Rocky is a Black Lab/Sheltie mix. I know we’ve heard it all before. “A Sheltie and Lab mix? Isn’t there a size difference there?” Yes, it would appear so. Julius thinks he is the king of the house. Think the Taco Bell Chihuahua meets the most finicky cat you have ever met. He loves to sun himself outside or in a sunroom. Then there is Teddy. What can you say about Teddy. He is a Pomeranian who is far too cute and very, very, very rambunctious. (He just recently turned one and is always bouncing.)

The running joke is that Rocky is smart and wise, while Julius. Geez, what can you say about Julius. His is finicky and well, he isn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch but he is affectionate and very protective. Teddy on the other hand has simple goals; live life to the fullest, play until he is exhausted, investigate everything and pick on Rocky and Julius just for fun.

One day recently, our daughter kept trying to corral one dog at a time into the sunroom. She would shut the door talk with them for about 5 minutes, open the door, release the dog and go in search of the next one. Shortly thereafter she proudly showed me a chart that she had created.

Apparently, in what some might call “boredom” she decided to test their intelligence and speed. She covered each dog with a blanket and offered a treat outside to see who would get out the fastest. (Julius lost that one miserably since he loves blankets and heat.) She also put a treat under the blanket to see which one would get it out first. She put a treat under a bowl to see which one would figure out how to get to the treat first and then did one other test.

She measured their time in seconds, recorded the results, totaled their times and declared that Teddy was the fastest and smartest of the three of them. Rocky came in second and well, no surprise, Julius came in last. Her results confirmed what we all had long suspected.

She enjoyed showing her Dad the chart over dinner and explaining each of the results and how she had to coax Julius out. This dog science which was instigated by her was creative, a good opportunity to practice math, formulate a hypothesis, test it, and present her results. She got to work with the dogs and learn that each dog had different abilities and interests, even when food was involved.

It was fun to see her develop her own experiment based on her curiosity while she learned about the different breeds of dogs and how they respond. Sometimes “boredom” allows the mind to wander and figure out the answer to, “I wonder what would happen if….?” Thank goodness she had the time to experiment and explore. Some of the most amazing discoveries in the world have happened when someone not only asked questions but had the time to figure out the answers!