Rottie in the Air …
By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee/@GeeGranny
Photo of Kissy, our Rottie now. Sweet Chadwick, our yellow Pup is gone now (January 16, 2015). Photo owned by me, Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.
I don’t know if you are like me in wanting to improvise ways to do things. You know like when you are trying to problem-solve.
Like when you don’t know what in the world you could find, use to accomplish some deed you want done. I like to make things from … nothing.
Like when you want to trim a Rottweiler’s nails. Like when that Rottweiler doesn’t want his nails trimmed. Like when he gets very pissed-off if he even thinks you are going toward his nails.
See, about 0 years ago, I had my first Rottweiler. I loved him with my Heart. I began by trimming his nails to the tune of … vanilla wafers. He loved vanilla wafers! (Now … I know vanilla wafers are NOT good for Pups!)
I had to be very fast trimming his nails … as time went by he grew bigger … and the vanilla wafers would go quicker … he’d run out of them, get an attitude! He had a growl that intimidated me!
He was my teddy bear but, he didn’t put up with nonsense. It would be like, “Girl, you better get some more of them vanilla wafers”!
I learned this when I thought I could keep on trimming … he looked me in the eyes, did a growl … he held my hand in his mouth. He didn’t bite … but, he successfully taught me … who was boss. No more vanilla wafers for him! I don’t even know if vanilla wafers would have worked anymore.
Each day while working, I would think about how I could improvise a way to trim his nails. I thought of how I could keep his head at a safe distance while trimming. Of course, I didn’t want to hurt my baby.
A light bulb went off one day. I knew what I was going to do! I talked to my brother and Tommy, my son. I had a team … and this was going to work … I was sure it would. I knew it would be safe at the same time.
I went to my mother, talked to her. She let me have one of her queen-sized sheets … I took my scissors to it. I made 4 holes in it for my Rottie’s legs to go through. I knew when I got ready … his head, tail would be at the edge of the sheet on either side … legs through the holes.
I called my team … my brother, son … they brought rope with them. They helped me to secure the rope onto the sheet. See, the plan was … my Rottie was going to put each leg in a hole on the sheet. I would then, draw the sheet up around him … his head would stick out on one side … tail would be at the other side.
The rope had been thrown over a wooden beam, a rafter … in the room my step-father was remodeling. All my brother, son had to do was to hoist that sheet, Rottweiler in it … I would hurry, trim every nail on his feet.
You know … do like those mechanics on race-cars. They have their stuff together! I was sure I had my stuff together, too! I could work on this … car!
The sheet, my Rottie went up into the air. He had a surprised expression on his face … I began to quickly trim his nails. Be damned, if he didn’t scare Hell out of me! He made a growl like something I’d never heard!
“Let him down, let him down”! My brother, son let him down gently. I told them I couldn’t do it. That growl made all the other growls he’d ever made … sound like little meows! This growl told me something. I listened.
I never did get to trim his nails. Thankfully, vets know how to do that! Today when Kissy, our Rottie goes to the vet … they trim his nails.
See, it’s a different Rottweiler in a different time … he doesn’t like it either. Rather than to put me, him to the stress … I let them trim his nails … and he doesn’t mind.
Don’t try this at your home. Sweets are bad for your dogs. I don’t think it’s a good idea to pull a rope/sheet trick like I did either.
I don’t think it wise to swing a Rottweiler from a rafter! Nor tempt a Rottie with vanilla wafers!
Note by this Author:
I hope you don’t do a dumb thing like I did regarding vanilla wafers, and putting my Rottie up in the air like he was a car to work on. So much for bright ideas! He was never in danger … I still don’t think anyone should do what I did.
This is a true story of my life. I was telling our Vet today about doing that. They trimmed our Kissy’s nails today. I’m so glad! 🙂
Photos/story are owned by me … Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee
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