Joe Kahlo
“She thinks it’s the most important thing to us because we use it so often”
Some pups make great guard dogs, especially rottweilers. 6-year-old Jakey uses her talents to protect something a bit unusual.
While most guard dogs tend to watch over the house, Jakey usually sets a different task, she chooses watches over her family’s bread while they’re out.
“She started this four years ago when we moved to our farm,” Katrina Frank, Jakey’s mom, told The Dodo. “Every time we would leave she would hide the bread.”
Jakey has been protecting her family’s bread for as long as her owners can recall. She has an excellent nose for it. The moment that her mom walks out of the door, Jakey sniffs out the loaf and will stop at nothing until the family’s beloved bread is safe.
“We have a bread box so she likes to hop up and pull it out of there,” Katrina said. “If I leave it in the pantry instead, she nudges the door open and gets it out. I’ve put it in the refrigerator before and she has opened the door to get to it.”
“I’m assuming because we use it so often, she believes it is the most important thing in our house. I can put the bread anywhere-counter, breadbox, pantry, fridge – and she will find it and protect it anytime we leave.”
“If we don’t have bread, she moves on to baked goods.”
Jakey has never once taken a bite out of the bread, in all her years of protecting it. She also makes sure no other animals in the house do, either.
“She likes to put it behind the couch and lay by it. Otherwise, [she puts it in] the closet in my bedroom,” Katrina said. “I assume she thinks it’s the most important thing to us because we use it so often.”
As soon as Katrina returns, Jakey always leads her straight to the bread with a guilty look on her face. Although the bread will never be missing for long.
Bread isn’t all Jakey chooses to protect, if the family have run out of bread, Jakey chooses other related items: “If I’m out of bread, she moves on to baked goods,” Katrina said. “Once she took a Tupperware of cookies off the counter and hid all 17 individually without breaking any. She led me to all of them.”
If the family are out of baked goods, Jakey moves on to guarding the butter.
At least Katrina can be sure, her food is safe when Jakey is around.
