Whereas Angus is fiercely independent, Walnut is clingy. He hates it when we have to leave for work, or if we leave him in the car when we dash into the store (no we don't leave him in a hot car). On work days, he will recognise the cues that say we are about to leave. For instance, he knows when we've had our second cup of coffee, and that is the time to start pacing. After Kristie gets out of the shower, he gets a bit more agitated. This behaviour escalates until we give them their "leaving treat" and we head off to work. I'm pretty sure that if he could manage it, he'd cripple us, ala Kathy Bates in Misery, so that we would never leave his side.
Angus is the kind of dog that will often want nothing to do with us, unless it fulfils his needs. Walnut on the other hand seems to live his life to make us happy. Of of Walnut's favourite games is to deliver our clothes to us, pack mule style, when we're doing our ironing. We always do our ironing on the evening before the next day of work. So we'll go into the bedroom, and call Walnut in so that we can lay the clothes on his back, and he delivers it to us in the other room. When we praise him for his help, he is elated! His tail wags, he dances around, he's as happy as an Angus in poop.
Another way that he is different from Angus is that he LOVES to cuddle; not with me, but he loves cuddling with Kristie. On occasion he will cuddle with me if Kristie isn't around, but Walnut's place is in Kristie's lap. I think he doesn't like cuddling with me as much as I'm a fidgeter. If I'm petting him, and I feel a knot in his fur, then I have to cut out the knot. Or if he has eye boogers, I have to clean them out. Ok, I can understand why he prefers Kristie.
He is also vastly different in the way he eats. Angus, although he is slowing down as he ages, pretty much gobbles up his food as fast as possible, where as Walnut is comfortable to self regulate; a couple pieces of kibble here, a bite or two there. He grazes throughout the day.
Let's see, how else is Walnut different... Oh yeah, he listens! We tell him to come, and he'll come, we tell him to stay, and he'll stay, we tell him to get away from that poop, and Angus will check him into the boards to get to it.
Oh, and he's a clean dog! We almost never have to bath him! He's probably got OCD or something, but that dog is never dirty! Whereas Angus will plough through a mud puddle like an advertisement for a 4X4 truck, Walnut would rather build a bridge over muddy water than go through it.
He's smart too! I'm sorry, I know Angus is my dog, and I love him dearly, but he's a freaking idot! Walnut, while not as smart as say a board collie, is pretty smart! He wouldn't be the founder of dog Mensa, but he'd definitely be in dog Mensa. We've been penning them in when we leave the house lately using a jury rigged pen I assembled from laundry racks, and a few days ago, we had to come back into the house multiple times as he had escaped from his pen and started barking at us from the Kitchen.
He's also a very gentle dog. For instance, when we play fight, which is never as rough and tumble as when Angus and I play fight, he refuses even to mouth my hands in play. It is like he knows his teeth can be weapons, and you just don't do that! Which speaks to his demeanour as a whole. If Walnut were a kid, he'd be the geeky hallway monitor telling the other kids to stop running in the halls and to quit rough-housing.
He's a fantastic, loving and playful dog, and I'm glad he is in our lives.
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