Animal Behavior

My dog, Snickers, just did something that really impressed me. Snickers is a rambunctious 3 year-old rat terrier. He is not neutered and he is constantly trying to hump our sweet, two toothed, 14 year-old sheltie mix, Dusty.

Snickers loves to be outside. He happily spends hours outside patrolling the yard, barking at passers-by and chasing "critters." Dusty, on the other hand, prefers to beg people for pets or lie down on the living room floor and rest his weary old bones. He usually only goes outside to toilet himself or to add his voice to Snickers' in "protecting" the homestead.

A few minutes ago, I let Snickers into the house from about an hour and a half outside guard-dog duty. No sooner had I sat in my chair than Snickers started to climb up on Dusty's back.

"Wonderful," I thought. "Snickers is going to try to hump Dusty again."

As Snickers started to mount Dusty, I waited to see if Dusty would protect himself, but I also got ready to shoe Snickers off of him if the need should arise. But then, Snickers did something unusual. Rather than grab Dusty's body and start moving his hips, Snickers grabbed Dusty's body and started using his teeth to pick at a spot over Dusty's right eye.

I watched curiously. At first, I was not sure that Snickers was picking at something. I thought maybe he was just being a pest, as usual. And Dusty, well, Snickers wasn't bothering him too much. So good old Dusty just sat there and panted. But after about half a minute, Dusty suddenly barked and swung around at Snickers. Dusty only has two teeth, but he is bigger and older than Snickers. And Snickers backed off quickly.

Curious what Snickers had been doing that got him into trouble, I called Dusty over to me. He came and I took his head in my hands. Gently, I began to push his fur out of the way near where his hair was ruffled. I started to see something in his hair but Dusty jerked his head away from me so I couldn't make out what the thing was.

I took Dusty's head more firmly in my hands. This time, he was not permitted to jerk away from me before I saw what was in his hair. It was a tick! It's head was fully buried in my poor dog's flesh.

Dad helped me get the tick out of Dusty's face. But I am absolutely amazed that Snickers, who seems oblivious to anything not food or stranger related, is the one who detected the tick and alerted us to its presence in the first place. And I am truly impressed that he moved to take care of the older dog's unrealized personal need. I guess that is what we humans call "family."