Rosco and Maverick

Making sure the leaf isn’t a threat

This is Rosco. Rosco puts the “Great” into Great Pyrenees.

Pyrs are a breed apart. For starters, they’re herd guarding dogs. Their job is to keep everyone in line, both their charges and any potential predators. They are very brave and will take on anything trying to grab an easy meal.

Great Pyrenees were bred to work in rough, mountainous areas, so they have more dewclaws than your average mutt.

Most dogs have dewclaws—those “thumb” claws—on only their front legs. Interestingly, these claws are absent from wolves (unless they have some dog ancestry). Some dogs, like many German shepherds, have rear dewclaws as well, but it’s rare for most dogs.

Great Pyrenees have double dewclaws on their hind paws. Now, they already have enormous feet furry enough to put a hobbit’s to shame, but those dewclaws turn paws into snowshoes.

They’re huge and heavy, and males basically have a mane. All that fur keeps Pyrs warm and protected from a harsh environment, but it also makes them look even bigger than they already are, and they are huge.

Maverick

This is Maverick. Maverick’s a boxer/pit/hound mix. He’s got the bounciness and deep chest of a boxer, the loving nature and huge jaw muscles of a pit bull, and the aquiline nose and dangly ears and jowls of a hound dog.

Maverick is a lap dog. You may not think an 80 pound mutt could be a lap dog, but there’s nothing he loves better than curling up on me with his head on my shoulder.

Yes, I’m melting.

Maverick is very gentle and wants to be friends with everyone.

Rosco is dominant, territorial, and does not take kindly to having another male in “his” space. (You may take a Pyr’s testicles, but you’ll never take his toxic masculinity.)

So I keep them gated off from each other.

A dog sitter’s best friend is the baby gate. We have four. One of them separates the guest rooms from the main house (no accidents or shedding allowed back there). Two of them gate off our kitchen, because whoever built our house had a hard-on for open floor plans with minimal actual doors. All three of these are tension gates that fit in a doorway.

The fourth gate is a long one. Normally it creates a foyer space and keeps dogs away from the front door, but in a pinch I can reposition it to stretch across between the living room and the den. It has attachment points that are supposed to screw into the wall; but I needed it moveable, so we left it free, just bracing it in place with water bottles or chairs or whatever.

So now I have three main areas for the dogs, instead of one (minus the kitchen, where guest dogs are mostly not allowed). This means I have an “airlock” of sorts. A doglock, if you will.

Excluding first thing in the morning, when pottying is an immediate need, Rosco and Maverick go outside separately. Rosco is easy—he’s already in the den, where the back door is. But then after he finishes, I have to get Maverick outside without him being in Rosco’s space. So Maverick waits in the kitchen while I’m outside with Rosco. Then Rosco comes in, moves through the gate to the living room, and I let Maverick into the den. Maverick goes outside, and when we’re done, Rosco goes into the kitchen, Maverick into the dining room, and Rosco back to the den.

Yes, I play musical dogs.

Outside time is both pottying time and exercise time. Bran and Arya go, too, with both dogs, since they refuse to be separated from me. I move myself (and Bran and Arya) occasionally from living room to den and back again so that I spend plenty of loving time with both guests.

It’s the glamorous life of a dog sitter, y’all.

Maverick (above) and Rosco (below) are total couch potatoes.

Being a Dog Sitter

All the snuggles!

Sometimes being a Rover sitter is all about making sure my furry boarders get along with my kids and each other. That can mean anything from being in the same place they are, inside and out, to staying at home 24/7 to make damned sure no one gets in a fight. Most of the time, fights are rare, but not always.

One thing I do is that I make sure to always do a meet and greet first. A meet and greet is where a potential client brings their dog(s) over to meet mine and see how everyone gets along. That way, I can weed out potential trouble right there. I’ve had dogs that go after other dogs at first sight, despite their owners promising that their babies love other dogs.

My precious boy Bran. He loves big dogs, but sometimes big dogs don’t love him.

I do meet and greets at my home. Bran and Arya (especially Arya!) just aren’t comfortable meeting new dogs someplace like a park. Oddly, they don’t even do well taking a walk with new dogs—walking with each other is supposed to get them into that “pack mentality,” but it doesn’t work with my two. (I suspect it would work fine with just Bran, but he follows his crazy sister’s lead!). We always start in the back yard, where the owner lets go of their end of the leash; it’s important to keep that leash on, in case something bad happens. The guest dog sniffs around the yard, getting the scents of my two. Usually, the guest dog will leave pee-mail and poo-mail. (That always embarrasses the owner, but really, dumping your scent in the yard is a very effective way to show your ID, when you’re a dog!) Then I let Bran and Arya out, and wait to see what happens, keeping on my toes just in case.

