Thursday, September 17, 2009

Sit, Stay, Good Dog


Willa has got to be a candidate for Best Dog Ever. She has bonded with the sheep beautifully. Playful but gentle. She lays around with the lambs and even licks their ears. They don't mind the ear licking. They even seem to enjoy it. The bum sniffing though they could live without. Especially Sophia. Bum sniffing is off limits with Sophia. For the most part Willa has been accepted as one of the flock.


My Dad always said you could gauge the intelligence of a puppy by the size of the lump on it's head. If it had a large lump it was a smart dog. Old wives tale or not there's at least some truth to it in our case. Willa's lump is huge. She's mastering her commands in no time flat. Bandit, our shelter dog, on the other hand doesn't even have a lump. He's still working on sit after four years. Hey, I'm just sayin'.


We've only had one teeny, little, understandable issue with Willa so far. When I let her mingle with the chickens for the first time one afternoon she was fine and acted like she couldn't care less about them for the first 15 minutes or so. Then after a while she tried to introduce herself by sniffing some chicken bums. Chickens are not accustomed to having their bums sniffed as a greeting. Needless to say chaos ensued. Per the hen's request she's going to have to grow up some more before she'll be mingling with the chickens unsupervised.

6 comments:

LDWatkins said...

Beautiful dog and great picture!

Anonymous said...

I'm with Willa - firmly in the category of no bum sniffing allowed! ;)

Beautiful pics of the dogs - and I just wanted to say how much I've been enjoying your blog since I found it a couple of weeks ago.

:)

Wendy said...

Lump on the head?
Okay, what are you talking about?
I've never heard this one!
Please explain (to those of us with no lump, apparently).
=-)

Christine said...

Wendy,

There is a lump on a dog's head just at it's base where the head meets the neck. Centered between the ears. I've heard it called a smart bump or an intelligence bump. I think maybe it's more pronounced when they're puppies. I have no idea how this wives tale ever got started but in my experience with gads of farm dogs over the years there has at least seemed to be some truth to it. Or more than likely it might just be coincidence.

Nancy K. said...

OK ~ so Bella's got a HUGE bump. Perhaps it's time I started some basic obedience with her???

I'd hate to dispell your theory...

I'll let you know how it goes!

Renee said...

Warning - Maggie LOVES raw chicken. Even frozen. Willa is a beauty.