Over the course of my life my parents have always had a dog. And all of those dogs have had some sort of job that was either taught to them or they just naturally did.
The dog we had when I was little’s job was to keep things out of bushes and watch children. Both of which she naturally did on her own. There was never anything in the bushes and she kept us away from anything that she deemed as a treat to human children.
The next dog my mom trained to stay by her side or if she wasn’t home to stay by my side. Which he did very well and it was his job. His main occupation was making sure everyone was safe which he did rather well as he was a giant dog that strangers didn’t want to tangle with and was a coward. This dog once trapped me in a bathroom with him because the tornado sirens were going off. He was very good at his job.
This same job was then taught to the next dog as well. With the expectation, he patrolled the perimeter of the house for mice and other rodents. The house and garage were mouse and rodent free for his entire life.
It is my parents’ current job that is different though. This dog is mainly a dog of leisure. That isn’t to say she doesn’t have a job, it's just not an overly productive job. Much like Ken’s job in Barbie Land is just beach, her job is just lake. She doesn’t even swim in the lake; she just stands on the edge of it.
I believe this dog has swam exactly three times in her life. Twice when she fell off of the dock. The first time of which she blames me for as she feels I pushed her. When in reality she walked off the side of the dock and started swimming; while I was prepared to jump in and grab her since she was still rather young but didn’t since she was swimming.
The third time was the one and only time she ran and jumped off the dock like the other dogs and even I do. Just to see if this was something she really didn’t like or if the falling was the problem. She did not care for it and has not done it since.
Instead she keeps to her strengths and keeps doing her job of just being a lake. Not swimmer or lake jumper. Just lake.
