A Chatty Post About a Bad Dog

The bright blue lines above his eye are the sutures.

No big post today. I'm tired, but it's a mental kind of tired. I much prefer sore muscles to a sore brain.

I think we have the tile situation sorted, but no word yet on when they can begin work.

We took Odin in for his eye check up and remove his stitches. He was an absolute idiot! He lunged at our poor, sweet vet twice. He really wanted to take a bite out of her.

I realize that nothing good has happened to him any time he's been to a vet, but she's tried so hard to be patient with him, and he ends up acting the jerk.

We ended up not taking his stitches out. She said the eyes look good, but as soon as we take those stitches out she is pretty sure his lashes will hit his eyeballs and they'll become irritated again.

I've resigned myself to the fact that we'll have to take him to the specialist and have him fix the problem with a more complex surgery.

The bad news: The cost of the surgery will knock us flat.

The good news: Our vet says we can leave the sutures in for months...if they don't bother him. 

The end of the year is always tough for us because property taxes and insurance come due. Plus we just finished paying for the tile, the oven, and a tv replacement. Why does everything go out at once?

If we can wait until February, we can save up enough for Odin's surgery.

Because Odin is behaving so badly I've decided to up his training. I can no longer trust him with people, so I'm going to see if I can make him obey me without question. 

I started Sunday.

He's goofy when he sees his vest or leash, so I make him calm down before I attach a lead to him. To be honest, I make him calm down before I do anything to him, so he knows I mean business. I will not tolerate crazy. 

For the uninitiated, the routine is this: If the dog resists or gets excitable, you stop what you're doing, wait a few seconds and try again and again if necessary. Once he realizes he won't get any further until he calms down, you can then proceed. I never yell or hit a dog. I just go through the motions as many times as it takes until he gets the message.

Border collies and Aussies learn instantly. Rottweilers will try to wear you down and do it their way. You can't let them win.

For 20 minutes we walked around the property on leash. I started with the "heel" command and made him sit whenever I stopped. By the third sit he was doing it without me saying anything.

After 15 minutes, I let him off leash and let him wander. When he was nearly out of sight, I called him to "heel". That darn dog came back in an instant and sat at my side.

Now all this sounds wonderful, but if he sees Greg or Nana he immediately returns to his goofy state. My plan is to get him so used to my commands that distractions won't interfere.

When I think I have him trained enough I want Greg to do the same so he knows we're both in charge.

Odin is our fifth rottweiler. We've never had an aggressive rottie.  Maybe it's because of his bad experiences at vets' offices. Maybe we didn't socialize him enough during the pandemic. Only he knows why he's distrustful of outsiders.

Of all the breeds we've had, rottweilers have been the most trustworthy and easiest to handle so Odin's behavior is a surprise.

He's sweet as pie to us but he simply will not trust other people. That's a recipe for disaster unless I can find a way to get him to change his attitude.

Our only other option is to see if Seal Team Six has an opening for a dog that will take you down in one pounce. 😉  He's an extraordinary athlete.

Have you ever had a dog who was bad with vets, or distrustful of people? I sure would like to hear your stories.