Meet and greets show me potential trouble spots in dog behaviors. If a possible boarder just can’t settle their hackles, and they keep acting uncomfortable or aggressive, that’s a big red flag, and I won’t take them. If they’re shy or fearful dogs and can’t get used to Arya’s over protectiveness and high energy, she may try to establish immediate (and very rough) dominance. That’s another red flag, because not only do your dogs need to get along with mine, my dogs also have to get along with yours!

I don’t know what Arya’s prerequisites are, but sometimes she seriously dislikes shyness and will bark and snarl, and then sometimes she comes over very calmly as soon as she sees that the visiting dog is uncomfortable. Arya is very good at settling and reassuring a shy newcomer—when she wants to be.

Milo was very shy, but Arya and Bran were gentle and reassuring with him.

Barring emergencies or appointments, I always stay at home with new dogs for their first day in order to monitor their behavior and personality, and how they interact with each other. Most dogs I wind up feeling perfectly comfortable leaving at home if I have to run out. There are some who visit so regularly that Bran and Arya have accepted them as family! But then there are some who behave mostly well, but have a tendency to snap or lunge at other dogs in certain situations (playing rough, for instance). When I see this behavior, I know I cannot leave them unsupervised. I have canceled doctors’ appointments because of this, but in an emergency, I can also stretch a gate across between two rooms to keep everyone safe.

Arya flirting with Yogi. She’s the only dog other than his brother that Yogi likes!

Sometimes you find the perfect dog.

Woodie (left) and Jessie (right), a.k.a. the muffins, have become family. Everyone has a grand time when they visit!

I’m lucky enough to have repeat clients whose dogs fit in very well with us; owners have told me their dogs just go crazy with excitement as soon as they pull in to my neighborhood!

Currently, I’m boarding a perfect gentleman of a dog, Maverick, who loves everyone, dog or human. He sleeps comfortably in a crate at night; loves to play keep away with a ball in his mouth, my dogs chasing him, and everyone having a blast; and will cuddle in my lap despite being over 60 pounds. These are the rare dogs who are so well behaved, so loving, and so friendly with other dogs, that they make my job an absolute pleasure. I love all the dogs I board, but some become simply precious to me.

This is why I so very much love and appreciate being a Rover dog sitter.

Dogpile!

Dogs!

Arya

Let me introduce myself by introducing my dogs. Up on top is the ever mischievous Arya, the younger of our perilous pair, who nevertheless acts as big sister. She’s my coworker, a meme that popped up during Covid work-from-home lockdowns, but still applies to her. Arya is, according to the vet, a mix of corgi, red heeler, and Jack Russell. Since she’s two-thirds herding dog, those instincts help me out every day, whether with my dog sitting job, or just with Bran.

Bran

Bran is a little boy who’s always either cuddly, playful, or hungry—or all three. The vet told me that his best guess for this silly mishmash of a mutt was pug, dachshund, chihuahua, and boxer. I didn’t believe that last till I saw a photo of him at our sitter’s place, next to a boxer—then I was convinced!

Bran (left), Arya (right), and the boxer that convinced me (middle)

Apparently, one of Bran’s ancestors knew how to use a stepladder.

Bran likes to hang out in the back yard and bark. And bark. And bark. And this is where one of Arya’s skills comes in. I discovered this very early in our friendship: she will go outside and get him.

I was bringing the dogs in one day; Arya came right in, but Bran was being stubborn. Arya and I were just standing there at the back door, waiting. I looked at her, she looked at me, and—I actually did not expect anything to happen!—I said, “Go get your brother.”

She went and got him.

Arya ran out, nipped Bran, got him to chase her, and brought him back in. That’s when I knew she was something special.

Bran is also special, of course, but… let’s just say that Arya’s got all the brains of the pair. So, yeah. She’s my coworker.

Bran, though? He’s my baby, my Bran boy, my little cuddle muffin. Arya is my husband’s dog, but Bran is mine. (Well, really, my husband is Arya’s person, and I’m Bran’s, because every pet owner knows that’s the way it actually works.)

My dogs are my life, in more ways than one. They drive me up the wall, make me laugh, and give me the kind of love and friendship that only comes from animals. I don’t think I’ll ever understand people who don’t want the steadfast companionship of animals in their lives.

Animals help make life worth living.

The gorgeous genius and the adorable idiot