Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Pooches: Dog Chores

Miss M and Mr. B do more around our house than just look cute; they actually have chores.
Mr. B loves helping out and bringing his backpack on family walks. He uses his backpack to bring home his own dog groceries from the dog store as well as carrying our groceries: bread from the bakery, vegetables from the Farmer's Markets, and meat from the butcher shop. When he carries the backpack he even walks proudly knowing he has a job to do.
Miss M can't be distracted from her opportunities to meet people on her walk, so she does more chores around the house. She has been trained to collect her toys and put them away in a toy bin on command. She is very enthusiastic about it, although sometimes she gets distracted from her duties and begins playing with the toy mid-trick. Here she is in action:

Beyond our pooches helping out around the house, RED , who has the most adorable dog Zeus, had a good question about how most people split up dog duties in the household.
At our place, since we don't have a yard, our dogs need 2 walks and one nightly bathroom break a day. Just based on our work schedules, I take the morning shift--which I prefer because I go early enough to miss the dog-walking rush--and E takes the evening walk. E will also take the dogs down before bedtime and I will wipe their feet. We are also lucky enough to have an amazing dog-walker to help us out when we can't make it home.
 It's also fun for us to all go on walks together, so on weekends, and when it's still light out at night, we all enjoy family walks together. I also handle most of the cleaning: washing dog beds and towels, sweeping dog hair, and cleaning vomit. E does most of the heavy duty things: carrying the big dog food and putting it in the canister, cutting the raw food, making ultimate kongs, and fixing the dog leashes and harnesses. Just curious, how do people do it in other households?

31 comments:

Maisie's Mom said...

it's just me and Maisie, and she does not help around the house so it's all on me. she generally just makes messes for me to clean up (see my last post for examples)! ;)

http://maisieme.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

For the most part, I would say that I handle the majority of things dogs related. D helps when he can and is more than happy to do so, he's just gone a lot!

Holyoke Home said...

laughing so. hard.

OMG I love that video. That face. That earnest look. Adoring these beasts.

Backcountry Brodie said...

Nice job, Miss M! But looks like Mr. B was trying to steal some of the toy clean up glory!

Sightless said...

Haha! Awesome!

Word of caution - my friend taught his dog to get him a beer out of the fridge. He now has to baby lock the fridge 'cus the dog goes surfing for snacks! Moral of the story: sometimes you should do your own chores!

My pups have backpacks too. Though 'cus it's just me, I can't go shopping with them. Great idea though.

jet said...

60% of the time it is just me and the pets so I have to do everything... big bags of dog food aren't too much of a hassle as it's probably the one thing I still drive to go and get. I drive because I take one of the dogs with me. I walk them together in the evening but we have a small yard to turn them out into for toilet breaks.

Unknown said...

Oh the expressions on their faces; love them!

Levi said...

My dad does poo patrol in our yard- mom sometimes helps. Dad does most of my walks in the morning and they switch in the evenings and take turns. Mom washes my beds, cleans up any messes, does most of my feeding chores and dad sometimes feeds me my dinner if he gets home first.
Mom might try a backpack like Mr. B for summer walks to the park. I don't help around the house much- Ms. M is funny :)

RED said...

YES! LOVE IT. That is a great video of the pups. Thanks for answering my question! I am always curious to know how others divide. Gabe and I live in the city so we do two walks a day, although no dog walker, so there are compromises we must make sometimes. I do the morning walk every single day, and most evenings me and Zeus head out for a long walk. If Gabe beats me home, he might take him out, and sometimes we go together (on the weekends, or really late at night) but a majority of the time it's on me. Gabe's not going to know what hit him when I start studying for my exams (he's currently studying)!! Thanks for answering my question and linking to my blog!!! Have a great day!

Sarah said...

Don't you love how dogs sometimes "prolong" tricks just to get a little more fun out of them. You can tell Ms B loved dropping the toys right outside the box just so she'd get to pick em up again. My Maggie does the same thing during fetch-time. She knows exactly how close the ball needs to be dropped to me but every time she has to "drop" it several times before getting it right.

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness, that video was adorable! How did you teach Miss M to put her toys away? Our house constantly looks like a day care or something, with so many doggie toys all over the floor. I've been trying to teach our Keira to "put it away" for the longest time, but she just doesn't get it!

The Heartbeats said...

I absolutely could not love your family more!! So cute! Those face melt me...

Mamma Heartbeat

Kate said...

I love how intense Ms. M's focus is in that video. Mr. B looks concerned that he's missing out on something, lol. Too cute!

Kari in Alaska said...

I miss having a yard, though rumor has it we may be having one soon...

Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com/

Beth said...

Your dogs are beyond cute. And the video was too funny!

www.truthaboutpitbulls.blogspot.com

Leng said...

The video of Miss M is so cute with putting her toys away. Just curious how you guys trained her to do so? My dogs make a mess with toys every.single.day and I get so tired of cleaning it up. It would be awesome if she could put her own toys away as well. Any tips? Or if you guys could do a skit on how you trained her...? That would be awesome!

