Zeus in the Rain

The words Zeus and Rain do NOT go well together... I know most dogs don't like rain, but I have to wonder if Zeus is different than most dogs. He can't stand water! Of course, he loves to drink water out of his bowl, but anything else is like putting Superman and Kryptonite together! Puddles? Forget it! He won't walk puddles. He'll walk around them or jump over them - every time!
With the weather being as rainy as it has been today, I'm reminded of how difficult it is to take Zeus outside when it's a rainy day. Just an hour ago, I take him out against his will, he walks around about 20 paces, squats to pee (yeah, he still squats) and then bounces right back up ready to trot to the door and call it a day. 'Uh uh, Buster, there's still some REAL business to be done'. So I give him the sign for bathroom, which he knows well, and we forge on to another area for him to 'lay some tracks'. He must've realize I was serious so he quickly gets in to his tripod stance, shakes like he's having an epileptic seizure and sure enough, out comes the real deal! Success :)  As he guides me/pulls me back to the house, I notice that he glances back at me right before we get to the section of the sidewalk where most of it is covered with a long puddle, leaving only about 8" for someone to walk on. Being the gentleman that he is, he walks around the puddle and into the grass so that the leash is actually straddling the puddle while I walk on the 'dry' sidewalk. Is he smart or what?? I thought that was very considerate of him... considering that the other times we've walked in the rain he's had no qualms about walking on the sidewalk and leaving wet grass for me to walk on... He's growing up, my Baby...  :)

Zeus' Mealtime

I'm surprised I haven't written about this yet. It just makes me giggle so I have to share it with you!
Zeus loves to eat! I mean he LOVES to eat!! I realize that all dogs love to eat, but I've never seen a dog do what Zeus does.
When I first got Zeus, Steve (who has had a Great Dane for 11 years before I met him) told me that he should be trained to sit and wait for me to put his food bowl in front of him. Why? So that when Zeus is older and B-I-G-G-E-R, he won't knock me over to get to his food bowl. I didn't see it as being that big of a deal, but I trained him anyhow to honor Steve's request. Looking back on things, I'm so glad I did!
We keep Zeus' food in a sealed container in the basement so he can't get to it at his leasure. When I go to the basement, he starts getting excited and wimpers whether I'm going down with the intention of getting his food or just to do laundry. If he sees me carry his empty bowl down the basement stairs, he paces back and forth at the top of the landing just watching me. One time, I sent my daughter to get his food and when she came to the top of the stairs with his bowl, he was so excited he stuck his nose in the bowl and he ended up knocking the bowl out of her hand and the food spilled out all over the stairs. I was so proud of her for not getting angry. We calmly cleaned up the food together while Zeus laid down watching us... waiting to be fed. So now, when we get to the top of the stairs, we hold the bowl behind our backs so he can't get too close to it. This makes him back away from the stairs and he immediately goes over to his food stand and waits for us. When I take his food bowl towards his food stand (large dogs typically have their food bowls elevated so they don't have to bend down too far to get to their food and water), I stand in front of him and give him the hand command for 'sit'. He quickly sits and then I put the food bowl in the stand. Sometimes he is so ready for his food, he sits before I even give him the command. Then he watches me so closely... and stares at me. We look at each other eye-to-eye... and he will NOT move out of his sitting position until I give him a hand gesture that says he can go to his food bowl while at the same time I nod my head. In these few seconds that he's waiting for the 'ok' he drools! Literally drools. It's so strangely adorable to see. Usually his drool will just come out of one side of his mouth. This morning it came out of both sides of his mouth. It was so cute yet there's a part of me that feels sorry for him to know that he's so hungry and so anxious to eat every morsel of his food. And he DOES eat every morsel of food at every meal.
I just had to share this  - it just tickles me to watch him drool for his food.  If only I could get my kids to be as anxious about eating vegetables :)

