My human mom wants me to tell you how I was trained to be so helpful and to do so much work. I was shocked when she asked me this because I thought what I was doing is playing. If this is work, then I want my “mini-mom” wage that I heard about on television. That is when she takes me to the mini-mart to buy me a treat. I like ice cream, please.
How this all got started is, I was a rescue dog. You might think that I was abandoned in an animal shelter. But it was not at all like that. I was perfectly happy surviving on the streets and doing my thing solo. However, I decided to go to the animal shelter on purpose because so many dogs were there that needed me to cheer them up. I did the rescuing, not the other way around.
The workers were surprised to find me inside the shelter. They did not know yet that I could open doors.
One of the workers, who I call “Smells Like Hamburgers,” found me sitting in the hallway. I was thinking about whom to cheer up first. There was a lot of barking going on, but I was listening to the moans. The sad ones make the moans.
Smells Like Hamburgers picked me up, put me in a cage alone, and locked the door using the latch. Being alone in a cage was not part of my plan. It only took a few seconds after Smells Like Hamburgers went away to open that cage door. I went around the room, checking on all the other dogs and opening their cage doors. What a lick fest and butt-sniffing party that was!
We were having a great time when Smells Like Hamburgers came back. He was surprised to see all the dogs out of their cages. I realized this made him upset, so I barked to the other dogs to return to their cages. To his surprise, they all went back to where they belonged in a very orderly fashion. He was even more surprised when I closed all the cage doors after the dogs got back in.
“How did you learn that?” said Smells Like Hamburgers. I tried to tell him that I learn by observing what people do and then by copying it. No biggie. I tried to send him my thoughts by telepathy. Did you know dogs can do that?
His mind was too occupied thinking about hamburgers since it was close to lunchtime. He put me back in a cage, closed the door, turned the latch, and turned his back. I immediately got back out and stood beside him. Certainly, there must be more that I can do other than sit in a stupid cage. “You want to come along and help me?” asked Smells Like Hamburgers. I wagged my tail. Thank goodness, humans can understand tail wagging.
After that, I was the working dog at the animal rescue. I helped with the checking-in of the new dogs to make them feel welcome, picking up things, and helping with all the chores. Then, one day my new mom, from my forever home, came in. She adopted me. That is how this all started.
You can see in my video all the cool things that I learned to do by watching her.
