My Dog and the brick!

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#1
I had 3 dogs back about 18 years ago, a big Yellow Lab, Joe, a Beagle/Lab mix, Blackie, and a Pit Mix, Gus. Joe was the boss, and Blackie, who was never quite "right" was the bottom dog.

One day it was windy and drizzling, and I put the dogs out for a few minutes before it started raining. It starts raining a little harder 10 minutes or so later, and I open the back door, and Gus and Blackie run in, and there's no Joe. I look out the door, and he's frozen looking through the fence. I call him, and he twitches an ear, and then starts barking. He's all worked up about something, and refuses to budge. I finally go out and bring him in, and I don't see anything except a brick sitting on the other side of the fence. My mother gets up and, while I was in the bathroom, puts them back out!

Like before, Blackie and Gus come in, and Joe is out there. He won't come in, and it's starting to rain now, and he's got his hair all raised up, he's snarling and is really angry. I go out there and he's staring at this brick and foaming at the mouth, and he's got his muzzle all torn up from trying to get the brick through the fence. The other dogs are not impressed with the brick, but are getting worked up beacuse Joe is. I took a stick and poked the brick and Joe goes nuts, it's raining pretty hard now and so I just drag him into the house.

A few hours later, it's sunny out and I let them out again, and Joe goes nuts about the brick. It's all muddy, and he's getting all loaded with it, and so I decide to get the brick and show him what it "really is". I got a 2x4 and shoved the brick up against the fence, so I could grab it. I pull it though the fence and Joe's ready to attack! I held it right in front of him, he sniffs it, and got this look of embarassment, it's the only way to describe it, and then takes off. I showed the brick to the other dogs and tossed it back over the fence.

The next day, it happens again, and I got the brick and showed it too him again. The next day, he runs over to the fence, and starts nosing the brick, I set it up against the fence so he could touch it and hopefully not tear his face up anymore than it already was at this point. The neighbor comes out and asks me what he's doing, and I tell her about the brick. She picks it up and he goes nuts. She lets him sniff it, and he instantly walks away. I finally ask her for it, and tell her as soon as he gets tired of it, I will put it back in her yard. She laughs and says ok, and leaves.

Well, it didn't work, he went nuts over the brick for at least two months, and would duck and weave like it was going to attack him whenever he was outside. I finally went and put it back into my neighbor's yard, and blocked access to the mud along the fence. This seemed to solve the problem. He was permantly scarred from all the "brick attacks" and would give anything sized and shaped like one a wide berth while walking for the rest of his life..

I never figured out what it was all about. Anytime we see someone, such as a cop that is on a case and ignores all other suspects but one, we say, "He's doing a Joe and the brick here!", and always chuckle at it.

I really wished I knew what it was all about.
 
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#2
Great story. They get fixated on the weirdest things sometimes. When Bimmer was a puppy he would go nuts if he saw one of those blue plastic grocery bags stuck on a branch or fence, waving in the breeze.

And what is it with dogs and turtles?
 
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#3
One of my present dogs, Molly, is kind of a nervous nellie, who barks at anything new and is very territorial about her yard. She's a terrible dog to walk, since she lunges at everything. I was walking both dogs (A huge mistake!) and while King doesn't lunge, he just pulls on the leash pretty hard, at least for the first mile or so. I was over on the next block, and we were visiting Goofy, mother of Kings 8 pups. (she jumped into my backyard, and I had no idea she was in heat until it was too late, I offered to pay for Goofy to get the shot to prevent pregnancy, not knowing that her owner is one of the biggest right to life protesters in this area! We had no idea there were any pups born until about 4 months later, and sitting on the end of the driveway, are 8 pups, all black and white (like King), or black and tan) They kept one, Diblert, who is basically a clone of King, except Dobe colored. Goofy got loose and was hit by a car.

Anyway, I was switching the leashes from hand to hand, and one of those small thin grocery bags blows down the street and Molly sees it, and lunges. The leash pops off my right hand and (I had my hands crossed) and the leash hits my ring finger on my left hand, bends the end 90 degrees sideways,and theres a loud CRACK, as my finger is dislocated! It hurt like hell. Molly "caught" the bag and came back with it to show King, as if he cared. After I calmed down, I got them home and at the time, I thought my finger was broken, due to the pain and swelling, but it had just been dislocated and it popped back in on it's own. She did almost the same thing a few months later, but she only bent my other ring finger about 45 degrees, so it just hurt a lot.

