"Where is your sidekick?"
When someone in town sees me without Liv, they want to know where she is and how she is doing.
As I write, she is enjoying the biggest treat of her life. It is a beef check in the shape of a cylinder that is about 14 inches long with a 4 to 5-inch diameter.
Today we barely avoided the disaster of the loose dog. On our first walk today, we were accosted by a large dog. The dog broke free of the owner's grasp, rushing toward us and biting Liv, who immediately barked and bit back until I stepped in to stop the kurfuffle. She rarely barks, so this was quite a scene and a scary situation.
Duke, whose name I learned later in a text with his humans, stopped advancing as soon as I started screaming bloody murder and rushing him.
The medium version is that with saliva on her neck Liv acted okay going home. I could not find any punctures or blood, but I called the vet anyway to book the soonest appointment.
"It looks like she has some bruising." This was the vet's assessment after checking Liv who was stressed and standoffish in the exam room even though she would not get poked with needles for blood draws or shots or have anything up her rectum during this visit. She didn't realize she would just be getting touched, which she loves.
She will take doggie ibuprofen for a few days for the inflammation. This says nothing of the emotional and psychological toll it took on us. I am always a little worried when she interacts with dogs after a fight, which there have been three of in the three years we have lived in this town. The fallout and how to cope with this one remains to be seen, but she is resilient so I am hopeful.
Today I briefly froze in fear, which could have meant more harm to Liv. I was beside myself and felt like I failed her. I resolved to get in front of any approaching loose dogs and make a big scene faster to protect her better going forward.
I was worried that the humans would yell at the dog. Yelling at a dog only stresses them, and yelling after the fact does no good. The dog's human was disciplining the dog as I took Liv away from the scene. I shouted to the human that it was not the dog's fault, and it was his fault (though fault may not be a productive attitude). He said he was sorry and that the dog pulled the leash out of his hand, and I barked that I would be taking her to the vet and would talk to them about the bill. I was hysterical and angry, and all day my lower legs and feet felt exhausted and a little numb.
As an important aside, Duke's people paid for the vet visit, which I thought was reasonable, even if unexpected.
Thankfully, Liv does not seem to be seriously hurt. She has so much potential and normally is adventurous and loves indiscriminately. I would never want her to be hurt or change her demeanor toward life.
Just last week she (we) underwent a 1-hour evaluation to be a therapy dog for a local nonprofit. While it was agreed that she was born for therapy work and has the 'it' factor, she has some homework to do before she passes. She is not to stand on her hind legs for food and must take food without using her teeth on human fingers. Granted, she was subjected to many potentially stressful scenarios with sounds and objects, none of which seemed to phase her much. Throughout, she continued waiting for humans to give her attention. This included sort of teasing her with food and seeing how calm she could be once she was finally in contact with it. At one point the trainer placed food into Liv's mouth but kept it in her hand, and she would not bite down even though she wanted the food, clearly knowing not to bite the human's hands. To add to the difficulty and unknown to us, Liv's favorite milk bone marrow treats were used, which is the only treat she consistently stands up for, though she is always careful not to jump onto people.
In the evaluation, she also brilliantly distinguished the person from the loud sounds they were making and immediately approached the person gently after they stopped the commotion. I don't know that we will ever get there, but we are practicing taking food slowly while she remains calm in hopes that she will officially start work as a therapy dog.
The Disaster of the Loose Dog
Good story, traumatic, great ending! :-)