Our dog, Riley, turned 3 in August. Deb thought he should be four and I think it seems like he should be 10. You see, Riley is a Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix and he needs a job. We got Riley as a pup from the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. It still amazes me that we drove 7 hours, one way, to get……a dog. We should have known what we were in for because, after we signed the adoption papers and left a generous “donation” check, the person at Best Friends, responded, “good luck!” Riley was the last of his litter to be adopted and had become known at the sanctuary as a “punk.” We changed his name from Cornelius to Riley in the car on the way home. I kind of wanted to keep the name Cornelius because I could see me calling him “Corn Dog.”
A few days after we got him home, we took him to the vet and the first words out of her mouth upon seeing Riley were, “I can’t believe you got this breed of a dog.” Our vet knew two things. One, she knew the energy level of this breed of dog (extremely high), and two, our age (sixty-something). Riley’s typical day consists of a 45 minute to an hour walk with me at 5:45 in the morning before I go to work. Deb then takes him out for another hour or so mid-day. When I get home from work, Riley follows me around everywhere. He even settles in front of the bathroom door until I come out. The game of follow Mike goes on until I don my hat and sunglasses and we head out to play Frisbee for at least 30 minutes. Rain, shine, snow, heat, doesn’t matter, we play Frisbee every night. In between those activities and a few naps, he herds our 4 cats around the house until they get ticked off and hurl themselves up onto the upper shelves in Deb’s closet.
Riley is a smart dog. We signed him up for puppy obedience training. He caught on to all the various commands quickly, so much so that the repetition bored him and he would look at us with the expression that said, “Really? I’ve sat at your command three times in a row and you want me to do it again? I don’t think so.” And off he would go to make a nuisance of himself with the other dogs. We thought that because of his energy level that maybe agility training might be good. Same results. After a few times of running through the plastic tube or walking across the elevated board he would get that bored look and head off to more interesting things, like all the places other dogs urinated. When it became obvious that we were coming back from agility training more exhausted then he was, we canned that idea.
I can’t decide if Riley and his activity is adding to my longevity or taking away from it. All in all, he’s a pretty good dog. Does what he is told most times reasonably close to when he is told to do it. So, I guess we will keep him and see who runs out of energy first. My money is on Corn Dog.
These are the opinions of Mike Berry and not necessarily those of Cambridge, are for informational purposes only, and should not be construed or acted upon as individualized investment advice.
Mike Berry is a Registered Representative offering securities through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a Broker/Dealer, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advisor Representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. Legacy Wealth Management, LLC and Cambridge are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice.
Copyright ©2017 Mike Berry. All Rights reserved. Commercial copying, duplication or reproduction is prohibited.
