A rough couple of days

I've only seen dogs "scoot" on their butthole a couple of times in my life. So, you can imagine how funny it looked when our little Rosco started doing it after we got him from the Jack Russell Rescue Society. After much inquiry to knowledgeable doggie parents and my trusty Vet Doctor, we found out that Rosco has problems expressing his anal glands.

Well, to remedy this, rather than get down and dirty in an area NOT of my expertise, I took him to my vet to have the glands emptied. And we've had to take him back a couple of times since then.

Yesterday morning was another such morning where I saw Rosco doing the "boot scoot." After we woke up, I caught him doing it. That is my only tell-tale sign that I need to take him into the Vet, but since it was Sunday and the office was closed, I nudged with my toe to stop.

I looked over in Scott's direction only to find that he didn't notice. I sighed in relief. See, Scott has this only phobia, or maybe it's a disgust against... well, dog poop. Scott can kill spiders with his bare fingers, he can even shoot birds with his sling-shot, he can clean baby puke and baby poop out of carpet, he can even scrub the toilet bowl... but for a reason unbeknown to me, he cannot deal with dog crap anywhere or anytime.

As I walk into the bathroom to relieve myself, praying that Rosco doesn't scoot again, I hear Scott yell, "Oh NO you don't ROSCO!!"

Then, I hear a scuffle, a dog cry, a human gasp, and Scott yelling obscenities while running down the stairs after the dog. I cleaned up in the bathroom as fast as I could and ran down the stairs to find that Scott had chased Rosco behind the couch. Scott then stormed to the back door and opened it, which afterward Rosco ran outside.

Apparently, Rosco had bit Scott when he went to grab Rosco's collar after yelling at him to stop scooting. Rosco then bit him again when Scott went after his collar again in shock and disbelief.

Fast forward to today... fast forward past Scott literally packing Rosco's bags to move out, fast forward past my shocked reaction to just that, fast forward past my angry two hour walk I took with the dogs to get out of the house, fast forward past our emotional argument of things like "...Connor is in danger with a dog around that bites" and "...Rosco's reaction was a reaction to being attacked" and "...choosing a person over a dog is wrong in so many ways" and "I am NOT choosing a dog over you".... Basically fast forward past a very emotionally tiring day for both Scott and myself to... today.

This morning, I took Rosco to the vet to get his glands expressed. Something told me that having Rosco continue to do the "boot scoot" in front of Scott was not going to heal any sort of anger Scott was harboring toward the dog. Plus this morning, I noticed Rosco shaking his head a little bit, and after I massaged both ears, found that his right one was a little tender. With an possible ear infection on top of everything, I took the first available opening this morning.

When I went into the exam room, I first asked for his opinion about the episode the morning before. I gave him all the facts of the scuffle, while also giving Rosco's background, what little we know of it, his personality traits, and the fact that we have a four-year old living in the house.

The Vet then sat cross-legged on the floor with Rosco, gave him a treat, rubbed his back, handled him, and basically talked to him. Then, the Vet stood up and gave me his professional opinion: There are really two types of dog aggression: there is DOMINANT aggression and there is FEAR aggression. Only 10% of the aggressive dogs out there react due to fear.

He then asked me what breed of dog I thought attacked more children than any other breed statistically. I answered that it was probably the pit bull breed or something. He answered: it's actually the golden retriever, thus proving his point. It's the dog that we bring into the house, not pay attention to warning signs of their threat of kids, put the dog in a situation not monitored by adults where we get trouble. And his opinion of Rosco? He has no warning signs that the Vet has seen in other dogs. He's just the friendly, easy-going Rosco that we adopted and love.

After a thorough exam, the vet recommended actually coming back for Rosco a little later. Apparently, there was a foxtail that was lodged deep in his ear. He would need to put him under anesthetic in order to get the foxtail out.

I returned back to work, where I rearranged my schedule for this little terrier-child of mine. Lucky for me, work was slow. After a few moments at work, the vet called and explained the situation...

In surgery, the vet found that the foxtail had lodged itself so deep in Rosco's ear that it had actually punctured his ear drum. Ear drums CAN heal, but if his doesn't, he could be deaf in that ear... Oh, and he has one tooth that is so full of plaque that the gum is receding... could they go ahead and clean it... and because I kept thinking about the punctured eardrum and that Rosco could be a half deaf dog... of course I said sure, go ahead and give my dog a dental exam while he's out... Oh and then the vet told me that his glands were VERY full, so that's good that we got him in to empty them out.

Poor Rosco. Can you imagine coming out of the vet's clinic: you've been violated but your butt feels better, your tooth hurts, your ear hurts worse than it did coming in, and now you feel drunk coming off your anesthetic. And this is after yesterday morning's scuffle.

If Rosco were 17 years and human, I bet he would run away from home.