Survey of Job-Site Dogs
Great moments in building history: The contractor’s dog
On the West Coast, at least, you find them on practically every job site where they’re allowed, and many contractors won’t leave the driveway without making sure that theirs is in the truck. Yet I’ve never seen them mentioned in texts on the construction trades. To the uninitiated, their purposes are mysterious, but to habitual users, their functions are so obvious as to defy explanation. This builder’s accessory? The contractor’s dog.
Traditionally, authors of comparison articles present the results of their research in complex, impressive charts listing all but a few brands (thus ensuring passionate letters to the editor from enraged partisans of the brands not listed). Charts won’t work for this topic, however; the contractor’s dog does not lend itself to mass production. Instead, the field is dominated by small, local manufacturers, and the variety of different models is staggering. There are, however, several major types (drawing below).
Accessories are few: red bandannas, water bowls, fleas (usually provided as standard equipment), Frisbees and—rarely—leashes.
What kind of dog should you get? This is not an easy call. Preferences in contractor’s dogs are like the fiberglass-handle vs. wooden-handle hammer debate, as much idiosyncrasy as rationality.
And I have a confession: I never owned a contractor’s dog when I worked in the trades. Lummox, the 25-lb. miniature collie I owned then, thought the Western Hemisphere was her neighborhood and wandered accordingly, barked at mosquitoes down the block and consequently didn’t meet a professional’s reliability standards. My contractor’s dog came along after I’d become a bureaucrat and weekend warrior. Ubu, a 160-lb. Newfoundland-malamute mix, loves to be near us while we work and even pitches in with digging up blackberry roots as part of our yard-clearing efforts. Her status as a contractor’s dog was confirmed during a bathroom remodel several years back. I was marking out subflooring on sawhorses in the backyard. I cut the hole for the toilet flange, set down the saw, stood up—and there she was, gazing devotedly up at me through the opening.
—Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, California
Hounds
The hound is a dual-purpose dog, useful for builders who actually use their trucks’ gun racks for guns (rather than 4-ft. levels) and who occasionally hunt game in addition to doughnut shops and reliable subs.
Retrievers
Labrador, golden and other retrievers are all-purpose dogs, especially useful if you or your crew members tend to throw tools when frustrated. Wet retrievers can be dangerous on job sites near moisture, especially during the drywall stage—unless the specs call for spatter-textured walls.
Mastiffs
Rottweilers, Saint Bernards and other mastiff breeds are heavy-duty dogs. Weight and tremendous inertia are useful for restraining piles of light paneling or polystyrene sheathing on windy job sites.
Mutts
Mutts are the commonest model of job-site canine and are a matter of controversy. Some view them as cheap but unpredictable. Others see them as the last bastion of the inventive free-enterprise spirit that made America great. Depending on the model, they’ll share features of the other types of job-site dogs, and have some of their own.
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