance agency with a jumbled name: Michael Ryder.

“My name is Michael; my dog is Ryder,” Haddock told the station. “I was surprised to see it, but I had a good laugh, actually.”

He called the agency to get things straightened out.

“I felt like back in school when I would tell the teacher that the dog ate my assignment,” he told WZZM. “I don’t think the risk management person really believed what I was telling her, and she just asked me to scan the document and send it to her.”

Michigan UIA said it is now investigating the incident.

But Haddock admitted he got a good laugh, and if Ryder did work at a restaurant, Haddock told the news station he knows exactly what job his dog would have: “greeter.”