Teddy is very slick at getting out the door without being seen. If the storm door doesn’t latch right away he pushes on it and is gone. He doesn’t run away, just wants to be where the action is.
Yesterday afternoon Lory and John were here to put up a shelf for me. As they left Teddy must have gotten out totally unnoticed.
45 minutes later I heard a scratching at the front door. Sure enough, there was Teddy wanting in. The front door leads to the street, very scary place for a dog. I felt guilty about not seeing him get out.
It was bedtime before I noticed that his neck was crusty with some animal’s poop. Must be losing my sense of smell.
Now I understand why animals do this. It is an instinct to mask your odor with the odor of another animal so you can stalk it and kill it for food. Humans probably did this long ago so they could hunt successfully.
But this is not acceptable behavior for a house dog who wants to sleep in the people’s bed. So Teddy slept in his kennel last night.
This morning a bath was in order.
As you can see, he is not happy about it.
WOW, he survived! Even his collar had to be scrubbed with an old toothbrush.
Dogs eyes are supposed to look like that in pictures. It’s kind of like “red eye” for people. If they didn’t look like that something is wrong with their eyes.
His eyes are really very black. I need to tie his white bandana on him so I can see him at night. He is just a darker patch on dark nights.
Teddy isn’t hard to bathe. Once he is in the tub he submits with grace. Unlike a Great Dane I once owned named Shadow.
She was already 3 years old when I got her from the Great Dane rescue people. She weighed about 130#.
The first time I tried to give her a bath I had just had my shower and saw no point in getting dressed before bathing that huge dog.
I brought her into the bathroom and made it clear to her that she was to get into the tub - no luck.
I tried attaching her leash and getting into the tub and pulling – no luck.
I tried getting behind her and pushing – no luck.
I tried putting my shoulder against her behind and heaving with my feet braced against the wall – no luck.
When your dog weighs as much as you do you have a problem. Especially when you consider the dog has 4 legs to brace with.
The final solution (after getting dressed) was to put 2 leashes on her and attach them to the deck railing, one on either side. Kind of like I have seen horses tied so they can’t get away from you.
A Great Dane is just a big hound. They have oily skin, lots of lanolin, and a hound odor. Once again this was a dog that wanted to spend the night cuddled up in bed with me.
So being tied up like a horse on the deck became a regular routine. In winter I carried warm water outside to do it.
Then I thought about the boarding kennel at the vet’s office. They always gave the dogs a bath the day you picked them up. Boarding was $15.00/day for Shadow at that time. When I called to ask what they charged for just a bath it was $18.00. HMMMMM
So sometimes, as a treat, (for me) Shadow got a night at the vet’s with a bath in the morning – for $15.00. Great deal, especially in the winter.
I’ll try to find a picture of Shadow to put on here. I’m sure there are several in those pictures I’m sorting through.
She lived to be almost 10 years old, which is very old age for that large of a dog. I still miss her.
Later….
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