Monday, May 19, 2008

Sometimes... I'm just to scared to act

I haven’t posted anything in awhile. I was gone this past weekend so training wise nothing got done on my part. However, I am interested in sharing a few things that happened in the past few weeks. About two weeks ago I had one of the scariest moments in my dog-history with Toby. We’d had a relatively decent walk up until we turned down our street and headed home from the different direction. We’d just turned to go down the street when I saw a young boy that often wanted to pet Toby. Toby adores the kid, because B (as I’ll call him here) is one of the most polite and dog-savvy kids I’ve ever met. Sadly, B turned around and bolted in the other direction. It took a moment for me to realize why… A week or two before that, B had been severely attacked by another dog in the neighborhood (the very reason I hadn’t been walking the neighborhood at all for a few months… the dog was a time bomb and I knew the management would fail. It always does). He had gotten loose and the dog ended up attacked B, leaving a nasty bite on the boy’s face. And although B had seemed back to normal, still petitioning every other dog walker that walked by to pet their dog there one thing I had overlooked. The dog that had attacked B, looked incredibly similar to Toby. They were both brindle, big, floppy eared dogs.

A four year old boy never should have had to go through an attack like that (no one should have to…) and it’s one of those heart breaking moments to realize a kid that young now has a fear hanging over his head. With a sad frown I continued our walk, Toby was relaxed and things were going well. Until we hit a house about half way down the block… we’d recently had someone move in and they tended to keep their dog chained out front when the kids were out. The dog and everyone was inside, but the scents were all over the front yard. Toby stopped to sniff and I saw his brain start to click off because the dog had been corralled on the front porch and was barking it’s head off from inside. Add the scrape of nails on the door and that was it for Toby. Especially when the dog barking set off every other dog on the block. Toby was a goner. He gripped the ground, his eyes glazed over, he screamed over-stressed in every way… he was beyond just over-threshold and was beyond my reach. I did the only thing I could think of (not knowing how long the measly little door on their porch would last) and dragged him away from the house. He was already in a panic-attack (as best as I can describe it), so it was down to getting him out of danger. We’d barely made it to the next house when I heard scuffling over the pavement. I turned (no longer confident myself! I was terrified) just as I felt something ram into Toby. He whipped around ready to bite, only for both of us to discover it wasn’t a loose dog… but that little boy’s friend, J.I never thought it was possible for Toby to be that far over-threshold, mid-reaction to suddenly get control of himself. He not only managed to snap his mouth shut and jerk his head away from the kid so that he was cuddled up against the boy. But also managed to turn and lick the boy down within seconds. His face was clearly stressed, but his breathing had already begun to even out.

I wasn’t nearly as fast in my recovery… I opened my mouth to scream at the boy when he turned and called to B (who was across the street), “See, Toby don’t bite!” I wanted to cry. That kid had no idea how close he’d been to proving himself wrong there…Still, B was already on his way across the street when he paused and checked with me (I love that boy…), but his words weren’t the normal “Can I pet your dog?”… no his words were, “Does your dog bites kids?” With one look at Toby, who despite the stress crinkles around his eyes was relaxing (even in the midst of a several dogs barking around him) I reassured B and had him come over. I was stuffing chicken down Toby’s face as B came to pet him (I didn’t want Toby to lick his face and scare the boy anymore than necessary). It was amazing… I watched B go from pale, white-knuckled fidgeting to the familiar smile on his face. I had Toby shake for both boys (it’s his stress reliever trick) and excused ourselves to go home. I’d had the biggest scare in my lifetime and yet… one of the best moments with Toby I’ve ever had. I shook for days after the ordeal and at the same time, I have a whole new pride and respect in my boy.

I’ll post the second set of our ‘adventures’ for the past week later tonight.

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