Doggie of the Day for December 24th

He is very cheeky and energetic and loves nothing more than a good game with his squeaky ball. That ball is so precious to him and he’ll play with it for as long as we let him. Every day we have to find a new hiding place for it because William has a keen nose and an even keener memory, and he thinks it’s a terrific game to search every spot we’ve ever hidden it before. He remembers where it’s hidden better than we do!

When we brought him home William was so small you could hold him in your cupped hands, but in hindsight every little quirk that made him special was already there. His personality is very endearing and he has a way of looking patiently at you when you talk, with his head cocked to the side, that makes you feel that he wants to understand. A few times he has even taught himself commands that we never set out to teach him. Saying “get it” and pointing means to get a toy and put it at our feet for throwing, but we never taught him that the way we did “sit” and “down”. He just picks up phrases if we use them often enough. We know he understands “get it” because if we point somewhere there’s no toy and tell him to get it, he’ll still run over and search in that area. I don’t know if all dogs do that, but as first time dog owners it was pretty amazing to us!

It might sound like he’s got us wrapped around his little paw, but in truth William is a pretty well behaved little guy. He’s so smart and learns fast, especially if there are food rewards, but even if there’s just a kind word and a pat on offer. He loves to cuddle and it’s so funny to see him nodding off to sleep when you rub his little tummy. He can always make us laugh.

We just plain love our little guy. William has become so special to us that we know we’ll never be without a dog again.