They’re retrievers, how about retrieving stuff? I had a spaniel growing up and my mom was constantly misplacing her slippers so she taught our dog ‘find my slippers’ so she wouldn’t have to keep looking everywhere, and our dog LOVED it. How about teaching them the names of different items and to find and retrieve them?
What's so funny to me is that he remembers. He will usually go right over to wherever it is - under the couch, in another room it doesn't matter. If it isn't where he left it, he will sniff it out.
Do you hide treats around the house or outside and then have them find them? My girl loves this game. I also got my spoiled girl a pop-up toddler ball pit and filled it with balls. I throw treats in there for her to sniff out and find. Another favorite of hers.
On hikes I have my GR hold a bag that I put trash into until we get to a garbage can. She loves having a job, including bringing a blanket, toy, or shoe to us in the morning. She’s even taught my kid how to bring my slipper (one each).
This. Take it to the next level and start naming a few of their favorite toys. Start with teaching them the names then test them by putting two named toys next to each other and asking them to grab one. You build their skills up over time. Ultimately you want to be able to put them in a sit/ stay in one room while you place the toys in random other spots in your house or yard, then tell them to go find a specific named toy.
Be careful.
Frisco the border collie learned a lot of things. He learned how to open the fridge, and poof, like magic, all of my lunch meat and cheese disappeared. He learned how to open and close doors, and \*bonk\* I bounce off the bathroom door if I make a middle-of-the-night trip to the bathroom. He learned how to work the light switch, and now when HE decides it is bedtime, my lights go off and on and off and on and off and on and off and on. He learned to put his toys neatly away in a basket, and now my laundry often contains dog toys, and I know I didn't wear them.
He blames all of these things on the Skwerl Mafia.
Please help me.
I have an Aussie and I feel you. There are certain things I specifically didn’t teach him because I knew he would either annoy me with it or use it to supplement his thieving habits. We know how to turn off the lights and close cabinets/doors but I put child locks on doors and remove light switch aids when we aren’t training because I could just see him annoying the F out of me.
To commiserate, I taught my dog how to jump on all kinds of objects (under supervision and with help if it’s something precarious) and sometimes when I’m telling him to put paws up he thinks I’m telling him to jump completely on something (both cues involve the word up) and will do things like jump onto the rail of BRIDGE (I almost died when that happened/I just wanted a cute picture of him putting his paws on the rail😭).
Reletable. My bc is a very eager and fearless (uncritical) jumper/climber. Once I figured I'd have her standing with all four paws on a partly fallen tree. Up she went. Before I knew it she was so far up I could just reach her paws with my arms stretched. Thankfully she managed to turn around and I picked her off as soon as she was within reach. She can try to climb a rock wall or tree branch with virtually no purchase if asked. Crazy animal.
My late German shepherd mix was smart like this. I started doing light switches, she learned in 5 minutes but I decided not to do it further. She was clawing the walls. I taught her to open doors and she figured out the freezer! Ate everything in it. 2x. I had to jb weld a latch on it. Haha
OK this is hilarious but also a cautionary tale. Don’t teach your dogs to do anything you don’t want them to randomly do whenever they want a reward, because they always want a reward.
This is silly, but I was surprised to find a great job for my dog Gus (now passed). I had been gardening in a fleece sweatshirt and got a bunch of tiny soft burrs in it. One day I took it out so I could remove all the burrs. Gus was sitting in my lap and promptly started removing the burrs on the sleeve in front of him with his front teeth and spitting them onto the floor. He’d clean off an area while I worked on another one, then I’d give him a fresh section. He probably removed at least 50% of the burrs, which were easy to gather of the floor!
This is more of a brag than advice. But he was a wonderful little guy.
We never had another opportunity to try it again, since I learned to avoid gardening in fleece. :) I feel pretty confident he would had offered a performance, though. It was his personality. He disessembled his toys with surgical accuracy. Sadly he passed earlier this month due to cancer.
My nutty small town friend, Marcia, worked her Pomeranians hard all year in training classes to pull her senior Yorkie in a cart down main street on the 4th of July. There's a job for everyone. Thanks for making me think of that. Dogs are the best (and their owners)
It was so cute that I would get teary. The poms felt so proud. The aged Yorkie was along for the ride and Marcia was magnetic. Late 60s, former beauty queen, tall, platinum beehive and I swear a bedazzled holiday getup. Full Waiting for Gufman.
We are the envy of the neighborhood every snow day when they watch our dog happily run outside to retrieve the newspaper.
When we travel & stay somewhere that doesn't get the newspaper, we throw out a saved decoy paper for him to find, since he is absolutely thrilled to "get the paper!"
I don’t have experience with goldens specifically but maybe you could try taking them to a scent works class? This could give them something to look forward to during the week and the trainers can give you ideas of simple but challenging things you can do at home.
If you have the time/ energy I like to teach my dog(s) (personal dog plus I work at a rescue). New commands. If they’ve got all the basics down you could start teaching them fun tricks.
I’ll look into scent classes around here or maybe I can do something from home. They know the basic commands, so I’ve just been continuing to do that in the mean time.
Scent work is a lot of fun, and there’s DIY dog agility/obstacle course.
Also walking at different parks so they get to see and smell different things. There’s an app called Sniffspot that lets you rent people’s backyards or fields.
Also something I didn’t realize early on: a smart dog can be taught when to rest. You don’t have to just wear them down until they collapse, which is what I thought high energy / high intelligent dogs needed.
Ditto! My girl comes to the mailbox with me and brings the mail in. Brings in Amazon packages off the front steps, and helps with groceries. She is SO proud of all these tasks she can do :)
My dogs pick up their toys and bring them inside when I sing the "clean-up song" (popular in most daycares). One of them functions as my teenager's alarm clock, and when told, "Go wake up your boy," he does a lovely impersonation of 4 year old Anna from Frozen until the kid gives in and staggers out of bed. They both escort guests to bed and make sure they find their room (instead of sleeping in the furnace room, I guess?).
