dogs need jobs to do

i really believe that dogs need a job to do. it keeps their minds & bodies active & young, & keeps them out of trouble.

i love to keep my dogs busy, providing them with a complete & fulfilled life, encouraging them and nurturing them to do the things nature meant them to do.

ditto is mostly, if not totally, jack russell. jacks are bred to “go to ground,” sniffing out & killing vermin. she knew naturally how to do this. we didn’t teach her anything & we now have approximately negative one vermin and about 1 1/2 acres of trenches & tunnels to china. ditto’s other job is work on our vehicles. she fits under them nicely. in fact she has mechanic-ed so hard she once vomited all night long. it was the next day that we discovered it was from cranking on her dad’s transmission and chewing a hole through the line, apparently ingesting some of the fluid. [we barely got out of the driveway before the truck stopped running.] she says all the kids are doing it, it’s the first time she tried it, she never inhaled, & she won’t do it again. she proudly wears a grease spot on her back most days, & we haven’t had a breakdown since.

eiyso, the gentle, soulful pointer mix from the shelter is gorgeous when she goes to point on a duck, a squirrel, or her sister digging for critters. when she runs the perimeter of the fence, her late afternoon/early evening job, scaring off the mortal enemy [any moving vehicle,] she’s so fast you can’t even see her. she gets extra allowance for keeping a well worn path around the yard & the saplings in that area all torn up. she also likes to help ditto with the vermin. ditto flushes it & probably kills it. eiyso then holds it gently in her mouth and squeeze/release, squeeze/release, squeeze/release, squish-squish, squish-squish, squish-squish, just like her squeaker toys.

mojo, the siberian sled dog, doesn’t pull much these days. she has early hip dysplasia, so we took her off toboggan duty. while gorgeous to look at, she has become more than just a model. she does other little things around the house. it’s her job to prevent anyone from resting for more than 15 minutes during the day. she routinely fakes a home invasion by barking & growling at absolutely nothing. you can see the joy in her eyes when all the other dogs go running for the door. she’s also the first string dog bowl cleaner-upper. by the next feeding time, she has each bowl sparkling enough that she can see her amazing face staring back at her.

sparrow, our little monkey, is the official dead thing finder. she really has amazingly subtle skill. she never puts her nose to the ground; she’ll just be walking along, hands in her little doggie pockets, whistling a tune and BAM, she goes down. falling on the dead stinky thing & rolling on it, forcing the fetid thing, whatever it may have been, to stick to her neck. it’s not easy, she just makes it LOOK easy. she often follows this up by rubbing up against me or her dad to share the smealth.

lucas, although he is a hound dog, was not raised a hound dog. we bottle fed him & created our very own house maintenance man. his job, & he takes it very seriously, is to test every door in the house to be sure it will open the next time & the next time. he has a rigid schedule & ends up checking each door approximately 172 times each day (& not just one way either, but each way, both in & out. ) unfortunately, he can’t actually turn the knob himself, so we have to help him by working the handle. he also moonlights as the plant waterer. spending his entire life around a bunch of girls, he never learned to lift his leg (his daddy is a boy, but chris doesn’t pee outside, where lucas goes). lucas stands over plants & rains urine down upon them. that’s my boy! if i offer you veggies from the garden, be sure to wash them.