Dogs are fun but sure can be strange

This has puzzled me for some time and I am hoping somebody out there in blogspace can help me out. Pete, the happy dog and I were taking our evening stroll through the neighborhood. As is his custom, he stopped next door and fired at our neighbor's fence. We strode along for a while when he suddenly stopped, laid down and started rolling back and forth on his back. This goes on for 15 seconds or so and then he jumps up as if he is refreshed.

This is not the only odd thing the Happy Dog does.

We go on for a while when he stops for what I can only call a phantom pee. Oh, he goes through the motions and he looks like he is doing something. But one of the advantages of walking in the snow is you can always see the damage. There was nothing on the snow, not even a droplet. Yet he looked as happy as ever and even tossed a baleful look at the window. Then it hit me. He does this only at specific houses -- houses that have dogs living there.

He has plenty of the real thing, too and there doesn't be a pattern. He is an equal opportunity fellow that way.

So I am now truly puzzled. I think I understand why they sniff other dogs' efforts. They are checking out the competition as it were. Sometimes, he offers an editorial view of his own. But this phantom pee stuff is weird.

The Happy Dog has another oddity that came out on this walk. He suddenly veered into a snowbank sniffing up a storm. He came up for air covered with snow and had some ice under his paw that he demanded I remove immediately. Now I think he is a bright dog. So, doesn't he know that if you dive into a snowbank, you are coming up full of snow and ice?

He's a wonderful dog -- a terrific companion and watchdog for my wife when I work at night. Most people who meet him comment on his sweet disposition and agree that the papers that claimed he is a daschund/terrier is incorrect. (Out vet put it this way: "Let's just say that whatever daschund heritage he has, it is a very distant relative.)

But there has to be something in his heritage that causes this bizarre behavior. Hopefully, there is a dog person out there who can give me a hint.