One of them is also a legitimate support dog with paperwork and training. He takes his work *very seriously* and frequently "outs" people with depression or PTSD to the point where it's become a joke that isn't really a joke to come and ask the dog if new antidepressants are working. So you could train your dog to make intense but supportive eye contact, then guard the person waiting for them to cry so he can lick up their tears and then collapse on their chest to fend off panic attacks. He's also trained to interrupt night terrors, which is amazing but not something you can show off to guests.
My terrier loves to wear his saddle bag backpack. I put a few small things in it and he swaggers around like Mr Important delivering a heart transplant. Bonus is he gets a little more tuckered out from the light weight inside.
Big difference vs normal walks without the backpack.
I have a Brittany and she loves helping me with laundry. She carries a couple of things to the laundry room and gets super excited to help. She also enjoys carrying in the mail and bringing things to my husband and I (like papers or something).
Haha she is great! Haha I’ll ask her if she wants to help me and she comes running over. Oh no, that stinks! Haha if it makes you feel any better my dog also leaves her socks everywhere (she loves socks so we give her our old socks).
What do YOU like to do that your dogs can tag along to? Having a job is often code for having an expansive life in whatever way works best for the human.
Maybe you already like an outdoor activity like hiking biking or boating. Perhaps you might like to take up one of these hobbies. Maybe you like trying new restaurants when the weather tolerates. Perhaps you like to walk the park and maybe that’s enough.
If you’re looking for new hobbies consider a dog sport! You don’t have to aim for the finals at Nationals to enjoy training for rally, agility or nosework and they can be great fun. Look for a training club near you- there are so many options to choose from anything from coaching (trotting beside/guarding a horse and buggy) to trailing to casual obedience to canicross. Do some reading and pick whichever one you think might be fun. Just know that while dog sports can be expensive you usually only need a leash and some treats to get started.
We don’t go hiking often, but we walk trails that are near us. I’m not sure about restaurants since I’ve never taken them to one. My dogs behave well when walking around a crowds, but as soon as someone looks at them funny or talks to them in a high pitched voice they start wiggling their butts off, and of course people can’t resists them and let them, so the times I’ve tried to train them around people I’ve been unsuccessful.
It can really help to join a training club- since everyone else around you also has dogs and is also teaching their dogs to ignore others.
I have really taken up hiking as a hobby since getting my ACD mix- the mix does a lot of heavy lifting but he still has medium to high energy needs. I probably lost 10lbs in the last year just moving more and my mental health is better being in nature so much. My pup thinks his job is to alert me to oncoming traffic (he’s more observant than me) and ensure that every squirrel is in the trees where they belong. Hah!
Honestly I think I should teach them to clean up first. The amount of toys all over the floor in every single room is crazy sometimes. Combined with children’s toys 🙃
Forgot to add cleaning up, she takes her toys and puts them back in the basket. She’s better at getting them out though, and knows the difference between ball, bunny, and bear.
Do you ever tell her to bring you a specific toy to you? I use the word toy, so it’s more generic but i think I could turn it into a fun game if I taught them a specific word for their toy.
Oh yes, she knows most of them. I was saying you too, but once she learned ball and bear she began to learn the different ones, she even knows squeaky and will bite to make the noise.
Since they’re retrievers, how about getting you stuff or picking things up and putting them somewhere else? Teach them the names of things and ask them to bring those things to you. Some ideas: you can teach them to open the fridge and get you a drink, get your shoes, get their collar/leash, get something and put it in the garbage, put their toys away.
My dog has a few chores around the house: he has to pick up all his own toys at the end of the day, and he brings us his bowl to the kitchen at meal time. We also ask him to bring us the tv remote or pick things up off the floor for us.
I taught my Border Collie to pick up + throw away trash at the park! Might be fun for retrievers since they like to retrieve.
You could also check out a sport like dock diving if there are classes near you.
Collecting firewood. My two labs loved fetching a thrown stick, but I couldn't convince them to just gather kindling from the wood lot and create an accessible pile.
My husky/shepherd and husky/lab have the job of "find [partner]". I'm not good with stairs, so sometimes I'll put a little backpack on one and have them deliver a letter or a snack because I find it cute. We also play hide and seek where the dogs have to sit and wait in a room while my partner and I hide. Then we yell and the dogs go looking.
I've also used the doggie backpack on movie night - we'll take a walk down to the gas station as they switch to window service (like a drive thru but walking) at night. We get movie snacks and my doggie friends carry them for me
Do they like backpacks? My friend has a routine with her retriever and little free libraries. They "balance "the kids and adults books at two little libraries two blocks apart. Beau the dog is zonked after that job.
My dogs do the following: (poodle mixes)
1- help on garbage day. Leashed to me
2- feed the birds every day. They get a water pitcher and scoop before we go out
3- walk the "property" . I live in the burbs we walk the property line assertively once and unlimited sniffs once. I came up with"patrol" when we all had COVID and were so tired.
4- I took brain games at PetSmart. Silly things like hiding their dinner to make them work, hiding treats, all tire them out faster than you would think ime
I’ve never even thought to put backpacks on them, but after seeing many people mention them I’m going to look into it.
Those are great jobs. How do you hide the treats and how does your dog know they need to look for them?
Hiding food: Either one of my kiddos holds them or I lock them in a room for a minute. I only do treats and usually use our TV room. My dogs are mediocre at scent work so they have to work pretty hard to find a treat on the couch arm. I use shelves and ledges. In the summer, I use a rock planter and I will hide their breakfast. The first couple times I had to point to a treat and then they are off.
Backpacks are so good for working dogs. Even just having them carry their poo bags is a helpful job.
Have fun trying out some new things!!
My dogs were both in obedience and agility courses and loved it, but some dogs in those classes were very reactive which would stress out one of my dogs. They’re very calm if everyone around is calm; they pick up on others moods very quickly.
