Dog lovers will always have their favourite breed. Some people love Labs, some love Cockers etc. Well I don't really have a favourite breed.

I have owned, bred, trained and shown - Silkies, Lhasa's, GSD, Springer, Great Danes, Afghans, Poodles 3 sizes, Cavalier, Golden Retriever, Huskies, Maltese, Labs, Cattle dogs, Kelpies, Foxies, Pugs, Aussie shepherds, Papillon, Bull Mastiff, Curly coated Retrievers and a few of questionable breeding.

Among all of these beautiful dogs, some do shine. The smartest dog I ever had the joy to deal with was an Afghan Hound! I purchased her at 9 months old, fresh out of a big Kennel, and she took to home life like a duck to water. She was instantly toilet trained, understood every command within minutes, could open doors, help herself to the dog food in the cupboard and had a fabulous temperament. But she hated my Brother on site and wanted to kill him every time he came to visit - I had to lock her up.

At the time I also had a Great Dane pup and a Toy Poodle. We had a postage stamp front yard that was the 'before bed' twinkle spot for the dogs. Every night at about 11.00pm I would put them out to go twinkle while I got ready for bed, and then they would come in for the night and hop into bed with me. One night, after having put them out, when I called them in - only Sparky the Poodle came in. When I went out to see why, I was beside myself - both the Afghan and the Dane were missing. We had a brick wall of a fence and a high gate that was firmly shut.

That night my next door neighbour was robbed - while she slept in her bed!

To cut a longer story shorter, the police assumed that the dogs were taken by the would be thief to prevent them barking while he did his robbery. The thief must have spent quite a lot of time watching us to get the routine and must also have been making friends with the dogs while I cleaned my teeth each night.

The dogs were missing for a week. Eventually they were seen first at Hornsby, and over the next few days slowly worked their way back towards Chatswood where I lived (about a 1/2 hour drive). They took the back roads and despite many people seeing them and trying to coax them in, my lovely dogs would go near NO ONE.

They were observed by quite a few people who called to tell me (I had put up posters everywhere, radio ads, alerted all vets etc) they had seen them and what they were doing. The Afghan was 2 years old, the Dane only 6 months.

As it transpired, the Afghan was setting the course home and even down to crossing roads safely, was guiding the young, dopey pup (ever had a Dane pup?) across the roads at crossings or lights!! She would not let the pup go to anyone, physically blocking and growling at her if she even thought about it.

That Afghan was coming home with her friend and she wasn't going to trust anyone else again! And yes they made it home, safely but very thin (they wouldn't take food en-route) and the Afghan needed a total body clip. Her name was Lauretta and I will never forget her.

So when people tell me Afghans are the dumbest dog - I just agree. People who think they are dumb probably don't have the intellect required to own one!

I have been 'foster' mum to little Yoshi for over a year now and he soon will be re-united with his real mum. Before he came I had only read a little about the Papillon, I really had never met one for real. Yoshi is definitely going onto my list of amazing dogs and I will miss him enormously when he goes.

Paps (short for Papillon - which is French for butterfly - see the ears!) are just about as intelligent as you can get in a dog. I don't mean the obedience kind of smarts, although they excel at that also, I mean the kind of intelligence where a dog can suss out a problem and come up with a solution all by themselves. Like Lauretta with her road sense. Yoshi has managed to manipulate his way into our hearts, in fact, everyone who meets him thinks he is the best.

What does he do that is so amazing? He is all things to all people. For example his 'real' mum is 18 years old and likes to cuddle him at night and carry him under her arm all day. He goes right along with this happily - for her. My Son is 20 and likes to throw the balls for our Golden Retriever to fetch and watch Yoshi run after the bigger dog and try to get the ball away. Now Yoshi has sussed that he cant get the ball because Bailey (the Retriever) is too big and wont let him. So what does Yoshi do? He waits for the game to get going, then pics a point on the fence with tall grass or weeds, runs toward it and starts to bark, looking like he is onto a great mouse hunt. Bailey then drops the ball, runs to where Yoshi is barking and starts to search for the mouse. As soon as Bailey is well into the search, Yoshi will sneak away quietly and get the ball.

Bailey falls for this every day!!! Who said Goldens were one of the smartest breeds?

We have 7 dogs at home right now. Only Trevor (my daughters toy poodle) is allowed inside to sleep (the others have cosy beds on the verandah). This is because the 7 dogs all want to sleep with our daughter and they ended up kicking her out of her own bed! So we decided enough was enough. One dog on a bed is elegant sufficiency. But Yoshi knows it is also about fairness - he knows we cant look into 6 pairs of pleading eyes and choose. So he figured out that when all the others are comfy in bed and asleep, he sneaks around to the front door which is near the TV room, and ever so quietly whines. As he is alone and I don't have to deal with any guilt issues, I let him in of course. After he has had his cuddle and individual 'quality' time, he happily goes out, sneaks back to his bed and goes to sleep.

Paps have a silky, semi long coat but they require very little grooming. A good brush once per week is more than enough. They are not 'Yappy' dogs and only bark a little to warn of burglars, grasshoppers and mice. They love a game but can sleep happily on the couch all day if required. Paps are friendly with visitors if they have been socialised properly. They are clean in the house and don't lose copious amounts of hair. They are really good with older children (young ones would be too rough in most cases). And they are lovable to a fault.

I love the little Yosh meister and he will be sorely missed. They really are a great breed to consider and I think they would be hugely popular if only people knew....