THE most popular employee at the Barrier Stationers on Argent Street is so admired that visitors stop in to see her even when they aren’t shopping.
Maggie the Maltese Shih Tzu sits on the counter in the window of the newsagent, ready to greet customers with likes in return for pats.
Her owners Helen and Richard say she learned to be a shop dog from the best.
“Peppa was the original shop dog,” Helen said.
“She had diabetes, and I knew I was going to lose her. I didn’t know how I was going to cope without a dog.”
Maggie was one year old when Peppa passed away, and Helen said she learned everything she knows about being a shop dog from Peppa’s guidance.
For six months after Peppa’s passing, Maggie wouldn’t get up on the counter, she’d stay in her cradle behind the register.
“Then she started getting up there, and now she’s the boss,” Helen said.
“People come in every day to say hi to her, especially a lot of older people.
“If they lose a pet they know they’re too old to get another dog, so they walk down the street and come and visit her.”
She spends half her day watching passers-by out the window from the shop counter, and the other half taking naps in her cradle.
For her favourite customers, like a man who delivers the newspaper, she’ll jump straight up out of the cradle to come and offer licks.
“When he comes in, she goes absolutely ballistic,” Helen said.
“She loves little children too, she loves everyone. I don’t think she has a bad bone in her body.”
Helen said that Maggie has the ability to brighten everyone’s day, which is what makes her so popular.
“She treats everyone like they’re the most important person in the world!” she said.