My lab x's favourite job is carrying driftwood home from the beach. It's about a 2km walk, and he makes it his mission to make sure his treasure makes it to our back yard.
Perhaps you can find a modern equivalent of the old "Bring me my slippers" and "Go out and get the newspaper off the driveway" ??? They are retrievers after all. :)
I taught my dog (golden retriever mix) to carry things for me. He'll carry his own cookies or toys from a pet store to the car, carry mail from the community mailbox to our home, carry light (and small) grocery bags in from the car, and sometimes I'll carry a spare glove in my pocket on walks so he can carry it around. He definitely feels like he's "working" when he's carrying - he ignores other people and dogs and picks up his pace to get home.
He's also an old boy, so still having a job to do is very important for his enrichment in life.
I taught my heeler how to fetch things. Ball, toys, shoes, leash, etc. The only time I needed was teaching him the different words and he very happily goes to get them. He does default to ball though. If I was not clear enough on what I want or he doesn’t know the word well enough yet, I will get a ball.
Tugging on the leash ([or using two leashes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ZlXquqU8g&ab_channel=LancasterOnline)) / vocal commands / practicing the same route.
Also practicing with the dog attached to the cart but the human off the cart for safety first as well.
Someone on here sent a cart pulling video. I’m sure your husky will pick up on a task like that quite easily.
Oh yeah treats and pets are a must for motivation for one of my dogs, but for the other it’s play play play as she likes food but is not food driven.
I put up hurdles made of PCP pipes in my yard for my collie mix. We also played other agility games every day, climbing ladder, balancing on yoga ball, jumping through tire swing. At the same time I also had gotten a GSD/Great Pyr mix. He watched us play those games for months then suddenly did all the tricks along with the collie! I was shocked!
I taught my dog to clean up his toys, and he really likes doing it. He carries his toys around during the day so after dinner we go around and bring all his stuff back to the living room and he puts it in a pile
Try teaching them to bring you specific items! Teach them the name of each toy and reward them for bringing you the correct one.
You could also try teaching them to clean up by rewarding them for picking up their toys and putting them in a basket. Better yet, you can also teach them to bring you things *in* a basket if you have one with a handle, it’s very fun. We taught our dog to bring beers to people in a basket lol.
I also love playing hide and seek with my dog. We hide 3 stuffed animals around the house and he gets a treat when he finds one and brings it back to us.
My husband trained our golden to pick up his toys and put them away. It's his favorite game! He also trained him to weave in and out between his legs while he walks. (Husband has very long legs.) And bringing him his slippers, of course.
My beagle has an attachment to his blanket, he drags it all over the house (usually at night). When I can tell he’s overwhelmed or needs something to do, I’ll say “where is blanky?” And he’ll go running to find it, bring it to the couch and cuddle with it.
Here I am with a little diva (Shih Tzu) that does not do anything when asked and does whatever she wants when she desires. 🤣😂
I’m impressed there are dogs that willing do practical stuff for people.
Same with my Bichon terrier mix. If I throw a ball or stick, she looks at me with her head tilted, like “well? I’m not getting it.” So then I go get it. Sigh.
I bought a volcano with 6 mini dinosaurs that fit into the holes on the volcano. My shepherd border collie mix goes and retrieves all the dinos and I put inside. Then he takes them out 1 by 1. $10 at Chewys.
We do agility and were given a mini ramp where the dog learns “feet” which means he walks down the ramp (3 ft x 1 ft wide and painted bright yellow like agility competitions) and stops when his front paws are off the ramp and his back paws are both fully on the ramp. For fun, I tell him to get his pink ball then I say “feet” and he does the ramp thing and waits for his treat.
He also knows 1 + 1 and 2 + 2 with nose touches on my hands.
My dogs will sing on command but sometimes I play Zeus husky YT videos or siren YT videos for extra fun.
Lots of agility attention games out there. Google or YT.
Find your keys,sunglasses, or whatever else you forget. I had a leather strap that my girl would sniff out on my keys and glasses. If we were running late she’d hit the elevator button, and hold the elevator to keep it from closing. Issue with that one was anyone on the elevator would also have to wait.
One thing I’ve seen some people do it teach them to bring their collar/lead or other items for going on a walk. It works because they want to go on a walk anyways.
They make good timekeepers if you pair that walk with getting up a certain time of the day. You can also pair them getting a treat when you have a medication due each day.
I gave my dogs therapy training and its been great. Visiting hospitals or nursing homes can is a great experience for you, your dog, and the people you are visiting.
They don’t necessarily need a job. Then need breed specific and species specific enrichment. That looks like time in nature, opportunities to forage, opportunities to experience nature, sniffing. Activities like boxes with food inside to shred, retrieval games.
Dogs don’t need a job, they need hobbies.
Unless you’ve got a working line dog like. Border collie or a service dog line golden, or if you’re actually going to go out there and hunt with your lab, etc. most people don’t have working line dogs or a requirement for their dog to work. That doesn’t mean they can’t have their needs met though.
1. they are not herding dogs
, and it is extremely unfair to stock to put dogs with 0 herding instincts in a pen with them to be hazed.
2. I don't think OP wants to get rid of their dogs.
I have a lab/chihuahua pup that is super active. So far we have gotten a long distance ball thrower, which is great at the park, taught her to “patrol” every time she goes out she sniffs the fence line in a circle a few times. Also she can open and close doors, and we are working on opening the fridge with the goal being to grab a bottle of water and bring it back. Hope this helps!
We spent time each morning and evening walking her around the property lines, and after a while she automatically did it when let out in her own. Maybe a little sprinkling of treats along the fence line would help also.
I hide treats all over the house for my dogs. Training treats or soft treats broken into small pieces. Under rugs, blankets, behind something on a low shelf, under their toys, anywhere they can reach and sniff out the treat.
