scratch that

Wouldn't you know the day after I write a fuzzy-warm post about how I mostly like my dog, he turns around and behaves like the real devil?

Yup. True. I have now had two days of him behaving like a little $&%^ (sorry, but it's true!) and I can't help but think that he somehow knows what nice things I said about him in my post. Perhaps these nice things embarassed him. You know, he wants to be the big, tough dog on the street, so he decided he needed to act out so I would take those nice things back, just to show his friends that he really isn't such a softy. Hmmph.

Let's examine yesterday's issue. I let him out of his kennel when I got home from work, like normal. Also, like normal, I let him outside so he could run around and relieve himself. I was feeling friendly and decided to throw a toy out in the back with Zeus, to give him a little exercise. He was doing really great at first, listening to my "drop it" command. After a bit, I got him to come back inside and then I came to sit down at my computer.

Out of nowhere, he starts making loop-de-loops around the house, running in crazy, eratic circles from my office (making a quick bouncing stop on the bed) through the hallway, around the corner, in the kitchen, on the couch and then back to my office bed. While he is running around like a madman, he's also barking. I do my best to calm him down, to no avail. I look into his face and am seriously frightened that if I get too close, he'll chew my face off. So, what do I do? Well, I do the only rational thing: get out my cell phone and start taking video of his behavior to show B when he gets home (he never believes me when I tell him how awful Zeus can be). And then Zeus starts bitting my feet--something he never does--and again, the look in his eye made me think he was posessed. And then he got a hold of my pants (one of my few pairs that I still fit into comfortably) and ripped a hole at the bottom. Out of nowhere, Zeus just stopped, shook, and then laid down on the floor as calm as nothing ever happened. Here's the video. Don't mind my screaming in the background!

And now today. I get home and let him out the back door. Instead of going where he usually goes to pee--in a back corner--he makes a beeline for the front yard (also something he never does). I walk around the cornner and see him in the front yard staring at me as if to say, "Haha, you think you're gonna catch me?" And then he takes off down the street, stopping only to sniff the ground. Of course, I can't run and it is hard to even walk quickly, so I'm yelling and screaming down the street after him, but does he choose to listen to me then? No. Finally, he enters the yard of a family who owns several big, mean dogs. Zeus sees these dogs, who are barking at him, in the window and decides he'd like to play with them. So, he starts jumping up and down in front of the window. I see this as an opportunity to sneak up behind him, which I do and yank him awkwardly up the street back home...where he escapes again once we're inside. I couldn't get a hold on him after that. And again, as if nothing had just transpired, he stops, shakes, and then lays on the floor in front of the heater.

I put a phone call in to my sweet husband who is obsessed with this dog-who-can-do-no-wrong.

I was fuming.

Something has got to be done. Next time, I will just let him continue running. Seriously.