Josh: The Smartest Dog in the World
- Meet Josh. From the way that Paulsen introduces him, you can tell this dog is majestic.
- Josh is still alive—somewhere between 18 and 20 years old. Though Paulsen doesn't say it, we know that means he's probably going to die soon.
- Josh is a border collie. He's super smart and full of love.
- Paulsen thinks that he's somehow different from other border collies. In fact, he thinks that Josh is basically a person.
- When they ride in the car together, Paulsen feels like Josh doesn't just listen; he understands.
- One time Paulsen put sunglasses and a baseball cap on Josh as a joke. Josh hammed it up.
- Paulsen considers having Josh as one of the major things that's happened in his life. Sort of like getting married or joining the army. Clearly, this dog is very special.
- Josh came to Paulsen because he was a "bad" dog. He had killed a duck by accident.
- Josh is always helpful around the house. The dog fetches Paulsen's horse when he wants to saddle her.
- The dog's also good at solving complicated problems. He helps Paulsen irrigate a ditch, which is an intricate job.
- Josh also likes to herd people at parties and he keeps an eye on them. At the end of the night, he escorts them one by one to their cars.
- Once Paulsen went to a special border collie festival. He was really impressed by the dogs. They went about their work without having to be told what to do.
- Josh knows a lot of vocabulary words, including "sub sandwich" and "Dairy Queen." Sounds like Paulsen doesn't have the most healthy diet. This dog really does understand English.
- Josh is really funny about playing games. He's all about a game the first five tries, but that's it. If you try to play a sixth time, he acts like you're crazy.
- Same thing with tricks. He's into it at first. Five times later, that's that.
- One time Paulsen tries to get Josh to catch a rat. Josh catches it, realizes it's a rat, and looks at Paulsen like, "Seriously?" He was so mad about it that he put a dead gopher in Paulsen's shoe the next day. Howdya like them apples, Gary?
- By the way, Josh is super ticklish. Paulsen tickles him all the time.
- One time, when Paulsen is feeling very depressed about the death of a friend, Josh drags him out of his chair and tickles him. It cheers Paulsen up instantly.
- Josh is always by Paulsen's side. He even goes with him on an author tour.
- Paulsen remembers a time when he was riding a horse through the mountains. Josh was with him.
- Josh saw that sometimes animals or snakes would scare the horse.
- Now, Josh always leads the way up those mountains so he can watch out for anything that might startle the horse.
- Even the horse loves Josh, nuzzling him gently on the trail.
- This image is burned in Paulsen's mind: Josh trotting up ahead, looking back at him to make sure he'll catch up.