What "chores" does your dog do?

Molly HATES her backpack - she'll barely move when I take her for a walk wearing it. She pokes along barely moving, pouting/sulking
Molly brings us things or gives things. Like if my son is downstairs in his room and he wants something I give it to Molly and she deliver. In turn he'll give her something to bring upstairs.
It's funny - she's so happy when she's asked to "go give this to Geoff" she wanders off tail happily going back and forth

Indy *loves* his backpack- we've taught him a variation on message running at the farm where the cell phones don't work. He'll go find Mom, Dad, me or my brother Stuart on command if we're not too far from the farmhouse.

Mal is now big enough to fit into Wings' backpack, and I tried it on him for fit. Unfortunately, the model's been discontinued and I don't want him using hers. He'll get his own (just to wear empty) to get used to backpacks in a few more months.

I like this!  How did you teach her to do this?  Say "go give it to..." and then have the person call her and give a treat?

Emma likes to get the phone and alert me to other alarms and sounds. She assigned herself the alert job, and I just did a little clicker training to get her to bring me the phone. The only bad thing is dog spit on my hair and toothmarks in my phone[]

Well, Marlowe has appointed himself personally responsible for the cleanliness of the kitchen floor. Seriously, he "patrols". He won't go upstairs for the evening until he's done one last circuit of the kitchen. But hmmm somehow that may not be what the original question really meant. [&:]

We had Conrad going for a little while a few years ago to shuttle from me to DH and back again. We didn't keep it up for long enough for him to actually remember though.

I really envy you guys with dogs who like to pick things up in their mouths. If it isn't food, or it doesn't squeak, Marlowe is just not putting his mouth on it, no way , no how. It really limits the sorts of things I can train him to bring me!

ORIGINAL: houndlove

Well, Marlowe has appointed himself personally responsible for the cleanliness of the kitchen floor. Seriously, he "patrols". He won't go upstairs for the evening until he's done one last circuit of the kitchen. But hmmm somehow that may not be what the original question really meant. [&:]

 
[]  Well, she does take up that chore of my son's chair after a meal (at least until she gets caught).  I like the messaging ideas and the phone too!  Any more?

Maggie locates the phone for me when it rings - I'm somewhat hard of hearing and if I've laid it down somewhere and forgotten where, it's very handy to have her show me where it is. She looooooves this job. I'm trying to teach Zhi, too. The Princess doesn't seem quite as motivated - I'll have to break it down with the clicker for her, I guess. I taught Maggie by putting the phone in front of her, hitting the "pager", then saying, "Find it!" over and over like an idiot, and then treating her ever time she touched it. Yep, that was about ten years ago, pretty primitive, but Maggie still figured it out in less than five minutes. Hey, at least I didn't do a forced retrieve on her, lol!

Ben picks stuff up for me, a leftover from when I trained him to be a sort-of service dog for me when I was wheelchair bound and then used a walker for about six months. He will pick up literally anything - he has no shyness about it. Once I was cleaning up outside and noticed one of the kids' ride-on toys had fallen off the wraparound porch. I pointed to it and asked Ben to "bring it!" The funny thing is that he didn't even stop to think, he just grabbed it and carried it up to the porch, then slung it up at my feet and then eyeballed it like I was going to throw it for him. It was one of those Little Tykes trikes, about half as big as he was!

Oh yes, and I've messed around some with Cord and discovered he's a tabula rasa when it comes to trick training - and he loves it - but I will be training him for flyball this winter and that will pretty much take up our free time apart from lambing chores (ten weeks and counting to lambies, whee!).

Ben loves "Find it" and so does Maggie (obviously). It's a great inside game. I've been lazy since we got more sheep and I haven't taught my younger dogs any neat tricks. Rick had a whole slew of them but he was the last one I really trained regularly in that respect (except Zhi has some circus-dog tricks, but I don't practice them like I should). I was just sitting here thinking both Rocky and Ted would adore learning some tricks this winter. Maybe after the Jack Knox clinic.

Romeo is a self appointed gardener... he loves it... I tell him dig and goes to work.  Now that has created a problem  ( I know my fault) but I easily solved it by providing him with his own space to dig and bury his treasures. []
 
He also sounds the alarm when my dad suffers asthma attacks at night, no one taught him, he just does it.
 
Barks when someone comes to the door, but once it opens, seats very quietly wagging his tail waiting for a head scratch, and you best scratch or he turns around looking so rejected is sad, but funny at the same time.
 
Also likes to play find it, good for when the weather is bad.

My dog is trained as a kitchen mop.  Whenever I spill food her job is to come and clean it.

Molly is the watchdog of the house. Greeter at the door. That was what she was breed for long ago the watchdog part. She does bring back my socks that she steals them sometimes. She is a great vacumm in any room of the house. She brings us a toy when she thinks it time to play fech. But Molly is great. I want to rig up a small agility thing in the house this winter as she love things like jumping thru a hoop ect. Then next summer the back yard watch out. Shes only 6 months old so we have a lot of time to see what comes next.

Tookey tattles on Gracie when she puts her paws on the kitchen table and tries to steal a leftover. He barks in a certain tone and I know exactly what she's up to! Gracie is my junk mail shredder. Now if only I could teach her to use a broom to sweep up the mess!

Russell's a watchdog. This does have its annoying moments but overall it's wonderful, because my boyfriend is a truck driver and when he's away I like having Russell alert and barking at invisible boogeymen. []
 
I am still working diligently (w clicker) to get him to actually retrieve things... he prefers to take and hoard. [8|]

Bevo knows the basics.  He guards & protects the property, plays frisbee, football, and retrieves anything thrown.  He has some exposure to working cows, (he knows what to do but I'm scared that he can't clear the cows quickly enough).  He has went duck hunting numerous times, and does retrieve.  Unfortunately, he does not have a soft mouth, so by the time the duck gets back to you, it is not edible by a long shot.  He knows how to "find it", he finds the car keys, remote control, phone, the little dogs, the cats (there are 6 and he knows names), the squeaker, the kong.  He, too is the kitchen cleaner.  He also knows how to fetch from the cooler.  He can open the cooler, pull a beer out and return it to it's rightful owner.  We hadn't planned this trick, but he stayed a weekend with my college aged brother and came back to us knowing what "Beer Me" meant.  He does therapy work.  He goes with me to a childrens home for a reading program weekly, and he loves the kids.  The best chore he accomplishes has to be making me smile on a daily basis. 

Sequoyah puts her own toys away.  At work, she picks up all the tennis balls for me after the dogs go home.  At our house, she dumps her frisbee into the wicker basket when we are done playing with it.