At the end of the day, pretty much everyone wishes that they could take their dogs to work or school with them and help the day go by. Our pets have a unique way of making us feel unconditionally happy (well, most of them, not my girlfriend’s cat that’s for sure) and for a group of middle-schoolers, their teacher’s dog was no exception.
One middle school teacher shared an adorable photo of his dog having escaped their home with one goal in mind.
Whether the dog escaped by tunneling a hole over many years which he kept covered with a Kate Bush Hounds Of Love poster, or whether it was more of a great escape scenario is unclear.
All we know is that he did escape, and what ensued was painfully adorable.
Apparently the teachers dog not only escaped, but easily found its way to the teacher’s school.
It’s not exactly a state secret that dogs have an amazing ability to track people down; however, it’s still impressive for a normal dog to suddenly turn into a cross between Steve McQueen and Liam Neeson with all the adorableness of Bill Hader — is it just me that finds Bill Hader adorable? Surely it can’t be.
Anyway, moving back on track, it also turned out that the dog’s name was Oreo, which you needed to know because why would you not want to know that fact?
When the dog found it’s way to the school, the teacher’s kids were excited to say the least!
The teacher in question posted the above photo, writing, “I’m a middle school teacher. My dog escaped my house and figured out the way to school today. Everyone liked that.”
The image quickly went viral and received over 60,000 shares online, with people praising the dog for being such things as a very good boy, a very good boy indeed, yes you are, oh yes you are! (It’s really hard to capture the enthusiastic gushing tone writing that down now I read it back)
There were lots of people wondering how the dog knew exactly where to go.
One curious person asked, “That’s a pretty smart dog! Has he been to the school before? Would he have any way to know where it was / how to get there on his own? […] Maybe he followed your scent trail?”
To which the teacher explained that she takes Oreo to school at weekends when she has extra work to do. She also went on to explain, “[Oreo] knows how to open the doors to our house. My daughters aren’t always the most diligent about locking the doors.”
Other people were also quick to share stories of times that their own dogs had followed them to school, which made me ask some serious questions about how much my childhood dog really loved me — never once learned how to use doors and follow me the elaborate and long route to school to surprise me, the selfish thing!
Using their sense of smell is apparently not the only way that dogs can find their way around.
While dogs rely primarily on their sense of smell to navigate and track people/objects, according to the Mother Nature Network , they also create a “visual map” of their surrounding. Even though their eyesight isn’t great, they still use it as much as their sense of smell to navigate, as veterinarian Wailani Sung explains:
“Research on wolves has indicated that they use visual landmarks to help guide their way around their territory. Researchers have also found that some wolves have taken shortcuts to get from one point to another.”
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Hopefully, one day soon my dog will surprise me at work, although I’m not holding out hope.
My dog is far too lazy to be doing anything that requires so much effort. However, with the rise of Bring Your Dog To Work Day holidays on the rise, he may have no choice but to come with me!
If you’re lucky enough to work somewhere that has a Bring Your Dog To Work Day, then they are usually celebrated on 21st June, so sadly it’s a long wait until the next one!
