Good Shop Dogs

Although we had many different dogs as pets over the years, there were only a few of them that my dad liked. My dad is a custom woodworker. He has his own large shop on the same property as our home. The only dogs that my dad really liked were the dogs that he said made good shop dogs.

A good shop dog, at least in his opinion, was a dog that loved to come hang out in the shop with him. That wasn't the only criteria though. Many of our dogs liked to spend time down there with Dad. Unfortunately, most of them got in the way of his work. A good shop dog also had to be a dog that knew how to stay out of the way. Dogs that got underfoot weren't good shop dogs. Dogs that found their own corner of the shop to hang out in were good shop dogs.

The best dog that we had was an Australian Shepherd named Playful. True to her name, she stayed playful all the way up into old age. Despite the fact that she was always playful with us kids, she knew exactly how to tone it down when hanging out in the shop with Dad. This wasn't the only reason that we loved her but it sure helped make Dad happy to have a good shop dog around!