I had lunch with a good friend yesterday, a former veterinarian, and he admitted to being appalled at my getting a small dog like Gus. “You and I are not small dog people,” he said, “we are big working dog people.” I understand what he meant, he is a working dog lover and so am I, my favorite breed is border collie, Labs are right behind.

Working dogs are bred to work with people, they are trainable, loyal and you can do all kinds of things with them, from therapy work to hunting to long walks in the field. I love border collies, we just connect with one another, but border collies, I told my friend, are very serious dogs.

They take work seriously, like humans, and they are almost always focused on getting to work and doing their work. Gus, I said, is fun, he loves to work, but he doesn’t take it all that seriously.  He is always looking back to where I am, Maria is. The border collies do not take their eyes off of the sheep.

Gus is having a good time, and we have a good time watching him have a good time. My friend said I could do a great service to small dogs if I wrote about them as being dogs, and not little stuffed animal toys. I have already been doing that, I said, I have always seen Gus as a dog and trained him that way.

But much as I love the border collies, a breed I will never turn away from, I have to admit that they are not generally fun. Very purposeful creatures. Gus is a riot, I can’t count how many times he makes me and Maria laugh in a day. He is faintly ridiculous, I think, but doesn’t know that, and he definitely has a sense of humor. Even when working.

In the mornings now, he loves to run out into the field with the border collies, and go to work..sort of.