Life on the Leash can be Painful.
June 26th, 2008
Filed in: Uncategorized
It looks worse than it actually was.
Yes, my pulpy stump was the result of a dog bite, but not because the dog in question was out for my blood. This particular pup is perfect in nearly every way but one … he flips out when he encounters other dogs while on a leash walk. For the purposes of this story let’s call him “Surly.”
The remedy for leash-reactive dogs like Surly is to train them to turn towards their person to collect a tasty treat (I use cheese) every time they see a big scary dog on the horizon. (Did you notice that I said nothing about bringing about a “calm submissive state?” Take that, TV dog trainer!) Over time the reactive dog makes the association between the other dogs he’s passing and the treats he receives every time he sees them. Eventually, the reactive dog will welcome the presence of other dogs thanks to simple logic: other dogs = cheese.
Surly had been making great progress with me, but on this day we passed by a succession of dogs while strolling, culminating in one barky Rottweiler who got a little too close for comfort. Surly kept did his best to look away from the Rottie and collect his cheese from me, but each time he took the morsel from my hand he clamped down just a bit harder on my fingers.
“I’m nervous. I’ll keep eating your cheese, but I’m really, really nervous about that nutty barking dog right over there.”
Arousal and stress can turn a normally gentle canine mouth hard, and that’s what happened on this day. Poor Surly was so freaked out and over stimulated that he accidentally took it out on my fingers.
(Notice the white spots on my pointer-finger nail. Those are permanent fixtures on that nail due to the repetitive stress of 10,000 dog mouths clamping down on it.)
The wounds cleaned up just fine, and since that bloody day Surly has had many successful, wound-free walks with me.
