We often read about or hear about a dog being attacked by another dog or dogs and we shake our heads, feel sad for the dog and move on. Rarely do we hear about the lasting effects of such an attack and the hard work that the owner needs to undertake to get their dog back on track after a frightening ordeal.
Here's one such story..... Let's call him Patch (names changed to protect the innocent!) and his owner Mary. Patch and Mary were enjoying their walk one evening when they met a lady coming towards them with a Rottweiler and GSD. The dogs were set on getting to Patch and Mary and the owner lost control of them and dropped their leads whereupon they set about Patch to his severe injury. Mary rushed Patch home and onto the vet. Patch was quite down for a while and following a couple of weeks away, on his return to his house, he would no longer go for a walk. Mary tried hard to persuade him but he was too frightened to venture past his gate.
This has gone on for a few weeks now so we set off tonight to see what we could do to help. With some exercises and lots of reward Patch ventured along the road a bit and passed his gate twice going in different directions. It will not be an overnight cure for Mary and Patch but Mary is determined to help Patch overcome his fear and I'm sure they will get there. We will review in a week to see how it's going and move on to the the next step.
It's the side of the story that is never seen and there are no consequences for the owner of the other dogs although the Dog Warden is now aware as is the Police but we have had word today that it has happened again. Perhaps if she was aware of the financial and emotional cost of her actions (or lack of them) she might just do something but then again perhaps not.....
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