Sit. Stay. Smile.

It's a brisk, almost-autumn Saturday morning, and the Davis household is slow to stir. Bert Davis and wife Frannie do their best to let sleeping dogs lie -- all 13 of them -- because both know that once the day starts, it won't slow down until bedtime.

On this particular Saturday, the Davises are in Forrest City, holed up in their nice warm camper between performances of the Crowley's Ridge Saddle Club Charity Rodeo. The dogs love the chilly weather, Bert Davis says, but the humans were surprised by it. "It was 102 when we got here."

"I never used to rodeo down in this part of the country," Davis says. "I didn't like the heat, and I worried about the tornadoes. It's not just keeping me safe. The dogs are our kids and our partners -- and when it comes to the show, they're more valuable than I am."

Davis is in his 40th year on the rodeo circuit as the Coppertown Clown. In 1974, at age 16, he was the youngest bullfighting clown in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Along the way, he's won a clown car full of awards for his work in the United States and Canada protecting cowboys and entertaining audiences. Since 1995, he's focused his act on the dogs he trains as Davis' Muttley Crew, even competing on "America's Got Talent." Starting Wednesday, Davis' Muttley Crew will be performing at the Arkansas Oklahoma State Fair in Fort Smith, which Davis prefers to television. So, apparently, do the dogs.

"They do it because they love doing it," says Davis, who rewards his dogs only with praise, not food. "They just love to perform. They love to hear the crowd."

Davis says it's not unusual to hear people say rodeos are cruel to animals.

"First off, they're too valuable," he says of the rodeo stock. "And if I was cruel, how did Angela live to be 20 years old and still want to perform?"

Davis talks of each dog, current and past, by name, as if referencing an old friend. He "hires" based on looks, color and ability and almost always chooses shelter dogs. Frannie won't go in with him to look, he says, and that's OK with him. "Otherwise, we'd have a hundred dogs!"

Terrier mixes, poodles, Australian shepherds and border collie mixes are good performers, he says, but they need to be big enough and brightly colored enough to be seen doing their "floorwork" in the arena -- walking on their hind legs, running barrel patterns and rolling barrels -- smart enough to do as they're asked -- but not smarter than he is, he jokes -- and he likes dogs that have comical expressions. And they have to have tails, he adds.

"I want them to show that they're happy with that tail wagging!"

Davis doesn't want to talk about losing dogs -- "when you lose an animal, it takes a piece of your heart" -- but he does occasionally tell stories about the things his dogs have survived before he met them. Harley, for instance, was found in a ditch with his sister after someone had poured battery acid on them. The other puppy didn't make it, and Harley still needs "quite a bit of attention," Davis says.

"But he's one of the funniest dogs we've ever had."