Anyone Else Have Working Dogs As House Pets?

[Jaylotw]

Georgia, napping after destroying a stuffed banana.
She’s a very sweet, affectionate dog, but total bull-in-China-shop wrecking ball when she’s excited.

My girlfriend has a history of rescuing old working hounds and giving them a “retirement.” Our last was a sweet, ancient English Coonhound named Franny, who we had to put down last winter. She was, like, 83 years old I bet.

I didn’t want another dog, really, but my girl really wanted another...and we had the opportunity to foster Georgia for two weeks while she got heart worm treatment and I fell in love.

We adopted Georgia a few months ago. She’s not old, but we’re not sure how old she is exactly. Some asshole in Streetsboro, Ohio, had her and her brother, plus a cat, in a tiny cage outside with no food or water. Her previous owner was charged with animal cruelty and I hope he rots in Hell.

She’s got a nose on her! And big floppy ears that are constantly wet from being dipped into her water dish.

 

[anotherbob]

He is an enormous pain in my ass

I can bet. Gotta love them but they're too smart and independent for their own good and by that I mean for the people who happen to be their roommates.

 

[python]

Yes. I have a German Shepherd/Labrador/Saint Bernard mix. She is a lunatic beast!

The only work she does is attacking the cats and my wife. She also tries to pull my arm out of its socket when I take her out and there is any animal (besides a dog strangely enough) anywhere in her sight.

Did I mention that she's a lunatic?!?

I think that one of us is going to end up killing the other .

 

[python]

Here she is resting after a hard day of "working" on trying to kill everyone in the house.

 

[python]

And this is her face that she shows to strangers so that they think she's mild mannered and sweet. But if you look close enough at her eyes, you can see the lunacy.

 

[musicman]

We have two "working" dogs, a retriever and a herder. They both are mostly hard at work both driving us insane (with their barking and antics) as well as keeping us sane through the stresses of life.

Zander the Sheltie is, like most Shetland Sheepdogs, always at work, organizing the household, letting us know when it's time to do things like wake up, feed the dogs, feed ourselves, go to bed, etc. He is VERY organized and demands the same of us. He is also our primary hole digger. He's actually a pretty amazing dog, as we adopted him from a rescue after he spent the first year of his life in a puppy mill cage, completely unsocialized. He has come a long way since then, and it's been extremely rewarding to watch. Here he is, hard at work in the Colorado Backcountry on a hike, sitting in a hole he dug himself:

Our other boy is a Labrador Retriever. He's always hard at work dealing with/destroying whatever his latest toy is, fetching the ball, and generally being a lovable oafish pain in the ass! When we first got him he was 85 pounds and 1 year old. He was abandoned in my parent's neighbors backyard while the neighbors were out of town. Imagine all of the energy in a Lab puppy only in an 85 pd dog! The very first thing he did when he first came to the house was jump in the pool, and then destroy a pool noodle. My father said "well, he hasn't done anything like that at our place!" About a week later, my wife and I both went to sing/play some gigs during Holy Week, and when we returned he had cleared off all of the counters and there was a trail of debris from the kitchen to the front door. I think he missed us! Here he is looking regal and handsome:
These boys are the center of our lives. We don't have any kids so these guys get (and demand!) all of our attention. And that's the way we love it to be.

 

[python]

I LOVE Shelties! I miss the one we had.

 

[edger]

And this is her face that she shows to strangers so that they think she's mild mannered and sweet. But if you look close enough at her eyes, you can see the lunacy.

View attachment 53266

I think she is lovely!

 

[python]

I think she is lovely!

She is, especially when she's sleeping!

 

[edger]

We have two "working" dogs, a retriever and a herder. They both are mostly hard at work both driving us insane (with their barking and antics) as well as keeping us sane through the stresses of life.

Zander the Sheltie is, like most Shetland Sheepdogs, always at work, organizing the household, letting us know when it's time to do things like wake up, feed the dogs, feed ourselves, go to bed, etc. He is VERY organized and demands the same of us. He is also our primary hole digger. He's actually a pretty amazing dog, as we adopted him from a rescue after he spent the first year of his life in a puppy mill cage, completely unsocialized. He has come a long way since then, and it's been extremely rewarding to watch. Here he is, hard at work in the Colorado Backcountry on a hike, sitting in a hole he dug himself:

Our other boy is a Labrador Retriever. He's always hard at work dealing with/destroying whatever his latest toy is, fetching the ball, and generally being a lovable oafish pain in the ass! When we first got him he was 85 pounds and 1 year old. He was abandoned in my parent's neighbors backyard while the neighbors were out of town. Imagine all of the energy in a Lab puppy only in an 85 pd dog! The very first thing he did when he first came to the house was jump in the pool, and then destroy a pool noodle. My father said "well, he hasn't done anything like that at our place!" About a week later, my wife and I both went to sing/play some gigs during Holy Week, and when we returned he had cleared off all of the counters and there was a trail of debris from the kitchen to the front door. I think he missed us! Here he is looking regal and handsome: View attachment 53268
These boys are the center of our lives. We don't have any kids so these guys get (and demand!) all of our attention. And that's the way we love it to be.

