I sometimes think the purpose of small dogs (and border collies) is to teach human beings some humility. Small dogs, big egos.

We have an absolute rule in our farmhouse, no dogs are allowed on any furniture. Gus, who is six months old now, is teaching me some of the limits of dog training.

He is not like a Lab, who is eager to please. I sometimes think he is eager to love but not eager to please or obey. I’ve shooed him off of furniture 100 times, and he looks at me and jumps off. Two minutes later, he simply appears on the chair he likes, or returns to the one I ordered him off.

He is just there when I look.

I see he will go on the furniture when he pleases. I am giving it up, just as

idid when I saw that Fate had no interest in quarreling with sheep. Sometimes you just have to let them be the dogs that they are, you cannot always tailor them to your will. I don’t wish to break his spirit.

That is a lesson in humility, the small dogs think of themselves as royalty, everything is really theirs, you are just there to do their bidding, play and cuddle with.

Gus is fond of me, but he is not impressed by me. Labs and border collies have always been impressed by me, grateful to get outside and work or eat, and devoted because you give them what they love.

Gus is a dog of entitlement,  the Little Prince, everything here is really his, I am just a renter in his space. My chairs are his.