Sampson was recently described by our vet as obstreperous, which means stubbornly resistant to control. That fits him to a “t”. But Rich and I have a secret weapon – peanut butter.

Last week, Sampson got some major burrs in his tail. When examining them, I discovered that a section of the underneath part of his tail was matted. Rich said “oh just get the scissors” but I refused to maul Sammy’s beautiful tail.

I got out the grooming tools, knowing that we would probably need each of them for different reasons.

But we had a problem. There was no way Sampson was going to let me work on his tail with mats and burrs. He just turns around and nips at the hand that is bothering him. So I went back inside and got a near empty (plastic) jar of peanut butter. Not just any peanut butter but one of a pair of jars we bought just for Sampson, In other words, cheap store brand but no-salt smooth peanut butter.

So Rich held the peanut butter jar for Sampson to lick while I got all of the burrs and all of the tangles out of his tail. It was no small feat. Thanks to having my own head full of unruly hair, I do know the secret of pulling the hair out of the burr/tangle (no I do not get burrs in my hair) rather than trying to pull the burr out of the hair.And Sampson completely ignored what I was doing. At one point Rich laughed and said “he’s so oblivious, we could be chopping his leg off and he wouldn’t notice.”

And voila, a beautiful fluffy tail.

I’ve taken a few other pics of Sammy in the past few days that I thought I would share. I’ve found that he likes to pose for the camera!

 
Handsome Sampson

Enjoying his new found freedom – off leash in the woods behind our house!
We’ve been doing this for a little over a week now. He’s very good and I keep lots of
yummy treats in my pocket which he doesn’t want to get too far from.

 
Yes, he is devilish sometimes, but the glowing eyes are just the reflection of the camera’s flash.