Beautiful sentiments beautifully expressed. Life isn’t complete without canines.

 

[musicman]

I LOVE Shelties! I miss the one we had.

We do, too! Zander is our third, and we still miss the other two. We're "Sheltie people", and although we LOVE our Lab, he's kind of an aberration for us. Shelties are not for people who are looking to get "a dog." They really insist on being full-fledged members of the household, and share their opinions on all sorts of household matters. We're pretty sure that Zander sees himself as an 8-yr old human. In fact, when we got Eddie (the Lab) Zander was super excited. It was basically like "Wow! You guys got me a dog!" Eddie treats Z like a little person too. He's incredibly patient, especially when Zander tries to play with him by biting his head and legs, and tries to jump on top of him and ride him like a horse.

 

[edger]

My Aussie Shepherd mix is very intelligent and perceptive. I put it down to many hours of listening to Bach.

 

[musicman]

Beautiful sentiments beautifully expressed. Life isn’t complete without canines.

I'm always dubious of anyone who doesn't love dogs. They really are the finest of all human "inventions."

 

[BarrelProof]

This year was Blue’s first year of retirement from duck hunting. She just turned 11 a few weeks ago, although you wouldn’t know it seeing her face and how she acts. If I grab a bumper, she loses her mind and will still retrieve until I can’t throw them anymore. But, her recovery time started stretching out a little last year so I think her days in the marsh are done. That said, she might get a trip, or two, next year early in the season before it gets too cold. I’ve got a few layup spots where she could have a few nice easy retrieves.

We’ve been Lab folks forever. I say that, but I’m only 35 and this was my second dog. We only had labs growing up so it’s all I’ve ever known. That said, my wife got a miniature schnauzer that she got when she was 18 that we just lost this time last year at 13 years old. Now that the dust has settled from all of that, and with Blue getting close to the sunset, we’re back on the board with deposits down on a pair of Boykin Spaniels from a BSS preferred/recommended breeder up here in AK. The breeding is supposed to take place next month. We’ve had spots 1 & 2 on males from this litter since back in July, so we’re starting to get excited. We’ll know in a few weeks if the breeding takes, and if it does, pups should hit the ground at some point in February, putting them in our living room destroying shit at some point in April.

Between puppy brothers, an 11 year old lab, a 9 year old daughter, and a 4 year old son, it’s going to get crazy pretty quickly. We’re looking forward to it, regardless.

 

[BarrelProof]

My Aussie Shepherd mix is very intelligent and perceptive. I put it down to many hours of listening to Bach.

I read this entirely wrong. Perhaps “I attribute it to many hours of listening to Bach” would have been a better way to articulate the concept, given the topic. You had me thinking you cued up some Bach for a few hours before that trip to the vet that no one wants to take!

 

[edger]

From the first bargain, I’ll guard your cave if you’ll toss me some scraps, the dogs have honored the deal far better than we humans have. Bless them all.

 

[edger]

I read this entirely wrong. Perhaps “I attribute it to many hours of listening to Bach” would have been a better way to articulate the concept, given the topic. You had me thinking you cued up some Bach for a few hours before that trip to the vet that no one wants to take!

Yowser, no. I don’t want to think about that.

 

[hauntedmyst]

We have a White GSD that handles all the security around here.

 

[python]

We do, too! Zander is our third, and we still miss the other two. We're "Sheltie people", and although we LOVE our Lab, he's kind of an aberration for us. Shelties are not for people who are looking to get "a dog." They really insist on being full-fledged members of the household, and share their opinions on all sorts of household matters. We're pretty sure that Zander sees himself as an 8-yr old human. In fact, when we got Eddie (the Lab) Zander was super excited. It was basically like "Wow! You guys got me a dog!" Eddie treats Z like a little person too. He's incredibly patient, especially when Zander tries to play with him by biting his head and legs, and tries to jump on top of him and ride him like a horse.

I agree 100%. I love(ed) all my dogs, but to me Shelties have something uniquely different about them to where they do seem to understand and act a little more "intelligently human" (for lack of a better term) than other breeds that I have owned. They learn very quickly with almost no effort and are extremely chill and calm, but protective and very family oriented.

I guess that's enough. I could go on and on about them, but now my crazy beast is getting jealous of me talking about them .

 

[cossackjack]

And this is her face that she shows to strangers so that they think she's mild mannered and sweet. But if you look close enough at her eyes, you can see the lunacy.

View attachment 53266

Lunacy? Nah...
I know that this is you taunting her...