Have you ever had to lift a dead elephant? How about a live resistant one?

Well, I have! They come in the form of grossly over weight  Labs, Golden Retrievers, and passive agressive Great Danes.  Just this past week I had just such a meeting. The 125 pound lab decided he didnt know how to walk up the stairs to the bath tub. 4 little steps...and he couldnt find it in his heart to go. I had taken the dog in late in the day and every one else had left the shop. (usually, I have a stray teenager or a randomly occuring assistant standing around). I told the owner that I'd have the dog washed, dried and ready to go home in an hour. The owner left and the dog trotted dutifully into the back room (the bathing room)...and came to a screeching halt at the foot of the steps to the tub. I begged, patted the steps, gave short tugs on the leash and so on...all to no avail. He would step onto the first step and lock his back feet against the bottm step and pull back...or better yet step to the right and end up standing nicely beside the darn steps. I spent 15 minutes wrestling with that darn dog!

Now I can pick up at least 55 pounds. I know this because I regularly have to hoist 55 pound bags of dog chow for my kennel dogs. I knew I couldn't pick that 125 resistant weight up. Thank goodness, just then my brother came in and helped me hoist the dog into the tub..