My, what a big heart you have.

Friday tax - taken this morning, back to normal life. He likes to jump onto tall things when asked to, but has never jumped on things or people at home. He's a good boy.

Edit - I have no clue why the last photo posted first, but I have to get back to work now. C'est la vie.

Meet Ronnie Roughshod (real name protected for internet anonymity). She's not my dog, but we just had her here for a week while her parents went out of town.

Ronnie is a young Search and Rescue (SAR) dog in training. She is owned and operated by my friend, a woman who has been doing this for some time. My friend has 3 dogs; Ronnie, a fully trained active SAR dog, and a retired SAR dog - various breeds. We've watched them all over the years. Ronnie is currently about 1.5 years old and this was our first time watching her.

The week we were watching her, I read a post about adopting retired working dogs and there were a few comments about how working dogs don't always make good family dogs. I was in the thick of that reality and thought it would be fun to post about Ronnie.

SAR dogs are like other working dogs in that they have a very high drive. That phrase covers a lot of ground though. They have a high drive for EVERYTHING, from fetch, to play with others, to getting to (or through) the door first. All of the dogs we've watched have been this way. While these dogs are welcome at our house, I know I'm in for a week of elevated stress levels! She broke out the screens in two screen doors, knocked over lamps, tables, ripped a couch cushion from jumping off too hard, knocked over children, soaked our whole kitchen every time she drank water, and basically kept me on my toes all week. Hence the nickname "Roughshod".

Her owner has her house - her whole life - set-up to accommodate for this type of dog, and trains nearly every weekend of the year. I know for certain those dogs live a wonderful life. Despite my years of dog ownership, I could never imagine having a working dog in my tiny home/tiny yard.

Fetch is Ronnie's reward for good behavior, but also totally necessary to get some energy out. This means I had to set her up for success in getting her out of the house without any bad behavior. One morning last week, we had 3 false starts, resulting in my own blown fuse, and I sent myself to my room. We use the yard of an abandoned house next door to us. Getting her out and over there was challenging the first few times until she settled into the routine.

We played 3 times a day until exhaustion. Our own dog, Friday (real name), does not need near that much exercise, but enjoyed the extra time spent outside.

As her primary caregiver for the week, she followed me everywhere I went, even if she wasn't supposed to go there. Is this photo a little blurry? Sure is. It was darn near impossible to get a photo of her staying still if she wasn't completely exhausted.

Speaking of being in places she wasn't supposed to be - low fences mean nothing to her. I saw some truly athletic jumps, but was only able to catch this one here. Still, it was nice to not have to worry about a ball getting stuck on the wrong side of the fence.

Despite all that energy and drive, she is a very good girl, with no aggression toward kids or other animals. She and Friday played well together, and were even better at resting together.

I took lots of photos of both dogs resting after successfully wearing her out each day. Weratedogs would probably give her at least a 12/10 and say something nice about wanting to be rescued by her. I've enjoyed my time with all of my friend's SAR dogs, and am glad that she trusts me with the challenge that comes along with bringing them into my home.

PS, you guys probably didn't notice, but Ronnie has very large ears. She likes them rubbed.