Sheltie Responsibilities

Brick really nears the ideal on the Sheltie job description. Our dogs have lots of assigned responsibilities, short term usually, where they have to work independently so that we can do something else, or be our surrogate somewhere we can't be at the moment.

This is what Brick's assignment was last night - instead of watching sheep last night, he was assigned to watch over a dying cat. Harbin's liver started failing while I was out of town, and we've been making him comfy till today when the vet was going to come put him to sleep at home. Brick and Pow had worried over him while he'd get his subQ fluids and get brushed out a bit, whining and checking on him.

Brick kept the other 4 cats away from Harbin's crate by the side of the bed all night, slept right there in front of it. He had to physically correct Salvador, the dominant cat, several times. We knew that Brick would tell us if Harbin woke up or was having trouble, so we could get some sleep without having to wake up routinely to check on Harbin.

About 5 min after we woke up this am, Harbin started having seizures and was on his way out - he'd waited till dawn for Marq, woke up and started to pass away. Brick alerted and started to try to dig Harbin out of the crate, got into the crate with him when we opened the door, and followed us as we carried Harbin into the living room to sit on the couch. He kept checking on him and sat with him as he passed away. Only then would he go out to pee for the morning. As soon as he came back in, he went looking for the body, which I showed him - he was ok with knowing where it was, just wanted to make sure.

This is typical though, of what I expect my dogs to do - they should make my life easier, not just by their companionship, but also by taking responsibility given to them.