PINEDALE — What do you get when you mix a border collie and a golden retriever?
You get the best hardware store-helping, rooster-herding, upside-down, head-standing dog around.
His name is Coop, and he’s got the door greeter position at the A to Z Hardware Store in Pinedale locked up tight, so don’t even think about applying. The job has been filled.
Coop isn’t short for anything, and it’s not a nickname.
“I wanted something simple, you know?” Coop’s owner, Trish Grove, told Cowboy State Daily. “Something that would be easy for the kids, because I have lots of grandkids, and he is very attached to all of them.”
In fact, Coop likes kids so much, he’s apt to follow them from the hardware store all the way down to the local library a little over a half mile away.
“I looked up one day and couldn’t find him anywhere,” Grove said. “I about had a heart attack. Turned out he’d followed some kids down to the library, and there they all were reading a book.”
May I Take That Package For you?
Grove has since gotten him a brand-new collar, one that not only has his name in big letters, but her name and her phone number as well. No more impromptu excursions.
That’s OK with Coop, because the only thing he loves more than following children around is following Grove to work at A to Z Hardware Store, where Grove is store manager.
“He’s lost on the days he doesn’t get to come to work because I have a day off,” she added.
Unless, of course, they’re walking around outside. Coop knows exactly what to do when he sees that mean old rooster wandering around who likes to try chasing Grove around.
“Coop would never hurt him, but he’s my protector,” Grove said.
So, he gently herds the rooster away, if it comes too close.
At work, Grove has taught Coop several tricks. He takes empty boxes from the front of the store to the back. He picks up trash from around the store and brings it to the front so it can be thrown away.
Everyone’s favorite trick, though, is how he’ll bring small packages up to the counter for customers.
“He kind of picked that up on his own to a degree,” Grove said. “I mean I encouraged it, but he figured things out really fast.”
If customers prove slow to catch on, Coop will gently nudge their hand to let them know he’s there and ready for work.
Once he has a package in jaw, he’ll speed it to the counter right away, standing up on both hind legs to deposit it on the counter for the cashier.
Then he wanders in behind the register for the expected Scooby snack.
“There’s only been a couple of people who didn’t understand what he’s trying to do,” Grove said. “But they get it for the most part, and they enjoy him. Especially since we have a lot of return customers. And it’s a small town, so we have lots of return customers and word of mouth has definitely made it around town.”
Coop loves to take packages to the register for customers. Because, after that, he gets a Scooby Snack. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Coop waits by the door — one of his favorite spots — for a customer to come in. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
A customer pets Coop after the dog successfully delivers his package to the register. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Trish Grove and Coop help a customer find just the right tool at A To Z Hardware in Pinedale. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Trish Grove gives Coop a few well-deserved ear scratches. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Coop's other favorite spot, curled up under the cash register. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Coop waits patiently for customers to enter the store so he can follow them and help them carry their packages to the front. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Trish Grove feeds Coop a treat after he successfully carries a package to the register for a customer. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Trish Grove with her dog, Coop, the official door greeter and goofball full of love who works at A to Z Hardware in Pinedale. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Even Coop gets a break every once in awhile. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Coop hangs out at the cash register with a customer after delivering a package to the cashier for him. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Puppy Love
Grove has been manager of the A to Z Hardware Store in Pinedale for the past 23 years and she said the store has always had dogs as long as she can remember.
The owner had a pair of dogs who stayed in the back of the store, as did she. After her dogs died, she decided her next pet should have a job at the store, rather than just hanging around.
She found Coop through a Facebook post from a woman in Afton.
“She posted a picture of him on Facebook,” Grove said, scrolling on her phone to a picture of Coop as a puppy. “See that face? How can you pass that face up? So, I said that’s the one I want.”
Grove’s daughter happened to have an errand over in Afton, so she actually picked Coop up and brought him home. He’s been entertaining everyone ever since — and Grove has all the videos to prove it.
There are videos of him as a puppy carrying boxes to the back. There are videos of him hunting caterpillars. And there are videos of him in oddball poses.
Like the time he was standing on his head, chewing on one paw while his tail wagged high up in the sky.
Someone off-camera said his name, however, and he instantly righted himself, as if nobody had been watching his goofy pose before, ears cocked to attention.
“He’s a goof,” Grove said. “He thinks he’s a lapdog, but he’s too big. If I’m sitting in my recliner, he’ll literally lay on my legs like he’s some kind of lap dog. But, dude, you’re too big.”
That’s what you get, though, when you mix a border collie and a golden retriever together.
An irresistible goofball of huge love, charming everyone he meets into treats or belly rubs — or both — if his tail can just swing it.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
