Oz is okay

Other than stinkin' up the place all night, Oz is right as rain this morning. I got a big wet nose in my face at 5:00 a.m. as usual. My clock was set early today, so I get that. What I don't get is all the other days. Someone must have a clock set near us that he can hear is all I can figure.

Teri let him out, I started my a.m. routine. One more commute over the Bay Bridge and I am here at work again. Another day ...  It is nice having the best interactive security system with an attitude that money can by watching over our home.

Green Dog

Walked out the back door to great the great slobber dog, a torn up carton of organic tomato fertilizer, and about 3 cups of fertilizer on the ground. Hmmm. Do I have a problem or not? So without freaking out, a unique event for me, write it down, I gathered up the carton remains, watered in the rest of the fertilizer, stepped in some dog shit, hosed that off, and got Oz back in the house. 

After a phone call or two and some web searches we decide, what the hell? The vet is closed. The MSDS on the fertilizer is vague at best and most of the ingredients are stuff that's in his dog food. 

The exception is pot ash, which is also in most dog foods and some people food, but not his. Pot ash is a good source of sulfur and potassium. I think plants need way more than critters with legs. 

So ... we fed him dinner, a few pieces of bread and we wait. So far so good.

For those of you who are cringing at us for not running him over to VCA in Oakland, let me lay it out for you.

1. $500.00
2. The after hours vet barely graduated and is Googling the answers anyway
3. Oz would very likely try to eat some poor unsuspecting Lasa Apso resulting in I can't even begin to imagine how big a collective vet bill. 
4. If #3, assume a restraining order on Oz from our good friends at the Alameda County Animal Control or worse an order to have him put down ... :-(

Vet visits at this point need to be VERY controlled, well planned, and to a big dog ver like ours.

When you have a big a$$ dog like a Rotweiler you gotta make choices and balance the possible outcomes.

Good walk this morning

Yay! Good walk this morning. So going "the other direction" worked! We did not run into any dogs. One guys gathering bottles out of the recycling bins, no problem. One other guy getting into his car to go to work, no problem. Yay Oz!

Ok walk yesterday

Pretty good walk around the block yesterday. Ran into one other person walking dogs and Oz freaked again. This time he did not trip me up and pulled a lot less than before. He has gone to be very vocal as a way to express his reaction. I feel like that takes up a lot of the energy he was expressing physically before. Not that I know crap about any of that, just a guess.

Teri was along for the walk. I need her to get used to how he behaves, what he gets distracted on, etc.

I think he's beginning to figure out where our house is relative to the rest of the block. One of the reasons I'm sticking to just our block now is to reinforce that. Hopefully he'll be less intent on what's on the other side of the fence if he can remember that he's been over there before.

I've realized that if I go one way on the walk, the timing works out such that we see other dogs. If we go the other way, we miss them. So, it'll be the other way from now on.

I AM the king!

Oz is the best! He puts up with sooooo much from Radar it's crazy. I don't know what their bond is but it's pretty strong.

This was a little while ago. Teri got the shot. They had been chasing each other around for about a half an hour at this point. We got them a couple new bones on Thursday and it's been steal the bone, hide the bone, hog all the bones since then. There is bone dust all over the place. Kinda gross. Good thing we sweep and vacuum a lot. Well, Teri does most of it.

Oz has been doing better at barking and growling at people and dogs out front. We've been able to catch him in the act. He gets a squirt in the face or sometimes the butt and a good scolding. He's beginning to understand that we don't approve. He's actually backed off several times and stopped in his tracks a few others. Radar is too. Which helps. Oz will come to Radar's defense in a split second and he is determined when he does it.

Now if we can just get him to be cool with Dr. Lawrence! One thing at a time I guess.

Nice one John!

Short clip of a little play time until I send the Kong over the fence. Oh, well, it was a good way to meet the neighbors.