To all the parents who are reading this- do you wish your children would help around the house? Are they not cleaning their rooms the way you think they should? Are you concerned that they are not learning good work habits?
Well, I sympathize.
Yes, it is true. I was concerned that Annaleigh and Maggie were not keeping up their end of the chores and might not be learning positive work habits. This was a big issue, as you might guess, because dogs actually like to work. We have all heard the term “lazy dog” but that almost always refers to a human. People can be terribly lazy. Dogs prefer to be “doing something”.
Did you know that when dogs get in trouble for doing things such as chewing furniture or chasing cats it is almost always because they are bored? A busy dog is a happy dog. Some people say that a tired dog is a good dog. There is a “trick”, of sorts, that can help keep some dogs happy on hikes. Sometimes a dog’s people will have their poochie-pal wear a canine backpack and have the dog carry his or her own treats or snacks. The dogs like doing that because they are “doing something positive”. I have seen dogs on hikes wearing hiking vests. Once I even saw two dogs at the Grand Canyon wearing hiking boots, but that is another story.
We were recently introduced to a very nice dog named “Diamond”. Diamond is a retired sled dog who used to work in the mountains of Oregon. He is a very smart dog, but likes to work, work, and do more work. Do you want to take Diamond for a walk? If you do, you had best be prepared to march along at a very serious pace because he is a dog who likes to travel, and fast, too!
Annaleigh and Maggie were hanging around the house a lot. Oh, sure, they were minding their own business and what-not. But I could tell that they were a little bit bored. One example was that if you asked Annaleigh to sit for a treat, she would not only sit but give you a paw and then do a nose touch. She had a whole repertoire of things she would do to get the treat. That’s a very smart dog. It also indicated that she spent too much of her spare time trying to figure out how to get treats.
Maggie, on the other hand, had a different kind of attitude. She would relax on the couch and wait. Just wait. If you wanted to go for a walk, she would get excited, but otherwise … nothing. Do you think Maggie would like a dog treat? Maybe yes, maybe no. It depended on they type of treat. It might be that the treat was not good enough. Perhaps it was not worth getting up off the couch for that particular treat. Clearly, that was a dog that needed a hobby. Dogs, and people, cannot just sit on the couch all day.
We analyzed the situation and “interviewed” (you might say) Annaleigh and Maggie to find out what sort of jobs they were qualified for and what they were interested in. Maggie had a particular talent that was very special. She could detect the UPS truck when it was several blocks away. She could do the same thing with the mail truck. No matter where in the house Maggie was, she knew UPS or the Post Office trucks were on the way and would run to the front window. She would jump up on the couch and lean on it’s back. She would stare out the window until she saw the delivery trucks. When Maggie saw the trucks, well, hoooo boy! If there was a delivery she would bark and hop up and down to let us know that something big and cool was going on.
If visitors came to the house Maggie would tell us about that, too. It was especially exciting when Maggie’s special friend, Alan, would come by. For some reason Maggie decided that Alan was a friend amongst friends, and any of his visits called for a huge amount of excitement. We always know when Alan was pulling into the driveway. You would not believe the noise.
Clearly, Maggie was an expert in keeping watch and letting us know when and important event was happening. That is why we made Maggie the Vice President of Canine Security. Along with the title, Maggie also got a box of business cards. People were very impressed by Maggie’s business cards.
At first I thought Annaleigh had no obvious qualifications, then I realized that I had misjudged her activities and talents. You already know that dogs do “dog things”. That is, they may bark to announce visitors as Maggie did. They may also chase squirrels or rabbits. Those are only some of the things that dogs do.
Dogs also perform certain tasks that humans do not always recognize at first. For instance, Annaleigh was a checker. She made it her responsibility to check things and make sure that everything was OK. When Maggie barked at visitors coming to the door, it was Annaleigh to checked them to make sure they are satisfactory. If the cat disappeared, Annaleigh would check the house to find out where the cat went. If somebody was having a bad day Annaleigh would check them to make sure that they had enough dog energy.
Dog energy is very important. Some people have it, some people do not. Low levels of dog energy can be caused by not feeling well. Having a cold will lower a person’s dog energy. Other people may not be fond of dogs, and they automatically have low dog energy. Annaleigh would always check people’s dog energy levels.
A friend of ours, whose name I will not mention because she reads theses stories and might be embarrassed, is always very cautious around dogs. It isn’t that she does not like dogs, but rather that she is not interested in them. Annaleigh knew this and whenever this person, who we will call “X”, came to our house Annaleigh would quietly sit next to her and try to transfer dog energy. Sometimes Annaleigh would sit on X’s feet. X found it to be very annoying sometimes.
I don’t know if that worked, but Annaleigh seemed to think it was important. I will tell you something interesting. A couple of times when Annaleigh was siting next to X I saw a special twinkle in her eye. I got a funny feeling that maybe Annaleigh was pulling some sort of dog joke. She seemed to be suspiciously amused. I have been wondering about this for years.
I designated Annaleigh to be Vice President of Canine Services and had a box of business cards made for her. Maggie and Annaleigh had their own business cards to prove that they had legitimate jobs. People who received the cards were always suitably impressed.
Having these jobs made Annaleigh and Maggie very happy. They were proud to have nice business cards that they could distribute, although they did have a little trouble getting their cards out of the card-cases. We often had to help give the cards away. Those card-cases are not really made to be used by those with dog-paws.
There is another reason that it was nice that the dogs had jobs, and especially good that they had business cards. With both Annaleigh and Maggie being Vice Presidents, we always knew who was in charge.