In the fall of each year, when the trees in the back yard are starting to drop, Molly will see one come down and run at it like it's some animal, and attack it. One time, she did it, and a mole was there and King was jumping on it and at first, I couldn't see anything, and then I saw him flip something in the air and jump on it when it landed. I finally went out and tossed it over the fence, the racoons would take care of it, like always. We live in Skunk/Raccoon/Possumm central, and along with the big stray cats, there's a lot of people who get their garbage tore up from one or more of them. If one of them comes into my yard, Molly will go after it in a second, and with all the proactice she's had, she can kill about anything in a few seconds. King let her do all the work until last fall, when he suddenly made the first attack on a skunk. Molly let him work on it for about 30 seconds, and then ran up and shook the skunk and then pinned it on the ground and finished him off. She's had so much practice over the last 5 years, she can do it almost instantly. Needless to say, I was busy with the skunk stuff that night. I had to go to work, and even after two showers and using the skunk deodorizer, I really reeked!
 
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#4
I've only had to de-skunkify a dog once. I tried the tomato juice, but it didn't get it all off. Cheap beer did the trick. If I can ever get this scanner to work I'll post some photos of my poor Bear after the beer bath. He kept licking at it and ended up being completely ripped. His taste finally improved to the point he would only drink Corona. (g) About a quarter cup and he was just a happy, mellow fellow.
 
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#5
Oh, I forgot about the turtles! I had a Dachsund (a big one, not one of the tiny ones you see these days) when I was a little kid, named Gus. Gus was one tough little SOB. My mom threw her back out once and we hired a cleaning woman to come in and do the laundry and clean the house up. She really liked Gus, and he liked her too, and she started taking him for walks. We lived near the river, so turtles are common. One day, she's out in the back yard and Gus is barking at something. She starts screaming "It's a snake!!" I go running out there, and it turns out it's a huge turtle, about 15-16" long and about 12" wide. The shell is cracked, it must have been hit crossing the road. I take the turtle to the back of the house and check him out further. The crack looks nasty, but he's moving ok, so I call the zoo and ask them what to do about it. They tell me to put alcohol in the crack and that would kill the bugs in it, and then pour peroxide into the crack and wash it out until it looks clean, and then patch the shell with fiberglass car repair stuff. I had the first two I tell him, and I will have to get the patch tommorrow. He tells me to do the alcohol and peroxide now and then again in the morning. Ok, I do it, and put the turtle into a big washtub we had, with some water in it and whatever he told me to feed it.

I get up in the morning, and go over to the washtub and...well it's like a murder scene in a horror movie! The turtle's dead, of course, and his head and all four legs are gone! There are bloody dog footprints all over the washtub and driveway. Gus was sitting there, about 20 feet away, working on a chunk of turtle! I think it was the head, I never got the chance to find out, as one thing you never, ever wanted to do was even think about taking anything away from Gus. I was the only person in the house he hadn't bitten at least once. He never did bite me in the 4 years we had him. He had bad kidneys and when they failed we had to put him to sleep. I had allergies and they thought I would be better without a dog anyway, but I actually got worse.

My mom hadn't been able to sleep and Gus wanted out, so she put him out on his chain and never heard or seen anything. The guy from the zoo calls and he asks my mom if the turtle made it through the night. She says, "Well, he made it through the night, I guess, but our dog got a hold of it and killed it this morniing!" He asked what kind of dog it was and when she said Dachshund, he laughed!

A year later, I did manage to save a smaller one that he tried to bring into the house to munch on. It wasn't really hurt, just scratched up a little.
 
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#6
Mine go berserk when they see a turtle. We've got those great big snappers with the vise grip jaws so the dogs don't get within snapping range. But, oh, the racket they make when they run across one! I always get the dogs away from them. The girls are too vulnerable with their droopy jowls, and I've quoted Muhammed Ali several times regarding Bimmer; like Ali, he's "just too pretty to bleed."
 

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