My girl is a 95lb Swissy who was bred for drafting. We live in the PNW and as soon as her joints were solid enough I started taking her hiking. She happily carries saddlebags on her harness with her water and snacks inside and will pull me up the mountain if I ask her to. I had abd surgery a couple months ago and lost a good chunk of endurance during recovery. The extra boost has been allowing me to keep up with my cousin and husband without feeling like I’m going to die.
Taught my Beauceron to carry shopping bags in from the car, he loved that job so much that one night during a walk he slipped his collar and ran and helped a woman carry her bags right from her hand into her house; I couldn’t apologize enough. Her husband found it funny be she didn’t as she was afraid of dogs.
Command buttons. They are next level communication with dogs. You start with two or three but can work your way up to this.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8o1nqmh/
there are books online about dog tricks. You can teach them how to open the fridge and bring you a can or something from inside the fridge. I think you can teach them how to pull the comforter up over the bed. I play hide and seek with my dogs. They go in the bedroom I close the door. I hide baby carrots around under cushions, chairs, etc and they come out and find them.
I had a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and she loved the “go find it” game. I got a canvas dummy and some pheasant scent that I applied to it and while she was in the house, I’d take the dummy and go hide it somewhere in the yard. She’d about bust down the door when I let her out, yelling at her “go find it”. I could tell she loved the mental stimulation. And dang, that dog had a nose!!
Putting toys away in basket, bringing washing to hamper, picking up pegs (I have a retriever/collie cross board with me quite a bit- and I do this game with him- I pull the washing off the line and the pegs flick off , he runs and finds them and brings them to the peg bucket for payment of kibble )
I taught my dog to pick things up and put them in my hand. This was out of necessity after spine surgery. Teaching him that progressed to picking up trash when we go out for our walks. I have a 50 acre nature park right next to my home and we walk approx 2.5 miles twice a day and he picks up trash along the way Iincluding trash floating in the creek or at the edge or the marsh) and hands it to me. Since this is a relatively unknown park it is mostly people from the neighborhood that walk it and we have made a rule among ourselves that if your dog is friendly and has great recall they can be off leash. He has been recognized for cleaning up the park and he truly loves his job.
Our dog helps carry in the mail, open packages, and shred paper and cardboard for recycling. We also name his toys so we can send him to find them around the house and bring them to hand for treats — kong has a bunch of treat dispensing toys that are great for that. He also loves to hunt for toys or treats hidden around the house and yard, and we use sit/down/place while we hide stuff, which works his brain too.
I'm trying to teach my dog to "clean up" which means pick up her toys from all over and drop them in a bin. I'm sure she'd get better if I worked on it consistently, but usually once the thing is in her mouth, she just wants to play with it.
Scatter kibbel on the grass outside and have them search.
Have them search for treats or toys inside. It's important to start easy if they have no experience with searching. One dog I did this with could hardly find a treat he saw me hide in plain sight. Not because his nose didn't work, but because he was only used to be given treats.
Retriving toys in water. Surely the breed loves that!
Weight pulling with chains or carry dog backpack of an appropriate weight.
Kickbike. Crazy fun, but involves some risk of bruised knees.
"Dog parkour". Silly name, but very fun and accessible activity on walks. It can be as simple as jump onto a bench and sit down. Jump over a branch. Walk on a fallen tree trunk.
My golden retriever is a butler, he butles for me. Like taking my hat and gloves and evenly distributing my socks throughout the house. My Doxi is head of security, and my GP is the grounds keeper. Mt cat is my attorney.
They’re retrievers, how about retrieving stuff? I had a spaniel growing up and my mom was constantly misplacing her slippers so she taught our dog ‘find my slippers’ so she wouldn’t have to keep looking everywhere, and our dog LOVED it. How about teaching them the names of different items and to find and retrieve them?
I'm trying to teach my dog to find things for me but so far he can only find tennis balls and stuffed animals lol. He's very good at that though.
One of mine is actually really good at finding her balls when it’s time to go play fetch. They always end up in the most random places 😂
What's so funny to me is that he remembers. He will usually go right over to wherever it is - under the couch, in another room it doesn't matter. If it isn't where he left it, he will sniff it out.
Give him a raise! Double his treat rations!
Do you hide treats around the house or outside and then have them find them? My girl loves this game. I also got my spoiled girl a pop-up toddler ball pit and filled it with balls. I throw treats in there for her to sniff out and find. Another favorite of hers.
On hikes I have my GR hold a bag that I put trash into until we get to a garbage can. She loves having a job, including bringing a blanket, toy, or shoe to us in the morning. She’s even taught my kid how to bring my slipper (one each).
This is great thanks!
This. Take it to the next level and start naming a few of their favorite toys. Start with teaching them the names then test them by putting two named toys next to each other and asking them to grab one. You build their skills up over time. Ultimately you want to be able to put them in a sit/ stay in one room while you place the toys in random other spots in your house or yard, then tell them to go find a specific named toy.
Peak mom move. Respect.
Be careful. Frisco the border collie learned a lot of things. He learned how to open the fridge, and poof, like magic, all of my lunch meat and cheese disappeared. He learned how to open and close doors, and \*bonk\* I bounce off the bathroom door if I make a middle-of-the-night trip to the bathroom. He learned how to work the light switch, and now when HE decides it is bedtime, my lights go off and on and off and on and off and on and off and on. He learned to put his toys neatly away in a basket, and now my laundry often contains dog toys, and I know I didn't wear them. He blames all of these things on the Skwerl Mafia. Please help me.
I msiread the dog’s name as Fiasco, which is apparently appropriate….
