Working with your pet

People normally frown at the notion of us putting our pets to work for us, and that is a noble sentiment in a way. When people think of dogs being paraded around showing tricks, it doesn’t seem fair to some that the owner is making money out of it. But nobody frowns about you putting your pet at the service of society, as that is, too, a noble thing to do. Using the amazing gifts that dogs have is an amazing thing and if your dog is skilled at something, you should let it develop that skill. Because dogs and humans have this amazing partnership where each can help develop the other’s strengths and compliment their weaknesses.

Naturally we don’t expect you to submit your pet to the police for crowd control or to teach him to look for drugs and bombs. But you can still get your pet to work in ways that it can. For example, many bed bug detection dogs were once pets that showed a great aptitude for detecting things with their sense of smell. And this isn’t something that the pet dislikes, on the contrary. Dogs like to have a purpose in their lives and will be thrilled at working with you.