July 19, 2026

Jet, the Rat-Catching Dog Who Learned to Pull Pints

Meet Jet, the black Labrador from Preston who caught rats by day and, according to a 1953 newspaper feature, could pour beer and serve customers behind the bar.

In 1953, a paper shared several photos of Jet, the black Labrador pouring beer at a pub, but that wasn’t even the most impressive thing about her. Jet was owned by Jimmy Gainer, a professional rat catcher from Preston, England, and her main job was to help him take care of pesky rats and mice. Just another working dog doing her part.

According to a double-page feature in the Sunday Mirror published in February 1953, Jet had some other cool talent too. The photos showed her standing on her hind legs, carefully pouring beer from a bottle for customers. She could also take payments, drop the money in the till, and hand back change, which Jimmy joked gave the other barmaids a run for their money.

Whether Jet actually worked at the pub on the regular is a bit questionable. The whole thing was likely staged for the paper, and it seems everyone knew that. Still, Jet looked pretty natural behind the bar, almost like she’d been serving customers for ages.

Jimmy mentioned she still had room to improve. "Mind you," he told the paper, "the dog isn't perfect." She hadn't yet learned to play the pub piano or sing "Nellie Dean," a popular sing-along song at the time.

We don’t really know what happened to Jet after those photos were taken. Like many charming stories from that time, her tale sort of just fades away. What we do have are some delightful photos of a hardworking rat-catching dog picking up a second job behind the bar, along with a proud owner who loved letting her shine.

Animals with jobs

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