I Thought I Might Kill Him

Last year, when Zeus was still quite young, we lived in a small house we were renting. Most of my time was being spent at work (I was working at a wellness center then) and my oldest son, age 19 then, was not working and spent most his time home. I left my son in charge of my puppy. Little did I know that was a HUGE mistake. My son really didn't like Zeus and completely resented the fact that I bought him even though the majority of the family was against it. His resentment towards Zeus was noticeable in how he took care of him... or rather, in the lack of how he took care of him.
Being just a puppy, Zeus took great pleasure in finding and ruining things in the house. It was his 'Search and Destroy' game... Anything he could get in his mouth was destroyed. At one point he came to realize that the bathroom trash was filled with exciting goodies! On a couple of occasions, I would come home and find the bathroom trash was spilled over, rummaged through and spread around the bathroom and the hallway. Not so bad, and fairly easy to clean up...But the rule became: Close the bathroom door so the dog can't get in!! Pretty easy right?? Apparently, not easy enough. One day in particular, I came home to a complete disaster! My son was gone. I have no idea when he left the house, but he did NOT close the bathroom door. I came home from work to find the bathroom trash spread ALL OVER the downstairs, toilet paper pulled off the roll and dragged through the bathroom, the hallway AND the living room... and the toilet bowl cleaner was chewed, opened up and spilled all over the living room carpet!! I was furious!! I couldn't decide if I should scream, laugh or cry... I did all three! I must've looked like a lunatic, talking out loud to myself, having imaginary conversations with my son, my deaf dog, myself and God... It took me over an hour to clean up the mess and wash out the carpet. Our living room smelled like a fresh toilet for weeks, it was a strangely refreshing aroma :) I can't even remember the words I had with my son after that, but I know I threatened something near and dear to him (probably his laptop) and it never happened again. And by the way, the 'him' I thought of killing... I think it could've easily been either Zeus OR my son... Thank God I love them both dearly and decided to let them both live :)

Our Prayers May Have Been Answered:)

OK, if you've read this blog since the beginning, you know we're having problems with Zeus' shit... no pun intended. It seems to go from nice and solid to stench and mush. This has been going on for the last 4 months or so and to deal with it, I've been cooking rice to mix in with his dog food. Now... he's been on some good quality dog food for over a year. It's Natural Balance and the flavor is Venison and Sweet Potato, a 28 lb. bag costs $55... That's expensive stuff... but he's worth it :)  The whole reason we put him on this stuff was diarrhea - he had diarrhea probably around this time last year and we asked his doctor what might be causing it. She said food sensitivity. See, I didn't realize it at first, but when I took Zeus to his vet for the first time after I bought him, she told me that deaf dogs tend to have a really weak immune system (wish I'd known that BEFORE I bought him!) and they usually have more health issues... It was at that time I saw this little thought bubble over my head with a picture of me paying thousands of dollars for vet bills and medications... Anyhow, we asked her opinion on what food he should be eating and then went dog food shopping at some different stores and asked managers for their opinions as well. We ended up loving the help at Pet Saver in Greece. The manager there really seemed to know her 'shit' about dog food and we followed her advice. She said he probably needed a grain free diet because most likely he's allergic to grains. She also said that sweet potato helps dry up diarrhea. She showed us a few different brands, pointed out what flavors would be good for Zeus and we ended up with the Natural Balance. All was good in our world for almost a year. His stool was solid, he had very little gas and everyone was happy in Poopsville  :)  Until 4 months ago...
We couldn't figure out what was causing his diarrhea to act up again. We went to the vet's office, had his anal gland expressed a couple of times thinking it was impacted again. We put him on steroids and antibiotics a couple of times. He's been on rice and dog food and one day he's got solid poop, 3 days later it's mush again. The madness has been driving me crazy. Calgon, Take Me Away!! Remember those commercials?? Well, that's me lately...
So, I decided to start asking about food again. I talked to the owner of Orchard Kennel about his diarrhea and his food. She suggested that we put him on grain free food (during our conversation I didn't remember that he's already on grain free food) so she gave me a spiel about why grain free is best. I took her info and went back to Pet Saver and spoke to the people that were there. I didn't see the manager who had helped us last year, but all 3 of the people I DID speak to said the same thing: grain free is NOT best for sensitive stomachs. Grain actually firms up the stool and clears up the diarrhea. I was told the best food would be one without fruits or vegetables, the fewer the ingredients the better. So I was shown a food that literally has 2 ingredients: lamb and rice. It's called California Natural. A 30 lb. bag costs $44 and because it's so few ingredients, they said that it won't take weeks to switch him over gradually. It'll be more like days... Oh Happy Day!! This is a win-win situation... if this works... I'm very hopeful that it will. Everything they said makes alot of sense to us. AND at 4:00 in the morning Zeus had to go to the bathroom since he hadn't gone all day... AND IT WAS SOLID POOP!! Yeah!! :)

