Safe isn’t safe draft

WHEN SAFE ISN’T “SAFE”  By now the entire valley has heard about the horrible incident that happened on Sunday between one of my dogs and a neighbor’s dog.  I am not here to defend myself, but hopefully share and educate so someone else will not suffer the same thing as I have, the dogs have and my neighbor suffered. 

I have been described as the “strict” trainer and even the “Dog Nazi” in the valley because I am so insistent upon leashes in unsafe situations,  not allowing dogs too much freedom, and insist upon responsible management.

As it happened, my management was not enough.  I was loading my dogs in the van to go to see my grandson.  It was BEN DAY!  The van is on my property.  All the dogs were in the van.  I loaded the most unreliable first using leashes to get them to the van.  The last dog, Isabella has always headed directly to the van door and hopped in, not wanting to be left behind.  Before ANY of the dogs were allowed out the front door, I stepped out and looked both ways down the street to be sure no one was coming.  I let Isabella run to the van just as my neighbor came running around the corner with her dog on a leash.  Isabella, ran to the dog and bit the dog. NOT MY NEIGHBOR.

From what I understand, the bite was not serious.  That doesn’t matter, really.  What is important is that what I thought would be safe and good management by looking both ways down the street was not good management.

Further what is important to realize is that even if you trust your dog, you cannot trust your dog.  Dogs are living beings and see things differently than we do. They have no sense of what is socially acceptable in our society.  

Isabella is a herding dog with a keen sense of “prey drive” meaning if it moves, she is going to chase it. If her instinctual drive pushed her into the fight, then it did.  It still was not acceptable.  

For everyone to know, I accepted responsibility for the incident, paid for the vet bill, offered endless sincere apologies and have assured the neighbor this will never happen again.   How am I going to make the happen?  I have to realize that my dogs will never be safe in my own yard again in order to protect others.  And secondly, I am considering euthanasia for my dog.  I cannot live with the stress this has put me in.  

During the incident, a sudden, horrible headache happened.  I did not call EMS because I could still move all sides of my body, smile, etc.  Although, the first thought in my mind was that I was having a stroke, given that I have high blood pressure, this is a very real possibility.  I cannot allow this type of incident to happen again for my OWN health.

Because of this incident, it has made me reflect upon my reputation in the valley as the “strict” dog trainer.  So, if my clients thought I was strict before, you AINT SEEN NUTHIN YET!