Of all the toy breeds in existence, the Papillon is the only one I'd have.  They are quite Aussie-like in their own way-genetically very healthy (at least for now), very athletic, intelligent and easy to train.  And Gizmo, growing up with the big guys, thinks he's a 300# Rottweiler/AmStaff at least.  At the stables, he'll run with the horses, absolutely fearless.  He will stand up to any dog, no matter how big; I'm not saying he's smart in that way, and our neighbour's German Shepherd taught him a lesson about doing that once, as did Catera's brother Merlin who finally tired of his antics one day.

When Catera was a pup and Gizmo about 7 months old, they formed a bond that was comical to see.  While Catera was still close to his size, he lorded it over on her.  But then, she outweighed him by 4, 12, 17, 30 pounds and 7 inches in height, and suddenly SHE was having more fun than he was.  One of her favourite tricks early on was to grab him by the tail and make a mad dash for the couch.  At that point, she'd learned she could get up on the couch with a running leap, but just not with 9 pounds of Papillon trailing behind her.  Ah, with a camera, we'd been $10,000 richer!

His most favourite thing in the whole world is to sleep in bed.  Yah, we do break the rules and allow him to sleep in bed with us; but he understands if we say "GO!", it means get outta bed RIGHT NOW.  He never has growled or snapped at us, anywhere, and that includes in bed.  He's funny in the morning.  If Dale gets up early, as he often does, Gizmo makes a beeline for his pillow as soon as his head lifts off it, and snuggles in to sleep a few more hours (he hopes).  If I get up early too, then every time I head for the bedroom, he hits the bed and Dale's pillow in hopes that I'm coming back to bed!  And he is loath to share his bed with any of the other dogs except, for some reason, Catera.  She, he doesn't mind at all.  The other dogs get the full treatment-growling, snarling, snapping-all of which is ignored by the big dogs.  So Gizmo will reluctantly (and with many a dirty look), tuck his tail and beat feet somewhere else, waiting for the big dogs to get down for the night, then he sprints back into position.

One dog who has Gizmo totally convinced of impending death is Skeeter.  And Skeeter knows it too.  Skeeter will lay in the hallway at night, deliberately blocking the way into the bedroom.  Gizmo will NOT pass by him for fear Skeeter will flatten him with a paw or make a fast move at him.  So Gizmo will bark for one of us to call Skeeter out of the way, then Gizmo hits the bedroom at a dead run, one ear cocked back for Skeeter's pursuit!  Skeeter would never deliberately do anything to harm Gizmo, but you can't tell Gizmo that!

Gizmo's biggest fault is so typical of the toys-his mouth never stops.  He absolutely MUST be part of whatever is going on, MUST go wherever someone is going, and makes sure we are informed upon our arrivals and departures of his displeasure at being left behind.