We share some similarities

... as humans and dogs. We wear sunglasses, so do dogs. We eat 3 meals a day, so do dogs. We like to make our loved ones happy, so do dogs. After walking around barefoot our feet get dirty, so do dog's feet. Humans can get into the yoga pose called downward facing dog, and so do dogs (hence the pose's name). However, I also notice a number of differences in us. Such as when MY feet are dirty I wash them like a civil human being with soap and water or in the shower. Dogs lick their feet cleaned (thank GOD we don't have to do that too!). Also, when I do downward facing dog, my back cracks... several times. When Zeus does HIS downward facing dog, he farts...several times!! It's a good life being human...  :)

We Gotta Go Back to the Vet

OK, we are STILL having issues with Zeus' poop! For almost 2 months now (seems more like forever) we've been feeding him chicken and rice until his diarrhea goes away. Then we give him 1/2 rice with 1/4 chicken and 1/4 dog food. Once the 'stuff' is firmer, he gets 1/2 rice and 1/2 dog food. I can't even remember the last time he had a full meal of just dog food!
This morning already he's gone out twice for 'dooky time' and they've both been mush. The second 'drop' even had some blood in it! Steve is thinking we should have his anal gland removed. That just screams FUTURE PROBLEMS to me... We were told that if his diarrhea didn't clear up it's possible he has allergies and the vet wants to test him for those, which runs $170 just for the test. Then if he tests positive, he'll be prescribed allergy shots which we'd have to administer daily!! I can't even imagine how much that'll cost!
Here's another issue he needs to see the vet for. He's got really long and thick toe nails. We can't clip them ourselves - he won't let us. Trust me, we've tried and it's not pretty... There's this one nail in particular that scratches up against the pad of the toe next to it and makes it bleed. It doesn't matter what the length of the nail is and it doesn't happen all the time. It's when he runs. He loves running and I know it's good for him to get that kind of exercise... but when he runs, he comes in the house and leaves blood everywhere he steps. Last night we had another episode of "The Bloody Paw" (sounds like a horror flick, right?) and didn't notice it right away. Finally, my daughter says "Oh my God, he's bleeding! Mom, there's blood everywhere." And sure enough, we ended up bandaging up his toe with gauze and medical tape then proceeded to clean up blood stains on the hard wood floors, the carpet in the living room, the ottoman and the ceramic tile in the bathroom... Let me just say that Formula 409 Carpet Spot & Stain Remover is an AWESOME product!! But I wish I didn't need it for blood stains from my dog's toe... I'm actually thinking of asking the vet if that one toe nail can be removed. Sounds horrible, I know... but drastic times call for drastic measures...

Freckles on Dogs?

When we first got Zeus, his nose was as pink as a baby's butt! Just take a look at the large photo above! When he was somewhere around 8 months old, we started to notice 3 dark pink dots on his nose right around the fur line. We washed them, scrubbed them and even tried to scratch them off. I was convinced that they were dirt spots at first. Then when they didn't come off, I thought maybe they were some type of bug that embeds itself into dog's skin. That grossed me out and I stopped kissing him for awhile... But these dots got darker... and larger... then darker again... and even larger! At some point, it dawned on us that he was getting freckles! I had no idea dogs could get freckles but I'm so glad they do cause they're so damn cute! As a puppy he always had one big black spot on the left side of his nose. It kinda looks like a big booger. But NOW he's got several small ones all over his nose. One day a few weeks ago, I saw some dirt inside his nostrils so I got out a Q-tip to clean them out... and low-and-behold... the dirt was a bunch of freckles, too! So he's got little freckles inside his nostrils. You know how while your kids are growing you don't notice it so much because you see them every day? You don't notice their growth until someone else sees them for the first time in a long time and comments about it? Well, same thing is true with Zeus. We hadn't really noticed all the new freckles and spots he's been getting over the past year until recently someone else pointed it out to us how many little spots he has. He's looking more and more like a Dairy Cow as time goes on.  ~Moo~