Here are a couple of photos my wife took early this summer of our daughter with our mutt, a Shih-tzu and Maltese mix. He's truly not the sharpest tool in the shed - it took him literally a month of training sessions to learn how to shake hands, when other dogs I have owned picked up this trick in about 5 minutes of training. Often he'll come bounding upstairs into our bedroom searching absent-mindedly for my wife when in fact he just passed her in our kitchen downstairs. Let me be frank - he is very often dumb as a rock!
However, he is a very sweet and loving dog, and is really good with children, even if neighbor kids come to our house and pick him up like a rag doll, smothering him with affection. He truly craves getting attention and affection and being held on the lap, especially when it comes to my wife, and he is a true "Mama's Boy". He shadows my wife constantly around the house, watching her every move and guarding her. He seems to have an innate sense of when one of us in "the pack" are not feeling well, and in particular he was on a heightened sense of awareness, empathy, and affection when my wife was recovering from her mastectomy surgery earlier this year.
As a typical 8-year-old, our daughter is into fantasy play, and she has no other brothers and sisters, so you can just imagine the rigors of play and make-believe our little mutt has to go through with her and her friends. He has of course been dressed up numerous times, plays the role of co-pilot on different ride-on jeep-type toys in the backyard, and gets hugged, squeezed, and carried about by her and all of her friends (we of course monitor to make sure he's being handled gently).
So, while he's by no means a genius, we're pretty happy with him in the three years we've owned him (we got him as a pup of about 7 months old) and he has been a good and loyal companion for us. At times he can be frustrating, but in the end he loves unconditionally and really just wants to be loved in return.
All I can say is these photos look so adorable!
ReplyDeleteThank you Donah, take care!
ReplyDeleteawww..i love this post. i suddenly missed my own dog, timmie. she's a lab who loves to run around even if i tie her down in one place. :) and your daughter is so adorable! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks very much, Diane! Timmie sounds great; dogs sure are great friends, aren't they?
DeleteHey, your daughter is so lovely. Your dog is very adorable really. How are you?
ReplyDeleteKumusta Kira? Thanks so much for your kind comments! Doing fine here, and I hope you are doing great too. Best regards!
DeleteIt's always been my opinion that the dogs who seem to be the dumbest are sometimes the smartest. At one time I had a beagle that I couldn't teach to do anything, and at the same time I had a Springer Spaniel who was very teachable. At some point I started to realize that the beagle might really be the smart one. She was thinking for herself, and she wasn't about to give in to my demands to sit unless she wanted to sit, and she wasn't listening when I called her until she was darn ready to come home regardless of the combination of threats and/or treats I offered. I think she was smart enough to have a mind of her own, so maybe your little dog has the same ideas. But it really doesn't matter, when dogs are concerned, any dog that loves you is a great dog !
ReplyDeleteI love your site too, great pictures and stories.
Hello Rob, thanks for your comment and kind compliments! I've discussed this topic several times with my wife and daughter, and I/we concur that your conclusion may very well be 100% right on target. I think dogs have their own agenda - what we might think of as stupidity or stubbornness could be, as you put it, a smart dog having a mind of his or her own. You're right, at the end of the day, if a dog loves you and is a loyal friend and guardian, that is what really matters. Take care!
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