It’s settled. Toby the Puppy has proven to me that he has deductive reasoning skills.

I’ll give you a case in point.

When my wife and I leave our new home for any length of time — and we keep the puppy at home by himself — we return and are greeted with tail wags and lots of love at the door by Toby.

He doesn’t make a sound. He just is happy to see his parents return.

Now … when we all are together — my wife, Toby the Puppy and yours truly — and someone knocks on the door, Toby goes nuts. He barks angrily with a bark that belies his diminutive size. In other words, he sounds much bigger than he is. My wife and I are grateful that he isn’t a yipper/yapper dog. He sounds tough.

My point? It is that Toby knows to bark when his mother and I are with him; when he’s alone, he presumes that we are on the other side of the door waiting to walk in.

Yes, Toby is one smart puppy. I keep telling you this. Please take my word for it. He knows many things.