http://www.metaphordogs.org/Dogs/entries/leaddog.html
My daddy, who was raised on his parents' Mississippi farm, once referred to me as "the lead dog" of my younger siblings in a conversation. The spirit has been moving me to share this idiom for several days. Daddy was full of aphorisms or wise says, many dropping, on the spur of the moment. Now that I have found this conforming essay, I marvel again at daddy's sagacity.