[nagdu] Odie

[Criminal Justice Major]

Hi, Ava and all,
Sorry I didn't respond to a question which was asked on the list a few days ago.
Ava's question was if I remember correctly here:
Q. What does Odie look like?
Here's my answer:
A. Odie is a huge hybrid German black labrador.
His coat is jet black color.
He has straight short hair which is somewhat wavy and his coat is very shiny.
When the light reflects on his coat, it actually looks like an ivory color.
His eyes are big and brown but when the light bounces off of them, they can look redish.
Despite that he's a lovable, sort hearted, gigantic marshmellow, some people find him intimmidating and scary because once in work mode, Odie is always serious upon being alert and watches everything that goes on around us.
If need be when we're approached in a bad way or if individuals may be annoying or nuisance, he will have his head pointed upward with his nose toward the sky and give people a deep, electrifying stare.
I say that because when he's stared at me, I've felt it and it felt as if I was being electricuted or just deeply watched.
I'm probably esaggerating about the staring part though, but figure it's the best way for me to describe it.
During one incident on 16th and Welton durring the beginning of December, 2008, a guy came up to me and asked if I had any change to spare.
I didn't answer as I had no idea he was talking to me and I suddenly felt his hand pushing my right arm.
Boy! That scared the crud out of me!
I also jumped at the same time.
Odie immediately sprung up off the ground from in front of my feet like a quick bolt of lightning, placed himself in between me and the unknown man and deeply stared into his face.
The guy realized then that a huge black lab was looking at him into his eyes and ran away quickly.
Odie has no german shepherd, rottwiller or pitbull breeds mixed with him.
He does have the characteristics of a rottwiller or pitbull though.
He has a huge block head that may resemble a rottwiller's head and his mouth feels hinge like which opens and closes like a clap, so I call his mouth a pitbull's mouth.
Once his mouth closes down on something, his jaws will lock up tightly and the only way to get his mouth open is to slightly squeeze his nose which then forces him to open it or use a prying stick.
I've experienced his mouth accidentally locking up on my arm one time and it happened during a misunderstanding between Odie and I.
He happened to be making a weird noise one time and I had to put my hand in his mouth to make sure he wasn't choking on any food and to see that his airwave wasn't experiencing a blockage.
I had a short amount of time to get his mouth unlocked.
I ended up having to squeeze his nose to force his mouth opened or get to the kitchen sink to use the sprayer and squirt him in the face with water.
First choice was actually easier.
Some guide dog handlers may not agree with this, but it was something recommended by a veternarian since I'm not able to physically see inside of his mouth, so he/she figure the best way for me to know was by feeling the inside of his mouth. 
Regardless of the incident, Odie and I deeply love each other still and he really, truly felt bad after all of that.
no, nothing like that has happened anymore and I never reported the incident to pilot as I felt it wasn't necessary.
Only major thing which happened was my arm was red and bruised, but I was able to treat it with medical cream upon it healing three days later.
That's the story there and I'm stickin with it...
No skin was broken and I had already had a tetna shot during the summer of 2005.
If anyone is interested reading more about the hybrid labs or even the labra wolf, just go into your search enging and type in hybrid lab or even labra wolf.
I'm sure a lot will come up.
You can also find out about the german labs too.
Bibi, husband Dale and son Odie
medical alert service dog
the happy spirited bounty labra wolf