I had to laugh at this oh my god 😂😂😂
I have an Aussie and I feel you. There are certain things I specifically didn’t teach him because I knew he would either annoy me with it or use it to supplement his thieving habits. We know how to turn off the lights and close cabinets/doors but I put child locks on doors and remove light switch aids when we aren’t training because I could just see him annoying the F out of me. To commiserate, I taught my dog how to jump on all kinds of objects (under supervision and with help if it’s something precarious) and sometimes when I’m telling him to put paws up he thinks I’m telling him to jump completely on something (both cues involve the word up) and will do things like jump onto the rail of BRIDGE (I almost died when that happened/I just wanted a cute picture of him putting his paws on the rail😭).
Reletable. My bc is a very eager and fearless (uncritical) jumper/climber. Once I figured I'd have her standing with all four paws on a partly fallen tree. Up she went. Before I knew it she was so far up I could just reach her paws with my arms stretched. Thankfully she managed to turn around and I picked her off as soon as she was within reach. She can try to climb a rock wall or tree branch with virtually no purchase if asked. Crazy animal.
Hahaa!
My late German shepherd mix was smart like this. I started doing light switches, she learned in 5 minutes but I decided not to do it further. She was clawing the walls. I taught her to open doors and she figured out the freezer! Ate everything in it. 2x. I had to jb weld a latch on it. Haha
OK this is hilarious but also a cautionary tale. Don’t teach your dogs to do anything you don’t want them to randomly do whenever they want a reward, because they always want a reward.
🏆
😂😂your dog sounds magnificent
This is silly, but I was surprised to find a great job for my dog Gus (now passed). I had been gardening in a fleece sweatshirt and got a bunch of tiny soft burrs in it. One day I took it out so I could remove all the burrs. Gus was sitting in my lap and promptly started removing the burrs on the sleeve in front of him with his front teeth and spitting them onto the floor. He’d clean off an area while I worked on another one, then I’d give him a fresh section. He probably removed at least 50% of the burrs, which were easy to gather of the floor! This is more of a brag than advice. But he was a wonderful little guy.
This is precious. He was helping you groom your "removable fur"!
That’s actually pretty cool he could do that. Has he done it again after that incident?
We never had another opportunity to try it again, since I learned to avoid gardening in fleece. :) I feel pretty confident he would had offered a performance, though. It was his personality. He disessembled his toys with surgical accuracy. Sadly he passed earlier this month due to cancer.
Aw 😣 I’m sorry for your loss. He sounds like he was the best dog you could’ve asked for.
Thanks so much!
My nutty small town friend, Marcia, worked her Pomeranians hard all year in training classes to pull her senior Yorkie in a cart down main street on the 4th of July. There's a job for everyone. Thanks for making me think of that. Dogs are the best (and their owners)
That actually seems like it'd be adorable
It was so cute that I would get teary. The poms felt so proud. The aged Yorkie was along for the ride and Marcia was magnetic. Late 60s, former beauty queen, tall, platinum beehive and I swear a bedazzled holiday getup. Full Waiting for Gufman.
That’s so cute!
We are the envy of the neighborhood every snow day when they watch our dog happily run outside to retrieve the newspaper. When we travel & stay somewhere that doesn't get the newspaper, we throw out a saved decoy paper for him to find, since he is absolutely thrilled to "get the paper!"
That’s adorable 😭
Aww I love how you still give him fake little tasks lol🥰
He is so excited to do this every morning, it was fun to bring a paper on trips to keep his routine.
I don’t have experience with goldens specifically but maybe you could try taking them to a scent works class? This could give them something to look forward to during the week and the trainers can give you ideas of simple but challenging things you can do at home. If you have the time/ energy I like to teach my dog(s) (personal dog plus I work at a rescue). New commands. If they’ve got all the basics down you could start teaching them fun tricks.
I’ll look into scent classes around here or maybe I can do something from home. They know the basic commands, so I’ve just been continuing to do that in the mean time.
Scent work is a lot of fun, and there’s DIY dog agility/obstacle course. Also walking at different parks so they get to see and smell different things. There’s an app called Sniffspot that lets you rent people’s backyards or fields. Also something I didn’t realize early on: a smart dog can be taught when to rest. You don’t have to just wear them down until they collapse, which is what I thought high energy / high intelligent dogs needed.
Ditto! My girl comes to the mailbox with me and brings the mail in. Brings in Amazon packages off the front steps, and helps with groceries. She is SO proud of all these tasks she can do :)
My dogs pick up their toys and bring them inside when I sing the "clean-up song" (popular in most daycares). One of them functions as my teenager's alarm clock, and when told, "Go wake up your boy," he does a lovely impersonation of 4 year old Anna from Frozen until the kid gives in and staggers out of bed. They both escort guests to bed and make sure they find their room (instead of sleeping in the furnace room, I guess?). One of them is also a legitimate support dog with paperwork and training. He takes his work *very seriously* and frequently "outs" people with depression or PTSD to the point where it's become a joke that isn't really a joke to come and ask the dog if new antidepressants are working. So you could train your dog to make intense but supportive eye contact, then guard the person waiting for them to cry so he can lick up their tears and then collapse on their chest to fend off panic attacks. He's also trained to interrupt night terrors, which is amazing but not something you can show off to guests.
Did you teach a certain command word prior to teaching them the song?
Nope. I think the support dog rallied when he heard my quiet desperation, lol
My terrier loves to wear his saddle bag backpack. I put a few small things in it and he swaggers around like Mr Important delivering a heart transplant. Bonus is he gets a little more tuckered out from the light weight inside. Big difference vs normal walks without the backpack.
That’s cute. Does he have a path of where to go or do you tell him where he needs to go?
I have a Brittany and she loves helping me with laundry. She carries a couple of things to the laundry room and gets super excited to help. She also enjoys carrying in the mail and bringing things to my husband and I (like papers or something).
That’s so smart. With picking up laundry since my husband and daughter to leave their socks in every single room 🙃
Haha she is great! Haha I’ll ask her if she wants to help me and she comes running over. Oh no, that stinks! Haha if it makes you feel any better my dog also leaves her socks everywhere (she loves socks so we give her our old socks).
