I decided to take a portrait of Gus today, his face is evolving. Somebody said he looked like Winston Churchill, I thought he looks like Yoda in Star Wars.

This morning, Maria and I were asleep in bed when this small tornado crawled up the bed – yes, he is in bed now at night mostly – and started licking each of us furiously, making all kinds of weird grunting and snorting sounds. We were both astonished, no dog of ours had ever done this before, and after a couple of frantic minutes, he crawled down between us, climbed onto my stomach and went to sleep.

It seems that almost every day Gus is doing something we have not seen a dog do before, from dragging his bed from room to room to nap on to sitting on a donkey’s back.

I was right in one thing, I did not know what having a small dog was like, and that is a good reason for having one for me, as I write about dogs. Gus is smarter than I expected, more agile than I expected, less needy than I expected, more playful than I expected, tougher than I expected.

He is harder to train than a large dog, I think, because is so active and distractable. He pays attention to everyone and everything. It is difficult to keep him off of sofas and beds, his legs are like rubber springs, he can jump five feet in the air from a sitting position. He actually bounces.

Gus is a natural farm dog, he is comfortable in the pasture, savvy around reading animals, effective at winning their trust and comfort.  He knows when to challenge the sheep and he knows when to get out of the way. Despite my protestations, he already has a Navy fleece sweater, our vet says it is a must for upstate New York at times, he does not have the body mass or heat to withstand the sub-zero temperatures of upstate New York in February.

The thing about Gus is that he is just a lot of fun. Laughter and wonder follow him around. He loves to ride along in the car, he loves to go outside, he loves to play with Fate and try to play with Red, he loves to hop up in my lap and shower me with licks.

He is devoted to Maria and follows her everywhere. He loves to sleep at my feet while I write. He is a chow hound who will eat almost anything. He has a small bladder and sometimes has accidents on the kitchen floor.  He is prone to flatulence. He loves Fate and Red.

Gus is loaded with personality, he is a character, full of himself, curious, willful,  and full of mischief.

Gus has been good for me. He makes me laugh a lot and he challenges my assumptions about things and has taught me a lot about dogs, not just the dogs I have known and loved. That is a real gift.

So lots to learn with Gus. I love his affection for people and he shows great promise as a therapy dog.

Maria and I are very happy to have Gus, just as we are happy to have Fate and Red. Each of them already seemed like the perfect dog for us, the three of them the perfect pack for us.