I was 15 minutes into the interview when I realized a slight problem: My subject was asleep. Like, snoring asleep. A not-waking-up-till-the-TV-goes-off kind of sleep. Dead to the world.
But, being a professional and all, I kept asking questions. I asked how he got his name. I asked for the latest skill he’s learned. I asked about the attention, the cameras, the nonstop pulls on his schedule. And it was a good thing I didn’t need him to answer any of this. Natty, the Nationals’ team dog, has people for that.
“He had a long photo shoot today,” Jackie Cheshire, one of Natty’s two handlers, told me. “This is his nap.”
It’s not easy work, you know, accepting all these pets, being such a good boy all the time. In his first season with the Nationals, Natty, a 6-month-old lab-retriever mix, has been everywhere. He was in a video with James Wood pandering for All-Star votes. He has made many appearances at Nationals Park, where he’ll trot around the clubhouse, then the field, then wherever the hell he wants, often posing with a player or five. He was even featured by WeRateDogs on X. (Hello, 9.1 million followers, here is my very long tongue and an adorable photo of me sleeping with a baseball glove as my pillow.) The account rated Natty a 13 out of 10.
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Smart marketing by the Nationals. Dogged, even. (Sorry, sorry.) On Tuesday, the team is throwing Natty a birthday party, which could be a decent way to get some people to a Nats-Rockies game in late August. There will be a combine for dogs, including a “showcase of obedience on the pitcher’s mound,” according to the press release. There will also be, as ever, a lot of people looking for Natty, which has doubled as an important part of his training this summer. Natty is in the process of becoming a service dog with an organization called Canine Companions.
“He’s had to learn that when he’s at the park, the rules are a little bit different for him,” Cheshire explained, petting Natty while he kept snoozing in her lap. Natty splits his time between Cheshire and Laura Toelle, who joined the interview. It was Natty’s first ever Zoom call. I also hope, for his sake, that it was his last.
“We always let the puppies engage with people because we want them to be well-socialized and meet people of different races and different abilities and not be afraid,” Cheshire continued. “But then at some point of raising them, we start telling people: ‘No, you can’t pet them when they’re out in public, because we don’t want them to seek out being pet.’ Service dogs are supposed to be focused on their person and not distracted by every person out in the community.”
A little inside baseball on covering the sport: If I want to interview a player — like, say, James Wood — there’s an allotted time for reporters to be in the clubhouse before each game. I will typically hover near his locker, wait for him to pop into the room, then ask if he has a few minutes, which is never really a few minutes (which he knows because he’s a pro at this, among other things). If he has the time, we chat. If he doesn’t, we’ll plan to later. Simple, done.
Now if I want to ask manager Blake Butera a question, he has two press conferences a day, one before each game, one after. If I want to catch someone in the front office, the best bet is to hang around the dugout during batting practice. But if I want to write about Natty? When I asked a member of the PR staff in June, she responded, straight-faced, that “I’m not actually in charge of his schedule, someone in corporate partnerships is, but he’s had so much media that whenever I see his handlers, I tell them we have this, this, this and this.” I noted that Natty seems to have a lot of handlers.
“Oh, God,” she responded. “So many.”
Eventually, I squeezed my way onto Natty’s schedule. We talked. He mostly slept. And later, when we were setting up photos, the PR staffer noted that timing could change because of Natty’s breaks to rest or go potty. This pup, he’s just like us.
“We are always training,” Toelle said. “Everything is a training opportunity. Even if he’s just sitting with us at a coffee shop, that’s training. It may not look like training, but he’s absolutely gaining skills that will benefit him when he goes on to become a service dog.”
As for those questions I mentioned earlier, Toelle and Cheshire helped fill in the gaps. The Nationals worked with Canine Companions to name Natty, though there are rules when it comes to naming service dogs. Two hard syllables are preferred, Cheshire told me, especially since they don’t know what kind of disability Natty’s eventual owner will have. These parameters pushed “James Woof” out of the running.
As for Natty’s latest skills, they were still hammering the basics, such as sit, down and stand, when we spoke earlier this summer. But the goal is for Toelle and Cheshire to teach Natty about 35 cues before they pass him off to professional trainers next August. With Toelle and Cheshire, a high-level cue will have him stand on his hind legs while pressing his front paws on a wall. That will set up the professional trainers to teach Natty how to operate light switches or press a button for electric handicap doors.
“I like to say that we teach him basic math and they teach him algebra,” Cheshire said. “We give him that foundation that they can build on.”
Which brings us to the bittersweet part of Natty’s setup with the Nats. After spending his first 18 months with Cheshire and Toelle, Natty will do a half-year with the pro trainers on Long Island, then set off for life as a full-time service dog. In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk, much of it warranted, about the Nationals not keeping their stars around long term. But in this one case, the team will actually have no choice, raising questions about whether they might look to trade Natty for prospects over the winter.
(Pause for effect.)
(Pause a little longer to consider writing a better joke.)
Just kidding, of course! He’s not going anywhere quite yet.
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