His instinctive herding ability is demonstrated on the second day after the adoption when a roly-poly Teddy rolls and tumbles over field stubbles to chase after the cattle. But Lorraine also learns early on that Teddy has a strong-willed personality.
Starting with chapter four, Teddy is a full-grown dog. His intelligence and livestock ''know-how'' amazes the family. But Lorraine is not content to have Teddy just be a working dog; she wants to teach him to do some tricks. Teddy learns everything quickly, but when it comes to ''sitting-up,'' he doesn't cooperate.
Although Teddy is written as fiction for middle-grade children, it is based on actual events and in the hope that readers of all ages will enjoy the story of a family, their exceptional dog and life on a small family farm in the early 1940s.