Awful awful news Drak. So sorry to hear. Glad your wife is okay, but I can't imagine that happening to my guy. Especially in front of my eyes. One of my worst fears.
I assume an altercation with the driver ensued. What happened there?
First, thanks for the responses from everyone. I typically hold loss inside but I feel like I need to talk to people. I might have to go see someone about how I feel to deal with this.
As to the driver, I yelled at him and tore into him verbally in a rage. I made a pretty big scene. Firefighters approached me with one of the witnesses and walled me off from the guy. But I wasn't going to do anything to him physically I just felt rage and utter despair all the the same time. I was in shock and in a daze. My wife has to give the police her account of what happened again in writing via email. They took her verbal statement down at the scene when she was in a stretcher or in the ambulance but they want it in writing as well. There were two witnesses there that saw what happened.
I realize accidents happen but I just don't understand how you run someone over at a crosswalk 4 way stop in a school zone. This was completely unnecessary and avoidable. Nothing will bring our little dog back.
My hat is off to you Drak. I'm not sure I would have had any self control. I can't imagine having to deal with that. I guess there was dog that got hit in our neighbourhood yesterday and a bunch of kids from a school witnessed it I can't deal with seeing an animal in pain. Humans? That I can deal with. There's just something about an animal that can't verbalize what's happening with them that gets me.
Our "youngest" is almost 3 years. He was cute puppy but has grown to be 120 pounds of cuteness/a$$holeness
(hidden for size?)
NSFW!
Last edited by Puxlut; 11-21-2017 at 11:34 PM.
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My lord... I feel for you, Drak. That is terrible news to hear, words cannot describe how much pain I feel for you and your family. In my own experiences, it really does feel like losing your own child when a dog passes. I can’t imagine the rage and despair that you experienced from having it happen due to an unnecessary accident situation like you described.
The big positive though is that your wife sounds like she’ll be ok. It is a tough situation, but I hope you can find peace in this situation soon.
We have a hilarious Pekingese who is very true to his breed in that he is amazingly loyal, aloof and has a ton of personality. My wife is pregnant with our first and he has totally figured it out. Now if he is on the couch with us he will immediately sit on her lap or belly in full protection mode. It is a pretty funny sight to see a ten lb dog that barely has any teeth being a guard dog!
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your story sounds a lot like our pugs when we were expecting our first. We did some research on the internet on how to properly introduce a baby to the dogs and it worked out really well for us.
Be sure to do your own research but some of the highlights included bringing home a blanket the baby had been wrapped in before the baby comes home. Then once the baby is at home, one of you holds the baby above the dog for a long time. The dog only gets to smell the baby when you say so. You're supposed to softly talk to the dog and let the dog understand that it's role is to protect the baby, but the baby is ahead of it on the pecking order. For us it took about an hour, but the results were phenominal, literally from day 1.
Best of luck
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"OOOOOOHHHHHHH those Russians" - Boney M
Yes, excellent post! Our dog was a rescue, so we did a ton of baby/child aggression tests when we got him and he did really well. We will definitely be doing some training before we bring the baby home. Because he is a rescue, we aren’t really sure what his backstory is, but he has always been very gentle and protecting of my nieces and nephews. Not sure if he came about it naturally or if he did have some training or experience in the past.
Location: Close enough to make a beer run during a TV timeout
Exp:
One thing I did years ago was to train my dog that any human is allowed to take his food dish away from him. Real simple, start with me as the pack leader doing it; and every time I return it to him there's something extra in there that he likes. Moved down to my other family members, and then nephews and finally random friends' kids. (Ones who hadn't met him previously.)
So many of the instances you hear about with random dog attacks has to do with a kid getting too close to the food. This is a good way to lessen the risk of that happening.
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We did something similar to determine any aggression when we got our dog. My wife and I would take his dish or favorite toy and praise him when giving it back. I didn’t think about adding a treat in the dish though, that is smart, but I’m not sure he would get the correlation as he is pretty aloof when it comes to treats. Praise seems to work with him though. He did have one negative encounter with a child that was inexperienced with dogs that grabbed him from behind, but we haven’t seen the same behavior since.
Another thing that was awesome is we did the ten week dog training through the Calgary Humane society. I really wish this was mandatory for all dog owners as it was a lot of fun and had a lot of great tips and tricks. Now if we could only get him to stop making messes on the floor when it’s -20 outside...haha.
We did Now if we could only get him to stop making messes on the floor when it’s -20 outside...haha.
Hah. No kidding. My 10 month old pup refused to go outside last night. Then proceeded to fall asleep and wet himself just like a toddler peeing the bed. At least I hope that's all that was. He's been perfectly toilet trained up until this. Has a checkup next week so I'll ask the vet.
Pretty much any question you can think of has been answered by that guy.
I think a natural reaction is to comfort and coddle a scared dog like we do with people but that is kind of the opposite of what you want to do. It's essentially praising the behavior you want to change.
Other than that...toys! Lots of stuffed animals. This is one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen...
Pretty much any question you can think of has been answered by that guy.
I think a natural reaction is to comfort and coddle a scared dog like we do with people but that is kind of the opposite of what you want to do. It's essentially praising the behavior you want to change.
Other than that...toys! Lots of stuffed animals. This is one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen...
She's terrified of stuffed animals. Afraid they are going to squeak, which is like a total no around her. Clicking is bad, but a squeak is terrifying. Also, she's smaller than nearly all the dog toys available on the market. As for playing with toys, no teeth, so that's a bit hard too.
I think I have the vague generalities right, but it's the details I need help with.
Last edited by Knalus; 01-10-2018 at 04:36 PM.
Reason: stuffed, not scared. The Dog is scared, the toys are stuffed.
Anyone have any advice on a book or website in how to deal with scared little dogs? We just got a rescue, and she hides too much to be healthy.
Don't let them watch hockey with you.
I'm quite serious. One of mine was scared of everything from the moment I got her, and while she slowly got better as I introduced her to things, 'led the way,' or got her used to things that spooked her (terrifying things, like, y'know, a pile of snow on the road that fell off the bottom of someone's car) there was always this regression whenever I started yelling at the TV.
When I got a second dog a few years later, it's like he was her confidence, and she got better almost immediately. But when he got older, they both started hiding under the bed whenever I watched hockey.
Instead of loud 'WTFs', I've trained myself to close my eyes and take a deep breath, and now we're all happy but me when the Flames are sucking.
Last edited by Sr. Mints; 03-23-2019 at 01:27 PM.
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I can't deal with seeing an animal in pain. Humans? That I can deal with. There's just something about an animal that can't verbalize what's happening with them that gets me.
