Why working dogs fascinate me
Dogs have helped man for centuries
Today they work for us in many different jobs
Around the world, owners find their dogs are keen to be as helpful as they can – I wonder if this is because of in-built intelligence that came down through the ages, and caused dogs to make themselves useful around our home, so as to share our lives.
As a child I grew up with 21 German Shepherd Dogs (Granny’s hobby in the days when you employed a Kennel Man), but my favourites were my Grandfather’s Border Terriers. Eventually I wrote a book dealing with these ‘terrors’ -
ABOUT THE BORDER TERRIER
For two years afterwards I roamed around ‘interviewing’ working dogs and their handlers for another book
‘999 AND OTHER WORKING DOGS‘
(For more details of books I have written, click on right hand column).
This was a dream job – dogs are always helpful, eager to work, and totally non-judgemental. If I had a ‘bad hair day’, dogs couldn’t care less. All they wanted to do was get on with their work and help their owner. From them I learnt about the different types of dog, from herders through assistance dogs to sniffer dogs – all different – all with super personalities.
How it started
Think about it – dogs and cats are the only animals that regularly find a place inside our homes. Cats are a law unto themselves, but a dog will worm its way into the best place in front of the fire, knows that it will get fed before any of the humans, and gets a pat from everyone in the house. But although some people keep them as pets, how many sheep, pigs, hens, horses or other animals do you see indoors?
Incredible talents
From experimenting to find out how dogs’ noses can identify cancer, to using their intelligence to rescue swimmers from drowning, I have found dogs are capable of almost anything we ask them to do. The more we ask of them, the more they give; there seems no end to their talents and willingness to work out what we want of them.
As a journalist, I was fascinated by their expertise – and on this site aim to share with you some of the incredible dogs I have met, or heard about.
Interviews
For two years I travelled around, meeting Police in one country, Avalanche Pisteurs in another – talking to helicopter pilots about how dogs adapt to flying, watched whilst dogs were trained to use their incredible noses, and generally marvelled at their abilities.
So often, a dog handler is perhaps fairly shy; working outdoors, often away from people, they can be taciturn. But this never worried me, after I had learnt to nod to the handler, ask permission if I could pat the dog, then got on with ‘interviewing ‘ the dog. Within a minute the handler would be chatting away – didn’t want to talk about themselves, but would talk until the evenng about their beloved companion. So I never had any trouble getting their incredible stories out of them.
One thing I can promise – I watched these dogs, and found what their handlers claimed for them – they did – and more. And another thing – the handlers may look macho men or no-nonsense women, but get them talking about their dogs, and they go all soppy!
And anyone who asks if these working dogs share their owners’ beds – I never asked – it was quite obvious ‘where my dog goes I go/where master sleeps I sleep’.
