Brief by Central Staff
Outdoors – March 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dogs, perhaps by their nature, seldom leave a place cleaner than they found it – a trait confirmed by all those “Pick up your dog’s doo” signs along popular walking trails.
But there’s one pooch who’s an exception – a five-year-old retriever mix named Timber.
He lives in the backwoods of Larimer County, and belongs to Conni and Gary Householter, who takes him for daily walks in the woods. The dog likes to pick up trash and bring it to his owner for proper disposal.
He picks up soda cans and plastic cups. “Even bubble gum is okay,” Householter said, but the dog avoids cigarette butts. “I don’t know why, but he just doesn’t like those at all.
There wasn’t any special training involved, Householter said, although “He’s gotten better as time goes on. There are times I’ll see something in a ditch or well off the road and I can’t get to it, so I tell Timber to get it.”
The man-dog partnership won an award in 2004 for environmental stewardship from the Larimer County Commissioners.
Doug Ryan, an environmental health planner with the county, said “I’ve seen Timber at work, and he’s amazing. It’s not highly technical, but what he and Gary do is effective, and it shows that by sticking to something they can make a difference.”
