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8 Things Penny Does That Make Me Laugh 

Penny's weird sitting position.

Hi, I’m Savanna! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my spunky Chihuahua mix, Penny.

Dogs can really get up to some crazy antics, and Penny is no exception. She’s always doing the craziest things that keep me entertained. Most of the things she does, I don’t think she has any idea that they’re funny to me. She’s just being a dog.

Penny’s personality really is something else and I never know what she’ll do next. But there are other things she does pretty consistently that always get a chuckle out of me. Here are the silly things my dog does to make me laugh.

divider dog paws 4 oct 2024

The 8 Funny Things Penny Does:

1. She Sits in Weird Positions

I don’t have a lot of experience with dog ownership, but I do know how a dog is typically supposed to sit, and it typically involves having all four paws flat on the floor. It seems like Penny doesn’t know how a dog is supposed to sit though, or she just sits how she’s most comfortable.

She loves to sit with her tail underneath her, with her back legs splayed out and either both front paws resting between them or with one on each side of her right leg. It’s definitely not the most lady-like position, and I don’t see how it’s comfortable. But just like Corgis love to sploot, Penny loves to sit this way.


2. She Says “Pfft” a Lot

One of my favorite books is Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck. He talks about traveling around America with his Poodle named Charley. But one of the lines that stuck out to me was when Steinbeck said his dog could pronounce the letter F. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, until I heard Penny go “Pfft” for the first time.

She usually does it to express displeasure or to complain that we didn’t throw her toy fast enough. She sure has a lot of complaints for someone that has her every need taken care of and lives at our house rent-free. I guess that’s what’s so funny about it.


3. She’s Afraid of Lizards and Birds

Lizards are scary, but caterpillars... not so much.
Lizards are scary, but caterpillars… not so much.

It’s definitely not funny that Penny is afraid of things, because none of us like to see our dogs scared. But it’s funny what she’s scared of. We have three different kinds of lizards at our house, but every time Penny sees one running toward her, her eyes get wide and she runs away. I don’t know if it’s their speed or what, but it’s hilarious because she could do a lot more harm to lizards than lizards could do to her.

She’s also afraid of birds. This one is a little more understandable because she’s a small dog and we do have some pretty big birds like hawks and owls near our house. But she seems more afraid of small birds, and it started when she was a puppy and a flock of 100+ blackbirds landed in our backyard, causing quite the cacophony. She refused to go outside until the next morning, and now she’s afraid of even one small bird that she sees in our yard.

She loves caterpillars, butterflies, and bees though, and I’m always having to remind her not to eat bees because they’re “spicy.”


4. She Gets the Zoomies

Of course, Penny makes me laugh for the same reason that all our dogs make us laugh. She gets the zoomies. She’s a pretty lazy dog in general, so when she gets the zoomies, it’s usually because she either has to poop or she just pooped. Either way, when she gets them, I say “Do you have the zoomies?” She runs to the back door, and when I let her out, she runs around the exact same path three or four times before running back to the door (or pooping if she needs to).


5. She Cheats at Races

Speaking of running, Penny always cheats every time I try to race her. If I can’t get her to come back inside, all I have to do is say “I’ll race you!” She bows down, I say, “On your mark, get set…” and she always takes off before I can even say “Go!” Penny always beats me back to the door, but she probably would anyway even if she didn’t get a head start. It’s quite funny to watch her go all out just to win, even if it means cheating.


6. She Cleans the Bathtub

Don't worry Mom, I'm saving you from drowning.
Don’t worry Mom, I’m saving you from drowning.

What do I mean by that? Anytime I get out of the bath or shower, Penny has to jump in (well, rather be picked up and put in) there and lick the remaining water off the bottom after it drains. I always find this extremely amusing, since she hates the bath when it’s her turn.

But maybe she just wants to make sure she gets every last bit of water up so I don’t drown the next time I get in there. Who knows? But I get a kick out of it every time.


7. She Goes Spelunking

Penny loves to burrow into blankets, and she sleeps underneath the covers at night. Sometimes we wake up at night because she’s burrowed all the way to the foot of the bed. One night my husband asked her if she was going spelunking (the act of exploring caves), and she came crawling out. So now we always say she’s going spelunking every time she burrows to the foot of the bed.

It actually makes me nervous because I’m afraid she’s going to suffocate, so I always move her back up to the top. But it’s funny to picture Penny wearing a little mining hat with a flashlight on it and going “spelunking.”


8. She Rolls Around on Dead Worms

Found a stinky worm.
Found a stinky worm.

I know a lot of dogs roll around in stinky stuff, but Penny’s favorite thing to roll around on is dead worms. We have a lot of earthworms in our yard, and Penny always finds the dead and dried up ones. It’s funny to watch her roll around in the grass flailing her body about to pick up the “stinky” scent. I don’t mind because they don’t make her actually stink, and there’s far worse things she could roll around in.divider dog paws 4 oct 2024

Dogs Are So Funny, Even if They Don’t Know It

There are just some of the many ways that Penny makes me laugh, and maybe your dogs do some of them, too? It’s always fun to see what our dogs get up to and all the ways they are funny without even trying to be!

This article is a part of Savanna and Penny's series.

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