If you own a dog, there is a very good chance that at some point in your dog’s life, your dog could get jumped or possibly attacked by another dog. It’s vital to know that your reaction could actually exacerbate the emotional damage to your dog or puppy. This episode has my top tips for helping your dog and how you can take control of the uncontrollable and your responses. My puppy, This!, was jumped by an older pup, so it’s a topic fresh in my mind.
In the episode you'll hear:
- About being a helicopter parent, the opposite, and what I learned about being a dolphin parent.
- Why the ability to recover is so important for our dogs.
- The aftermath of our dogs being jumped and what we can do.
- About negative conditioned responses and single event learning.
- What happened with my puppy This! and what I did to help her.
- The importance of changing a dog’s physiological state.
- What I learned from a book about preventing PTSD with pattern-matching games.
- How “play, don’t’ replay” works.
- Why our first responses might not the best responses for our dog.
- How to avoid adding emotional fire for your dog to events you cannot control.
- Why to practice responding to things you can’t control.
- What I do if my dog gets jumped and strategies you can put into action.
- How to make the absolute best out of a bad situation.
- What to look for in a good organised and structured puppy playgroup.
I watched and listened but what happens if one of your own dogs drop the other day two and I have been separated my husband took a Jack Russell with him to work yesterday and today I have a crate to put the Minpin in when he gets home I live in a rule area there are no dog trainers
Thank you so much Susan for this Podcast!!
Sure hit “home” with a similar situation for Mindi when she was 9 months old.
We were on a walk on our neighborhood country road about 1/4 mile from home. Our neighbor’s dog came running, I immediately grabbed Mindi and held her. The “Big Black” dog grabbed Mindi by the rump, clamped on and shook her. I kicked the other dog and it let go and ran back home. Mindi was traumatized and I was not happy. Mindi had to get stitches in her wounds. Mindi never did learn to trust dogs that were big and black….
Fast forward….Mindi is now 15 years old and the other dog is dead but Mindi does not like any of the people that are associated with that house, even though our families are very close neighborhood friends.
Thank you again Susan!!
My bearded collie puppy got jumped by an adult border collie and it did result in a tooth scrape to her ribcage and hair that got ripped out. Thereafter she growled at a border collie puppy and I removed her from the area. I had not seen this info of yours so now I ask should I try to find a friendly border collie and reintroduce her to the breed? I’m concerned that she may take a dislike to all border collies because of this.
Paradigm shift. You can’t control what is already in the past. 😳. My primary goal is to always protect my dog’s confidence and this is a great plan of action for future situations.