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In my novels GLORY, RED HOT PROPERTY, RED HOT LIBERTY, & SHOW DOG SINGS THE BLUES, I feature Australian Shepherds who are based on my real-life dogs. Both girls have passed on now, however they are immortalized forever in my fiction.

Although there is humor in these novels (indeed, all but GLORY are humor novels) the dog characters themselves are oh-so-serious. In real life my two dogs were oh-so-serious. They say that dogs reflect much of their people’s temperament and this makes sense because, although I’m famous for writing humor, I’m one of the most deadly serious people you’ll ever meet. (Becoming a humor writer was a highly unexpected career move!)

I am now writing a new paranormal thriller named THRESHOLD. It’s one that I’ve been working on for over a decade and it, too, features an Australian Shepherd. (They say to write about what you know, and I do know Aussies best.) Concerned that I may overdose my readers on the breed, I started thinking about how I could make this Aussie different from those in my other novels. I began by changing her color from blue merle to black tri and her eyes from blue to brown. Then, instead of a dignified name like my other canine characters have (Hallelujah and Talisman) I named this new Aussie, Wigglebutt. I also thought I might make her a bit of a goofball to give her a distinctive character. However, having never had a goofy dog, I needed ideas. So, I did what I always do when I need ideas, I asked my Facebook and Twitter friends. The question I asked was, “In what ways are your dogs goofy?

Boy, was I inundated with responses!

First of all, a visual aid. This was sent to me for my wicked dog contest, but I thought it more appropriate to the subject of goofy dogs:

Then one of my Twitter friends told me that her Golden Retriever has been waiting three years for a squirrel to come back down a tree. Seriously.

My Facebook friend, Evie Douglas, told me that when Stash is doing something that Rosie thinks is wrong, she slaps his face with her paw. (A feisty woman after my own heart!)

Jenn Marks has a dog named Austin who likes to throw toys at her.

Evelyn Vinogradov’s dog Tux marches in place with his hind legs when you scratch the top of his butt.

Dee Amrose-Stahl’s Corgi, Tempe, likes to “tell” on her brothers. If there’s anything out of sorts in the house, Dee looks at Tempe and asks, “Who did that?” Tempe answers with a high, loud, rooster-like howl, “Ahhhhh-rrrrrooooo-ooooo!” The worse the offense, the more syllables “roo” gets!

Mary Arnold’s dog Tush cannot greet anyone she knows without SOMETHING in her mouth. Usually, it’s a toy, sometimes the plastic plate the cat’s food was on. Or, in an emergency, a piece of paper or rock. Then she wiggles sideways so that her butt reaches the person at the same time as her front end.

(Don’t you just wonder what they are thinking?!)

ShanAnne Edward’s dog Mimi is nicknamed ChaCha because she wiggles so hard she looks like a dancer and she makes everyone smile. And her dog Mariah smiles so hard she sneezes. She likes to smile to break tension, get out of something she doesn’t like doing, or to greet kids. One time a child was scared by Mariah’s smile and Mariah tried to comfort the child by smiling hard and harder…which frightened the child even more. Finally, ShanAnne had to intervene and explain that Mariah was smiling. Now the child is proud to show off her smiling new canine friend to her family.

Karen Youmans’ Aussie, Mojo, tries to alleviate tension in Karen’s life with playtime. One day Karen was working at her computer and was particularly stressed. When she went to stand up, she couldn’t find her feet as Mojo had placed every toy, sock, and scrap of paper he could find on her feet!

When Cinnie’s people get home from work, Cinnie has to tell them everything that has happened while they were gone. She can keep this up for a good five minutes and has quite a vocabulary. At her very first agility trial, she jumped up on the pause table, did a perfect sit, and then noticed the spectators. She was mesmerized. It was like she was so pleased to have everyone looking at her. She started grinning towards the stands. People started laughing and clapping, and she just kept grinning bigger and bigger. It’s like she thought she was finally getting a portion of all the adulation she was due! To this day she still dances when she hears the applause at the end of a good run.

And Laura De La Cruz’s Border Collie went down the road to pick up some wayward goats and came back five minutes later with a goat and a soccer ball he had found along the way. He marched the goat to the pen, waited for Laura to close the gate, and then dropped the ball at her feet. (Nothing wrong with mixing a little work with pleasure!)

All of this has given me some fun ideas with which to develop Wigglebutt. It also made me realize that one of the most delightful aspects of our animal companions’ character is their capacity for simple joy. We could learn a lot from them.

Now excuse me while I grin, sing, wiggle my butt, and go look for the squirrel that I’m certain is still up in that tree somewhere!

Please join me on Facebook and Twitter and share your wonderful animal tales with me!

Copyright © 2011 by Devin O’Branagan

Photo of Tyler by Valorie Marks

Devin O’Branagan is the author of the RED HOT novels, a hilarious chick-lit series, and the legend of GLORY, a young adult vampire series. Devin is crazy passionate about animals and her books abound with marvelous four-legged characters. Devin is a member of the Dog Writers Association of America, and lives in Colorado.

Visit her website at www.DevinWrites.com to learn about the dogs and cats featured in her books, and sign up for her monthly eNewsletter. Email her at Devin@DevinWrites.com.