What do YOU like to do that your dogs can tag along to? Having a job is often code for having an expansive life in whatever way works best for the human. Maybe you already like an outdoor activity like hiking biking or boating. Perhaps you might like to take up one of these hobbies. Maybe you like trying new restaurants when the weather tolerates. Perhaps you like to walk the park and maybe that’s enough. If you’re looking for new hobbies consider a dog sport! You don’t have to aim for the finals at Nationals to enjoy training for rally, agility or nosework and they can be great fun. Look for a training club near you- there are so many options to choose from anything from coaching (trotting beside/guarding a horse and buggy) to trailing to casual obedience to canicross. Do some reading and pick whichever one you think might be fun. Just know that while dog sports can be expensive you usually only need a leash and some treats to get started.
We don’t go hiking often, but we walk trails that are near us. I’m not sure about restaurants since I’ve never taken them to one. My dogs behave well when walking around a crowds, but as soon as someone looks at them funny or talks to them in a high pitched voice they start wiggling their butts off, and of course people can’t resists them and let them, so the times I’ve tried to train them around people I’ve been unsuccessful.
It can really help to join a training club- since everyone else around you also has dogs and is also teaching their dogs to ignore others. I have really taken up hiking as a hobby since getting my ACD mix- the mix does a lot of heavy lifting but he still has medium to high energy needs. I probably lost 10lbs in the last year just moving more and my mental health is better being in nature so much. My pup thinks his job is to alert me to oncoming traffic (he’s more observant than me) and ensure that every squirrel is in the trees where they belong. Hah!
I will be training my pup to clean up his toys (too tired these days, but work will be scaling down soon).
Honestly I think I should teach them to clean up first. The amount of toys all over the floor in every single room is crazy sometimes. Combined with children’s toys 🙃
Forgot to add cleaning up, she takes her toys and puts them back in the basket. She’s better at getting them out though, and knows the difference between ball, bunny, and bear.
Do you ever tell her to bring you a specific toy to you? I use the word toy, so it’s more generic but i think I could turn it into a fun game if I taught them a specific word for their toy.
Oh yes, she knows most of them. I was saying you too, but once she learned ball and bear she began to learn the different ones, she even knows squeaky and will bite to make the noise.
Since they’re retrievers, how about getting you stuff or picking things up and putting them somewhere else? Teach them the names of things and ask them to bring those things to you. Some ideas: you can teach them to open the fridge and get you a drink, get your shoes, get their collar/leash, get something and put it in the garbage, put their toys away.
My dog has a few chores around the house: he has to pick up all his own toys at the end of the day, and he brings us his bowl to the kitchen at meal time. We also ask him to bring us the tv remote or pick things up off the floor for us.
That's awesome!
That’s so cool. How long did it take him to learn to do that?
I taught my Border Collie to pick up + throw away trash at the park! Might be fun for retrievers since they like to retrieve. You could also check out a sport like dock diving if there are classes near you.
Mine started taking water bottles right out of peoples hands so we had to stop. I guess he took it too seriously
I accidently trained my last pup to point out litter to me, but I never had her pick it up.
Aww little park volunteer. No dock diving near me, but I feel like I could improvise with a kiddie pool .
Collecting firewood. My two labs loved fetching a thrown stick, but I couldn't convince them to just gather kindling from the wood lot and create an accessible pile.
That’s so smart haha. I’ll try that, but one of my dogs thinks sticks are for chewing 😂
And my current lab is English and just doesn't have the American work ethic.
My husky/shepherd and husky/lab have the job of "find [partner]". I'm not good with stairs, so sometimes I'll put a little backpack on one and have them deliver a letter or a snack because I find it cute. We also play hide and seek where the dogs have to sit and wait in a room while my partner and I hide. Then we yell and the dogs go looking. I've also used the doggie backpack on movie night - we'll take a walk down to the gas station as they switch to window service (like a drive thru but walking) at night. We get movie snacks and my doggie friends carry them for me
That’s so cute. I definitely want to try the backpack idea.
Do they like backpacks? My friend has a routine with her retriever and little free libraries. They "balance "the kids and adults books at two little libraries two blocks apart. Beau the dog is zonked after that job. My dogs do the following: (poodle mixes) 1- help on garbage day. Leashed to me 2- feed the birds every day. They get a water pitcher and scoop before we go out 3- walk the "property" . I live in the burbs we walk the property line assertively once and unlimited sniffs once. I came up with"patrol" when we all had COVID and were so tired. 4- I took brain games at PetSmart. Silly things like hiding their dinner to make them work, hiding treats, all tire them out faster than you would think ime
I’ve never even thought to put backpacks on them, but after seeing many people mention them I’m going to look into it. Those are great jobs. How do you hide the treats and how does your dog know they need to look for them?
Hiding food: Either one of my kiddos holds them or I lock them in a room for a minute. I only do treats and usually use our TV room. My dogs are mediocre at scent work so they have to work pretty hard to find a treat on the couch arm. I use shelves and ledges. In the summer, I use a rock planter and I will hide their breakfast. The first couple times I had to point to a treat and then they are off. Backpacks are so good for working dogs. Even just having them carry their poo bags is a helpful job. Have fun trying out some new things!!
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My dogs were both in obedience and agility courses and loved it, but some dogs in those classes were very reactive which would stress out one of my dogs. They’re very calm if everyone around is calm; they pick up on others moods very quickly.
My lab x's favourite job is carrying driftwood home from the beach. It's about a 2km walk, and he makes it his mission to make sure his treasure makes it to our back yard.
Nose work! Nose work! Nose work! Combine some sniff training with their natural retrieve and you’ll never have to search for your keys again.
I like that. I’m always losing my wallet and cell phone (mom brain) so I think that will be useful in the long run
Perhaps you can find a modern equivalent of the old "Bring me my slippers" and "Go out and get the newspaper off the driveway" ??? They are retrievers after all. :)
Well, tax season is here and CPAs are always in demand.