We don't have a yard either, so our dog schedules are similar to yours. My husband runs 2 with the dogs every morning. I come home from school midday to walk them for 30 minutes. When the husband gets home from work around 5 we walk them together and they get another potty break just before bedtime. Other times when I go running, I just take them with me instead of walking. We also make sure to take them to the dog park at least twice a week. whew! dog owning is some serious biz!

Two French Bulldogs said...

You guys are hilarious. Momma thinks she is the boss. We have a babysitter at noon. When mom comes home we help with chores. We steal socks from the laundry, trip her when it's dinner time and ring our bell when we want out. Thanks for letting us in on your duties
Benny & Lily

Shauna (Fido and Wino) said...

I do most of the walking during the week (1 hour, 2x a day), John usually does the Tues & Thurs evening walk/walk & romp at the park- then we do whatever works on the weekend- usually a big hike all together. John takes them out in the morning to go to the bathroom and feeds them... I feed them at night... John brushes them, we both clip their nails and bath them (2 person jobs!)... we agree that I do a bit more when it comes to taking care of them right now, but that's okay. All in all it all evens out! :)

brooke said...

omg I LOVE the video! Miss M is so smart! They both are! And I love the wave and bow!
I clean up the accidents (barf, pee and diarrhea - only on prednisone) and prepare Darwin's raw food. Jason usually washes bedding and blankets. We both feed her and we usually go every other on the walks and potty breaks.

Tucker The Crestie said...

Tucker knows how to put his toys away, so he helps with that. Phoebe - not so much. Phoebe's job is court jester, and she's very good at it. Finn fetches, so he is learning to put the toys away as well, but it's going slowly. Tanner is the resident Watch Cat. Olivia is the resident Diva, which according to her is the most important job of all.

Being the only one of us with thumbs, I do everything else.


Tucker's Mom

houndstooth said...

Gush! Miss M is more adorable every time I see her!

We have things divided by our schedules. I have a lot longer drive to work, so I start getting ready to go while hubby gets the dogs out and fed in the morning. He also drops in at lunch and lets them out really quick. I take them out when I get home from work and feed them. Sometimes I walk them by myself, but usually we all walk together. Bedtime turnout is usually a shared event. Right now, it's a lot more of a chore because we have to wrap Blueberry's splint up before we go outside. I can't wait to get rid of that thing!

jen said...

I handle most of the things for the dogs. Although hubby feeds the boys at night, and even though I prefer to walk them he will walk them if I ask him to. Actually he will do most anything I ask him to do for them except pick up dog poop and groom them, oh and wipe slobber off the walls:)

Laura and Hans said...

I can't even imagine Wilbur ever learning anything like that. The video was amazing!

Brenda said...

Oh my goodness, I just found this one - I was a day or two behind in my blog reading. HOW did you teach "put it away?" I have tried to teach that to Lady, but to date it is still me "putting away" and Lady watching. She should be able to learn this. Any tips? That video is adorable, I had such a smile on my face watching it. I loved the process of getting that last ring into the box. LOL!

Road Dog Tales said...

You guys are just amazing! We sure hope Mom & Dad don't see this or they will attempt it with us. And we've got them trained really good now to do everything for us :) Around here, whoever sees it, smells it or hears it first deals with it - whatever "it" is. There's a LOT of pretending not to see, hear, or smell going on around here. Dad's been home a lot this past year, but when he's on the road, Mom does it ALL!

The Road Dogs

ForPetsSake said...

I do it all.
Not really, but it seems so sometimes! I do the majority of the food prep, clean-up, grooming and long walks. Matt hates long walking the girls, but we split potty breaks fairly evenly. T helps prep and feed about half the time, so they learn to see her as a giver of good things, too. Grooming is mostly my thing, but Matt likes bathing Nyxie. It's like father-daughter time.

Levi said...

HOW DID YOU TRAIN HER TO DO THAT?!?!?
And how much time did it take :)
They are SOOOO good :)

(sorry-mom just got to see the video at home)

And thanks for the info on the treat jars! :)

orange sugar said...

That's awesome! I can't even get Saber to do a high five, all he knows is sit and possibly come.

Patty said...

Love how Miss M helps. That's fabulous! Rusty is great at picking up socks, but he does't put them anywhere besides his dog bed. Oh, well! I get the dog food all set, CJ will feed Rusty once or twice a week but I do the majority. CJ lets out the fosters at night though - I appreciate that!

Bailey Be Good! said...

Saw a link to your post over at A Scratch Behind the Ears... all I have to say is, I'm HIDING the video of your doggie putting away her toys! I don't want mommy and daddy getting any ideas! rofl

Woofs & hugs,

~Bailey

Unknown said...

She has been trained to collect her toys and put them away in a toy bin on command. She is very enthusiastic about it, although sometimes she ... dogtoybin.blogspot.com

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