Dogs help out around the course in lots of ways, both as a coworker and just as a buddy, too. But is there a perfect personality and breed for the turf world? We talked to Abby Volin, rescue group coordinator for the Humane Society of the United States, about what to look for in an adopted dog.
How can a dog help a superintendent around the course?
Having a dog has a lot of benefits. First of all, it’s companionship. It can be a lonely job working as a superintendent on a golf course. When you’ve got a dog with you, you constantly have a buddy running around. Dogs are great at keeping water fowl away, and other wildlife off the course. It’s a fantastic benefit for the golfers, and for the dog, it gives them a job.
Dogs are a great way to break the ice. You don’t have to know anything about the other person or have anything in common but your love of dogs. For any dog lover, it’s so easy to start a conversation – just ask them about their dog. People love talking about their dogs. They love talking about themselves, but they’d so much rather talk about their dog and how great it is, and all the wonderful things about it.
Is there a particular breed of dog to look for?
It’s going to be very important that a superintendent gets the right kind of dog. About 25 percent of all shelter rescue dogs are actually purebreds, and there’s a breed rescue group for every kind of breed out there. So if you get a border collie, border collies are built to work. That’s what they love. They love herding, they love running around, but then there are a lot of shelter and rescue dogs that are just generic mutts that have so much energy. They’re just these young, lovely dogs that have a lot of energy and want to get that out and you can train them to work.
There are some dogs that are very protective of their owners and they can get shy around other people. Then there are other dogs that are very friendly and love meeting new people. When you’re looking for a dog for a golf course, it’s important you get a very energetic dog, a very friendly dog, someone who just loves to greet the world.
So I think first and foremost you want a dog who is very friendly, who isn’t shy, but who is also trainable. You want a dog who’s smart, and has that recall button so if the dog is running out to bother some golfers – you want to be able to say “Heel!” and the dog comes running back to you.
Any border collie is going to be a sure winner, and any kind of pit mix would work well. I would look more for the characteristics of the dog rather than the breed of dog. Just be patient and have some characteristics in mind – and it’s OK to let your heart take over too if a dog just speaks to you.
How should a superintendent go about adopting a dog?
That’s the great thing about getting a dog from a shelter-based rescue group. Many shelters are overwhelmed with the number of dogs that come in and they don’t always get to know the personality of the dogs so well. But rescue groups have a lot more time to get to know the dogs. Most rescue groups are in foster homes, and when you have a dog in a foster home, you get to see its true personality and the fosters can work with the animal. They can tell you what characteristics they have, and a lot of them start training to make them more adoptable. You can get a lot more information about a dog when you get them from a rescue group. Then you also know how they get along with other dogs, how they get along with other people, what things they’ve been taught to do and where some issues are that you need to work on with them. It’s a lot easier to get to know a dog when they’ve been in that home situation.