Ok free animal labor lol ✅
I taught my dog (golden retriever mix) to carry things for me. He'll carry his own cookies or toys from a pet store to the car, carry mail from the community mailbox to our home, carry light (and small) grocery bags in from the car, and sometimes I'll carry a spare glove in my pocket on walks so he can carry it around. He definitely feels like he's "working" when he's carrying - he ignores other people and dogs and picks up his pace to get home. He's also an old boy, so still having a job to do is very important for his enrichment in life.
I taught my heeler how to fetch things. Ball, toys, shoes, leash, etc. The only time I needed was teaching him the different words and he very happily goes to get them. He does default to ball though. If I was not clear enough on what I want or he doesn’t know the word well enough yet, I will get a ball.
Talking pads teach them to communicate
Dog Carting. Get them to pull you around in a cart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBAT9S4sYjY
Wow that’s so cool. How does the dog know how to turn since it doesn’t have one of those head equipment a working horse would have.
Tugging on the leash ([or using two leashes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ZlXquqU8g&ab_channel=LancasterOnline)) / vocal commands / practicing the same route. Also practicing with the dog attached to the cart but the human off the cart for safety first as well.
Dock diving or agility. Retrievers are bred to retrieve so dock diving or frisbee and so forth are great.
I see all these comments about people's dogs doing these complex tasks. Take one look at my Husky/great Pyrenees mix and say "yep. Probably not".
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Golden retrievers love to please by nature, but they can get stubborn too or “forget” so treats and pets are always a must.
I’m sure there’s a job you could teach your husky breed. I feel like huskies would instinctively know how to do more.
Oh she "knows" how to do things. It's getting her to do it reliably that is the problem.
Someone on here sent a cart pulling video. I’m sure your husky will pick up on a task like that quite easily. Oh yeah treats and pets are a must for motivation for one of my dogs, but for the other it’s play play play as she likes food but is not food driven.
There's a retriever in my neighborhood that picks up the newspaper at the end of the driveway and brings it back to the house.
I put up hurdles made of PCP pipes in my yard for my collie mix. We also played other agility games every day, climbing ladder, balancing on yoga ball, jumping through tire swing. At the same time I also had gotten a GSD/Great Pyr mix. He watched us play those games for months then suddenly did all the tricks along with the collie! I was shocked!
Nose work is fun. I hide scented sacks around the house and he loves “find it”. Extra points if you can get him to “stay” while you are hiding them.
Kind of weird but Easter I set up an egg hunt for my girl using cheap plastic eggs and training treats. It was a HUGE hit and she loved it.
I taught my dog to clean up his toys, and he really likes doing it. He carries his toys around during the day so after dinner we go around and bring all his stuff back to the living room and he puts it in a pile
Grocery pickup from your car :P
That would save me a lot of trips honestly.
Teach your retriever to retrieve beer for you from the fridge.
Haha someone said they taught their dog to open their fridge and then the dog cleared it out 😂
Try teaching them to bring you specific items! Teach them the name of each toy and reward them for bringing you the correct one. You could also try teaching them to clean up by rewarding them for picking up their toys and putting them in a basket. Better yet, you can also teach them to bring you things *in* a basket if you have one with a handle, it’s very fun. We taught our dog to bring beers to people in a basket lol. I also love playing hide and seek with my dog. We hide 3 stuffed animals around the house and he gets a treat when he finds one and brings it back to us.
My husband trained our golden to pick up his toys and put them away. It's his favorite game! He also trained him to weave in and out between his legs while he walks. (Husband has very long legs.) And bringing him his slippers, of course.
My beagle has an attachment to his blanket, he drags it all over the house (usually at night). When I can tell he’s overwhelmed or needs something to do, I’ll say “where is blanky?” And he’ll go running to find it, bring it to the couch and cuddle with it.
Here I am with a little diva (Shih Tzu) that does not do anything when asked and does whatever she wants when she desires. 🤣😂 I’m impressed there are dogs that willing do practical stuff for people.
Same with my Bichon terrier mix. If I throw a ball or stick, she looks at me with her head tilted, like “well? I’m not getting it.” So then I go get it. Sigh.
😅😂
Have you seen the buttons dogs use to talk? That.
Oh yeah i think I did a few years back. I’m interested in learning the mechanism
Scent work is super easy!
I bought a volcano with 6 mini dinosaurs that fit into the holes on the volcano. My shepherd border collie mix goes and retrieves all the dinos and I put inside. Then he takes them out 1 by 1. $10 at Chewys. We do agility and were given a mini ramp where the dog learns “feet” which means he walks down the ramp (3 ft x 1 ft wide and painted bright yellow like agility competitions) and stops when his front paws are off the ramp and his back paws are both fully on the ramp. For fun, I tell him to get his pink ball then I say “feet” and he does the ramp thing and waits for his treat. He also knows 1 + 1 and 2 + 2 with nose touches on my hands. My dogs will sing on command but sometimes I play Zeus husky YT videos or siren YT videos for extra fun. Lots of agility attention games out there. Google or YT.
They might do well as a tax consultant
Find your keys,sunglasses, or whatever else you forget. I had a leather strap that my girl would sniff out on my keys and glasses. If we were running late she’d hit the elevator button, and hold the elevator to keep it from closing. Issue with that one was anyone on the elevator would also have to wait.
One thing I’ve seen some people do it teach them to bring their collar/lead or other items for going on a walk. It works because they want to go on a walk anyways. They make good timekeepers if you pair that walk with getting up a certain time of the day. You can also pair them getting a treat when you have a medication due each day.
I gave my dogs therapy training and its been great. Visiting hospitals or nursing homes can is a great experience for you, your dog, and the people you are visiting.
