Ms. Pearl, Half a Retriever, Goes All The Way

Ms. Pearl is half Labrador retriever and half Australian shepherd, which means she has excellent retrieving abilities and spends much of her time, when there are guests, shepherding them, imploring everyone to please, please stick together.

Besides retrieving birds, she also retrieves her collar. Every evening before bedtime Tom removes the collar and gives M.P. a highly appreciated neck rub with many doggy groans of pleasure. He tosses the collar to the floor of the upstairs bedroom where it rests until I step on it in the dark and move it out of the way.

In the morning, we used to say, "Go get your collar," and off she would go, up the stairs, to find it. Nowadays, all Tom has to do is brush his own neck and Ms. P remembers what that means, usually, and goes up the stairs to do her retrieving thing.

And she tosses it to Tom.

Wild Eyed

The collar is lovingly placed upon her long Australian Shepherd neck. There are pets and many compliments.

Then there is some roughhousing and a treat.

Sometimes Ms. Pearl doesn't want to climb the stairs to get her collar, and stalls, rolling on the floor, groaning, sitting at the bottom of the stairs and not moving.

But she eventually realizes the collar is upstairs and it's the ticket for Going Outside.

Where FUN and EXPLORING await.

Ms. Pearl-The Ranch Dog

Ms. Pearl is half-Labrador, half Australian shepherd and half human. She's named after an obscure 1950s song by Jimmy Wages called “Miss Pearl." When we bought her seven years ago, son Zack was into rockabilly music and that song was heavy on the playlist. So Miss Pearl it was. Recently Molly decided that Miss Pearl should aspire to a higher calling, so changed her name to Ms. Pearl. M.P. is now a feminist bitch.

Miss Pearl was the proverbial “runt of the litter.” Picked upon by her big, rowdy brothers, she ran to her owner’s porch for safety when we first met her. I said “I don’t want her----she is a fraidy-cat.”  Zack and Tom, however, fell in love right from the start, so we took her home.     

When she arrived home, she almost immediately took her first poop.

 Ms. Pearl is our second Australab,  Australian Shepherd and Labrador Retriever mixed. She has qualities of both breeds, the herding instinct and (some of the) intelligence of the Aussie and the (some of the) retrieval capabilities and amiable temperament of a Lab.

When Tom and Ms. Pearl go bird hunting, she retrieves but only returns the bird halfway. Then she drops it and that's all she wrote. A hunting friend explained this behavior:  because she is only half Labrador, she only brings it halfway back. Makes sense.

Ms. Pearl's favorite retrieval items, though, are fake ducks and Frisbees.

No animals were harmed in this photo.

Ms. P loves FAF: Frisbee Action Fun

She returns the Frisbees and fake ducks all the way back, without fail, because we are trained to throw them again. And again. And again.

Ms. P is always up for an adventure. When Tom puts on the binoculars or I put on my shoes, she's ready to go.

 Because there might be water for swimming. This is Pearlie Mae's Creek.

Or rocks to pose on.

 She's a fence inspector 

 and a supervisor for the road department.

When she hears the Ranger start up, she jumps into her "Mobile." (That's what she calls it.)

It is Her Car.

   

She even went out to plow the snow in -19 F weather this past winter.

    

 Ms. P started shivering, though, so warm blankies were necessary. Next year she gets one of those insulated dog jackets, and who knows what else? I caught her looking through the Orvis dog catalog. Now she wants “an Orvis bed.”  Since she spends most cold nights on our bed restricting our covers, we may have to get her that too.

She isn't just an action dog, though. She has a softer side.

That's my dad

She comforts aged parents.

That's Tom's dad

Gets snacks from her grandma. They are called "Grahmer Crackers."

Tom's mom, ever generous

It's all just so exhausting being a perfect dog.

It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.