Oh, shit! 💩

So, we have an adorable Boxer puppy named Clark. He really is very cute!

He was born January 9 and came to live with us at the end of March.

I will admit now, and am pretty sure I always would have, that ROB was the Boxer Whisperer and did the hard work when it came to training. This is our fourth Boxer. I can honestly say that I do NOT remember the other three being this crazy but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t. It just means that Rob put in the hours getting them to be the well behaved dogs that they grew up to be. (I am pretty sure Rob is sitting wherever he is right now with Taz, Darby and Cash and all four of them are laughing their asses off as Luke and I do our best to get this guy to behave).

Clark has a TON of energy (as ALL Boxer puppies do) as well as some crazy quirks.

Among other things, he LOVES (or hates – I am not sure) the lawnmower. He now knows that it is housed in the shed so as soon as I walk towards the shed, he goes after my shoes. When I cut the grass, I wear a pair of low cut hiking boots with laces.

I do not know WHY but he LOVES these shoes. As soon as I put them off he is going after them. Not so much the shoe as my ankle and the laces!

I have to put him inside when I am cutting the grass or he runs circles around the lawnmower, barking, and I am afraid he is going to slip underneath and I am going to cut off a limb!

This particular day, I decided I would do a Poop Sweep before starting to cut the lawn and before putting him in the house! BIG mistake. I walked around the yard to make sure I had not missed picking up any poops because I usually manage to miss one and have to stop in mid-mow!

Yup – just as expected, there was one in the middle of the yard.

I walked toward the poop💩 and he got EXCITED about my shoes!! He got in between my legs and grabbed me by the ankle with his no-longer-puppy-sized jaw. It is now bone crushingly strong. 🦷 It is hard to believe but you really cannot move when he has you “pinned” this way.

Then he proceeded to undo my left shoe. I SWEAR there is nothing you can do to distract him from that shoe once he has it in his sights! I know in my logical brain that the right thing to do is to ignore him and he will stop.

Not THIS puppy!

So while trying to do the right thing, I leaned forward on my right foot, putting all of my weight on my gimpy (fused) ankle, since he was pulling my left shoelaces … all the while ignoring the dog – like all of the “puppy textbooks” will tell you to do! 😅😅

I shifted my weight forward to pick up a rather “loose” pile of poop 💩 at the EXACT moment Clark ran in the opposite direction with my shoelace still in his mouth.

Can you visualize it? ** anyone picturing a wishbone???

The result … which occurred in a SPLIT second … he got my shoe and I lost my balance and landed safely on my forearm… IN THE POOP PILE!! 💩

As he was prancing around the yard throwing my shoe up in the air with glee, I was chasing him around the pool … SO. MUCH. FUN.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I caught him but putting him in the house so I could work in peace was at the top of my mental TO DO list!

I REALLY hope there were no neighbours watching this all unravel as I rinsed my arm off with the hose before going in to the house to bathe myself in Lysol!

Lesson learned? Put the dog in the house BEFORE starting ANY work in the backyard?