Sweet Sixteen

My humans have been told that the puppy at sixteen weeks without extensive training and behavior modification is what you are going to get as an adult. As this has been my sixteenth week I have given this a lot of thought and talked to all my friends about my career options. You see, dogs don't have career advisors, but as I'm from a 'working breed' with herding and guarding background, I think its important that I at least think about these things while I'm still a pup.

I started off asking my friends in the park what they thought my strengths and weaknesses are.

The spaniel cross said I need to practice a little more before I can become a proficient mud diver, and my legs are too short and stubby for racing according to the Whippets and Greyhounds. The Golden retrievers said I need to grow some more before I can become a proficient beggar of treats in the park - apparently the cheese is usually kept in pockets higher up than where my nose is.

The Beagle was a bit more helpful - she said I had potential as a sniffer dog. And the grumpy terriers in the corner of the park admitted that I do seem to have a way with the ladies - maybe I could wiggle my way into a pensioners home and steal sausages for a living?

They were all very helpful but I couldn't help but feel that something was missing from their advice so I decided to do some more research.

One of my humans works in the city so I decided to check out his place of work to see if it was something for me. Said and done, I took my other human on the tube, and boy was the commute a long and dreadful one. I was the only one wagging my tail, all the humans looked sad and miserable and I felt it was my Entlebucher duty to make them all smile again and that was quite an effort. The office itself wasn't very impressive. Everyone sat around staring at their computers and there was no cheese in the office fridge. Not my kind of place.

As part of my research, I also watched the TV show 'Call in the Dogs', which is a documentary following some very clever dogs helping the British transport police sniffing out robbers, drugs and sometimes even cash. I was very excited about the prospect until I realized they probably don't need a dog sniffing for chicken and cheese - after all, neither commit many crimes. I also don't think my humans want to change careers into the police profession so I think this one is a no go as well.

So far no luck, but I'm only sixteen weeks so I probably don't need to choose my job just yet. In the meantime I will enjoy my job herding the two humans I share a flat with and try and improve my sock stealing skills - you never know when that might come in handy!