Calling a Labrador retriever a knucklehead is redundant

Imagine finding yourself on an island for eight days in sub-zero temperatures. You don't have food. You are underdressed for the weather – you have a coat, but no shoes. You don't have a cell phone, and couldn't use it if you did. If you got this far and are imagining that you could live through it, let's add this to the mix: You don't even have thumbs.

Brandie and Brodie don't have to imagine any of the above. They are the Labrador retrievers who lived it. And they lived through it. A pretty amazing story when all is said and done. But one guy saw the story on our Web site and suggested that Brandie and Brodie were just a couple of dumb dogs. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20100202/NEWS05/302029969 I don't think so.

I don't know Brandie or Brodie except for reading their story. But I have some experience with Labs. I've known a few over the years and I live with one right now (We'll call him Lab Nugget to protect his identity and avoid lawsuits.). Labs are knuckleheads, but they are not dumb. I am talking about Labs that are house pets – not the elite group who actually work for a living by retrieving ducks. But I would guess that even the most well-trained of this working breed have their moments of knuckleheadism. It's how the breed rolls.

Anyone who has had a Lab, or a child for that matter, knows that there is a difference between being dumb and being a knucklehead. An honor student caught smoking in the boys' room is a knucklehead. A kid who doesn't understand that smoking in the bathroom is against school policy is dumb.

Lab Nugget regularly gets in trouble for getting into the garbage and doesn't seem to figure out that he is doing something wrong. That would make it seem like he is dumb, except to get into the garbage he had to figure out how to open a child-proofed door. That's not dumb ... that's knucklehead smart. That's a Lab.

I have to believe that is the trait that drove Brandie and Brodie when they bolted through an invisible fence that usually kept them contained in their yard in Hannawa Falls. Some too-good-not-to-roll-on smell was on the other side of that fence and they simply had to sniff it out. They knew they were going to get jolted when they bolted, but the pros of finding whatever was stinking must have outweighed the cons. They made a reasoned decision based on facts. That's not dumb by any standard. That's a Lab.

So the knuckleheads, after their zapping, ended up on an island by crossing a frozen river. Then the frozen river thawed and they were stuck. Who really knows how they survived. There's some evidence that Brodie tried to hunt down some food for them, but the snout full of porcupine quills when he was found showed success may have been marginal at best. They probably ate a lot of snow. Maybe some sticks. And they surely must have snuggled when the temperature dipped below zero on at least one of the nights during their saga.

After they had been gone for several days, the smart money was on the suggestion that they been stolen from the yard where they normally were content to stay. If they weren't stolen, dead would have been the second favorite in the Brandie and Brodie pool. But the smart money didn't consider the knucklehead factor or how smart these dogs really were.

They figured out that swimming to get back home would have been fatal in the rushing cold water of winter. They figured out that staying put when lost is the best way to be found. They figured out some way to get enough food and water to sustain themselves. They figured out how to stay warm. They figured out how to survive. Imagine that.

You have to believe that they have also figured out that the yard is a pretty good place to stay, no matter what the temptation. They may be knuckleheads, but they aren't dumb. They are Labs.