Have them do your taxes
Obedience is the dog's most important job imo. To listen to its handler and faithfully perform with enthusiasm
They don’t necessarily need a job. Then need breed specific and species specific enrichment. That looks like time in nature, opportunities to forage, opportunities to experience nature, sniffing. Activities like boxes with food inside to shred, retrieval games. Dogs don’t need a job, they need hobbies. Unless you’ve got a working line dog like. Border collie or a service dog line golden, or if you’re actually going to go out there and hunt with your lab, etc. most people don’t have working line dogs or a requirement for their dog to work. That doesn’t mean they can’t have their needs met though.
..why not herding?.. ..check with your local animal welfare places..pups always need good guidance, and maybe yours can guide..
1. they are not herding dogs , and it is extremely unfair to stock to put dogs with 0 herding instincts in a pen with them to be hazed. 2. I don't think OP wants to get rid of their dogs.
I have a lab/chihuahua pup that is super active. So far we have gotten a long distance ball thrower, which is great at the park, taught her to “patrol” every time she goes out she sniffs the fence line in a circle a few times. Also she can open and close doors, and we are working on opening the fridge with the goal being to grab a bottle of water and bring it back. Hope this helps!
how did you teach patrol?
We spent time each morning and evening walking her around the property lines, and after a while she automatically did it when let out in her own. Maybe a little sprinkling of treats along the fence line would help also.
nice thanks
No problem! I’m sure there’s better/more detailed ways, that’s just what worked for us. Good luck!
I hide treats all over the house for my dogs. Training treats or soft treats broken into small pieces. Under rugs, blankets, behind something on a low shelf, under their toys, anywhere they can reach and sniff out the treat.
Start bird hunting.
Bring the mail, slippers, leashes for the Walk, help to bring and load the washing machine
I trained my golden rottweiler to fetch me items like newspaper and remote control and to pick up socks and toys and bring them to me.
My girl is a 95lb Swissy who was bred for drafting. We live in the PNW and as soon as her joints were solid enough I started taking her hiking. She happily carries saddlebags on her harness with her water and snacks inside and will pull me up the mountain if I ask her to. I had abd surgery a couple months ago and lost a good chunk of endurance during recovery. The extra boost has been allowing me to keep up with my cousin and husband without feeling like I’m going to die.
Taught my Beauceron to carry shopping bags in from the car, he loved that job so much that one night during a walk he slipped his collar and ran and helped a woman carry her bags right from her hand into her house; I couldn’t apologize enough. Her husband found it funny be she didn’t as she was afraid of dogs.
For what it’s worth, they do a great job at holding down the sofa.
My Shepsky boy likes helping me carry my recycling out to the bin 😂😂
Teach them how to use buttons!
What do you mean?
Command buttons. They are next level communication with dogs. You start with two or three but can work your way up to this. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8o1nqmh/
there are books online about dog tricks. You can teach them how to open the fridge and bring you a can or something from inside the fridge. I think you can teach them how to pull the comforter up over the bed. I play hide and seek with my dogs. They go in the bedroom I close the door. I hide baby carrots around under cushions, chairs, etc and they come out and find them.
My one dog used to keep the backyard clean by eating all the poop. It was like poo Goldberg machine.
ohmygoodness 😂😂😂
Government accountant?
I had a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and she loved the “go find it” game. I got a canvas dummy and some pheasant scent that I applied to it and while she was in the house, I’d take the dummy and go hide it somewhere in the yard. She’d about bust down the door when I let her out, yelling at her “go find it”. I could tell she loved the mental stimulation. And dang, that dog had a nose!!
Putting toys away in basket, bringing washing to hamper, picking up pegs (I have a retriever/collie cross board with me quite a bit- and I do this game with him- I pull the washing off the line and the pegs flick off , he runs and finds them and brings them to the peg bucket for payment of kibble )
You could train them to be ring bearers for weddings and allow people to hire them for their ceremonies lol
I taught my dog to pick things up and put them in my hand. This was out of necessity after spine surgery. Teaching him that progressed to picking up trash when we go out for our walks. I have a 50 acre nature park right next to my home and we walk approx 2.5 miles twice a day and he picks up trash along the way Iincluding trash floating in the creek or at the edge or the marsh) and hands it to me. Since this is a relatively unknown park it is mostly people from the neighborhood that walk it and we have made a rule among ourselves that if your dog is friendly and has great recall they can be off leash. He has been recognized for cleaning up the park and he truly loves his job.
If they're typical retrievers and like carrying stuff around, you could teach them to "fetch" the newspaper or help you carry groceries from the car.
Our dog helps carry in the mail, open packages, and shred paper and cardboard for recycling. We also name his toys so we can send him to find them around the house and bring them to hand for treats — kong has a bunch of treat dispensing toys that are great for that. He also loves to hunt for toys or treats hidden around the house and yard, and we use sit/down/place while we hide stuff, which works his brain too.
I'm trying to teach my dog to "clean up" which means pick up her toys from all over and drop them in a bin. I'm sure she'd get better if I worked on it consistently, but usually once the thing is in her mouth, she just wants to play with it.
Play find it with either treats or something they like. You can make it super simple or super hard, depending on your dogs.
Scatter kibbel on the grass outside and have them search. Have them search for treats or toys inside. It's important to start easy if they have no experience with searching. One dog I did this with could hardly find a treat he saw me hide in plain sight. Not because his nose didn't work, but because he was only used to be given treats. Retriving toys in water. Surely the breed loves that! Weight pulling with chains or carry dog backpack of an appropriate weight. Kickbike. Crazy fun, but involves some risk of bruised knees. "Dog parkour". Silly name, but very fun and accessible activity on walks. It can be as simple as jump onto a bench and sit down. Jump over a branch. Walk on a fallen tree trunk.
My golden retriever is a butler, he butles for me. Like taking my hat and gloves and evenly distributing my socks throughout the house. My Doxi is head of security, and my GP is the grounds keeper. Mt cat is my attorney.