My garage/outside bud.

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RSie

Idiot In Training
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
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Location
Wisconsin
Odie, my 14 yr. old Labradoodle. Finally got him to be comfortable outside after the 4th of July.. neighbors liked to light off firecrackers at random odd times of the day..scared the crap out of him. That's stopped, thank god.
Odie has a colorful past. A friend of mine (actually a high school girlfriends sister, we turned into better friends than the relationship turned out, lol), had meningitis bad when she was young. Lost all hearing in one ear, and most in the other. Later in life, it affected her balance. Odie was her service dog, for the first 7 years of his life. He's not only deaf-trained, he was trained to lean on her if she was tippy, or fall on the ground where she was going to go over, so she had a soft spot to land on.
I hadn't seen my friend in years.. then I heard she had terminal cancer. I went to see her. In the course of my visit, she remarked she was worried about what would happen to Odie.. her and her husband were renting. After she was gone, the landlord could (and would) force the dog out of the house.
I told her I would take him. She knew me, and knew I would give him the best life I could. She told me "You know, when he doesn't have that vest (service vest) on, he's a 75 pound goofy puppy, right?" I told her no problem, I got a rambunctious 7 yr. old boy at home that would love him. I also told her he would never wear that vest again, and he hasn't.
She was right though.. he is a goofy assed 75 pound puppy. Even to this day... his hips don't work so good anymore, but on a good day, he still chases the cats around :)
Just got done grinding his nails down with a dremel (much better than using a cutter, trick I learned when I worked at an animal shelter when I was 16-20). If any of you want details on that let me know.
Time to get him in the kiddie pool for a bath.. he likes that, and it's hot as hell out right now.

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Good on You for taking Odie in, I bet Your both happier !
Without a doubt. I've had dogs my whole life, always one at a time. When I was younger, if you saw me, you saw my dog too. Purebred English Bulldog, purebred Great Dane.. these were older dogs when I took them from the shelter I worked at, both on the edge of their lives. They were both great dogs... sucked when they went, but they went being loved, and not left in a kennel to die at the end of a needle. I did raise one purebred German Shepard from 8 weeks.. spent 4 hours a day training him. If I told Gus (Gustav) to "watch him" looking at you, he would back you into the corner and keep you there all day, until I said "stop watching".
All that said, Odie is the most intelligent dog I've ever had or seen. That's a double-edge sword however. Tony (Kris's husband) told me, 'watch out, he's a food thief'. We had him a couple weeks, forgot that warning. One day, I grilled some boneless chicken, put it into a glass baking dish, covered it with tin foil, put it on the stove, told the wife it was done and on the stove. Went back outside. 10 Mins later, the wife sticks her head out the door "where's the chicken?" Odie had went paws up on the stove, peeled back the tin foil a bit, and ate 8 boneless chicken breasts. The wife never heard a thing from the next room. We learned our lesson :)
 
And yes, I had a lot of 'mutts'.. sometimes they are the best.
 
We have a black lab that my wife and son got for free out of one of the thrift papers.
The story the guy and his wife told them, he was driving down a country road and saw a black garbage beside the road. And the bag moved, there was 7 lab puppies in the bag.
He took them to get all their shots, when they got old enough he found homes for them.
There were two left in a small cage, the guy and his wife said they were keeping one of them, pick which one you want.
My boy was maybe 5 at the time and said here boy.
They got the first pup that came out of the cage.
We still have him, he is getting a little grey around the muzzle and paws, but has been the best dog we ever had.
My wife has taught him about every trick but roll over, he just refuses.
But he will high 5 you, high 10,
Chase his tail in circles.
And steal pizza off the stove, any other food he will not touch, but you do not turn your back on pizza.
Also he is good at stealing the covers off the bed, my wife has him so spoiled, every time she wants new living room furniture, she gets him his own matching recliner.
 
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