* No upfront costs. Pedigree shepherds are not cheap, especially when they need to be flown from a kennel on the other side of the country.
* No ongoinging maintenance costs. Dogfood probably won't break the budget though there seems to be an ongoing stream of requirements for flea powder, chew toys and such.
* No emergency costs. Vets bills can be expensive, especially when you have to send a puppy for an emergency hysterectomy on Christmas eve as John once did.
* No kenneling costs when you go on your vacation
Add to that the convenience of being able to travel at a moments notice and not worry about arranging a kennel or dog sitter, not having to worry about exercising them every day, and not having to clean up the yard after them (though we have dung beetles here that take care of that), and you wonder why people own dogs.
On the other hand dogs are wonderful companions for a run down the beach so I'm lucky that I can borrow Stella and Candy whenever I want; they are grateful for the excursion and exercise and John is grateful that I take care of this chore for him. I do charge for dog walking: one cold beer at the end of it, consumed while the dogs are drinking a gallon or so of water. They are still learning that that drinking sea water is not a good idea, so they need some serious rehydration at the end of the run.
Stella and Candy are still young, ten months and five months old, Candy is basically a boisterous puppy, albeit a pretty large one and probably in need of some basic training. Having one shepherd is a full time job, and Johns decision to get the second one was motivated by the need for a companion dog so they wouldn't go crazy during the day when there's noone about in the house. They have the run of a large yard, but are still mad keen to get out and about at any opportunity. The original companion dog, a stray fox terrier that turned up at one of my neighbors and needed a home, was unsuited for the job and sent packing.
So the typical run starts with me arriving late afternoon and having to cope with dog enthusiasm. They go berserk when I arrive and it takes about five minutes to calm them down to the point where you can get a leash on them. I've discovered the only way to keep any element of control is to have them leashed together. When I tried running them on separate leashes I was forever losing one or both and having to chase them down. At least leashed together they aren't going far and if they do take off, the speed is limited to that of slowest dog. The disadvantage of this arrangement is that if you come to an obstacle and they decide to go either side, then you come to a sudden halt. Even worse they then run around in opposite directions and you can end up with a total dog tangle.
After about five minutes they settle down to a steady pace and we jog through the streets of Tannum. Then the real fun starts: to get to the beach we have to cross a large field, and this is where the kangaroos hang out. For some reason the dogs have decided that roos are to be chased, and they go crazy. It is all I can do to hang on to them, especially as we are going down a steep hill. The roos all scatter and we go flying across the field, out of control.
On the other side of the field its a short track down to the beach, the dogs are settled now and I can let them run free. We run up the beach to Canoe Point or the rivermouth depending on how energetic we are feeling, plenty of driftwood to throw and fetch and rock pools to investigate.
Several times a year, near a new moon in summer the coral spawn and fill the sea with this brown slick. The stuff drifts ashore and gets pretty high and the rock pools fill with it. The other day, the dogs discovered a pool full of the stuff and promptly jumped in and were wallowing in it. For dogs, the equivalent of a perfumed bubble bath. So I finally manage to drag them out and we are on our way, once we got home I hosed them down for about five minutes, but they still stank for about a week afterwards, at least to human noses.
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