Doggie Weight Loss.

What's the best way to lose weight for dogs? Why, chop something off, of course! I'll get to that in a second.

As I mentioned before we were supposed to go this week to pick up the dogs from their training summer camp, but that never happened. We booked a hotel for two nights and were supposed to go on Wednesday and come back on Friday night, staying there for two days of training so we'll be brought up to speed about what the dogs learned and what we needed to carry on doing at home.

On tuesday while the three of us were out and about we got a call from Terry, the dogs' trainer. He told Miron that we shouldn't come back yet because the dogs weren't ready. He took them out to a nearby park the day before and Dexter, who was alright with many other dogs, flipped out at a boxer and was very hard to restrain. Miron asked why was this a big surprise. That's exactly why the dogs were sent there: after Dexter was traumatized by an attack by two Jack Russels he became overly aggressive towards small dogs. It took them four weeks to figure that one out? What were they doing all this time? Rolling in cotton candy? Terry explained that he was surprised by the intensity of Dexter's attack, but that wasn't new to us. When Dexter went for it, he went for it. If you open the dictionary at "Apeshit Crazy" you'll see a picture of Dexter.

Needless to say we were dismayed. One second we were excited about meeting the dogs again and getting them yummy treats and the next we were wondering what next. What were our options? We couldn't possibly just pick up the dogs and live with it. Dexter's behaviour was getting worse. It didn't matter what were the circumstances that led to the current situation, I can't get dragged around by two out of control dogs and wait until someone will get seriously hurt. Certainly not with a toddler around. The last few walks with the two dogs before they went away were nerve-wracking. The trainer said he'll work on them for yet another week to find and determine the trigger, but that didn't sound too promising.

So what did that mean? It meant we had to give Dexter away. His breeder said she'll be always willing to take him back. We started thinking about the idea. We'll only give him back if we got a guarantee that he wouldn't be put down. But then where will he end up? And with a reputation of an aggressive dog how can we be sure he won't end up in a dog fighting ring? 

That was one sickening aspect of the concept, the other was the effect of the separation on us. Although they had the occasional disagreement, Leo and Dexter love each other and play together every day and groom each other. When our previous dog died Leo took it so bad we feared we might lose him too. Who knows how losing Dexter will affect him? And how would poor Dexter feel to lose all of us after being with us for 18 months? And don't get me started about me... It all just made me sick, but I knew we had no choice.

Or did we?

Going back to talking about doggie weight loss. Yesterday morning Dexter has lost whatever his testicles used to weight. 

Snip Snip.

The operation went well and hopefully by four to six weeks it will take full effect and Dexter will be calmer and less aggressive. We'll be picking them up next week I hope, or at the latest the week after that.

A moment of silence for Dexter's balls.

Baby Dexter's first night with us. Leo is rightfully concerned...

--Mickey