The Good, the Dead & the Bloody: Today’s Walk

Today, Betsy and I decided to go to the pond (the happiest doggy place on earth). The plan was for me to walk Barnum, now that my powerchair was fixed, and Betsy would ride her bike.

Barnum performed excellently for most of the walk, remembering to keep the leash loose, even though we were going in a different direction than he’s used to. Lots of exciting smells and sights — a swamp, cars, etc. The only problem was if Betsy rode ahead, he got upset and whined. He does not like the pack to be separated!

However, often I could see him start to move ahead, and then he’d remember that he was about to tighten the leash, and he would stop or come back, so that it did not tighten, and he stayed in position. I could see him thinking, which was wonderful. Nothing thrills me more than seeing a dog think — especially this dog!

The mosquitoes were really getting vicious, so I decided to go faster to see if we could lose them. Usually, speeding up is too exciting for Barnum and causes him to lose focus, resulting in pulling. However, today, after a few reminders (going backward when the leash tightened), he actually did quite well going at high speed without pulling.

It really helped that we have discovered a new treat: mozzarella cheese. It is cheaper and less messy than the cheddar we’d used in the past, and Barnum is wild about it. This came in particularly handy when my chair completely died about a half-of-a-mile from my house. Yeah. Again. Dead chair. Pfft.

AUGH! That was “the dead.”

I unlocked the wheels. Betsy pushed me out of the street to the side of the road, then biked back home to get my van. Barnum and I practiced lots of basic behaviors, which he did with tremendous zeal (thanks to the mozzarella) and despite the swarms of mosquitoes, distracting new environment, and his desire to get going! We also had an opportunity to play Look at That! Whenever a car went by.

I was pleased, proud, and impressed with him. That was “the good.”

Betsy and I were both tired. She’d had to do lots of extra biking to deal with our slow, erratic pace, and then haul ass back to the van up a steep hill. She didn’t bring her bike back because it would have been difficult to fit in the chair and dog and bike. Her plan was to just take us all home.

I, however, felt bad that Barnum was not getting a chance to run around off-leash at the pond, so I asked if we could go to the pond, and I’d just stay in the car, and she could do just a short walk with him there. So, off we went. I asked, “Do you want to go to the POND?”

And he whipped around and stared at me with his ears all perked up, and his eyebrows raised, and his nose about half-an-inch from mine, and then he leaned toward the dashboard, as if that would get us there faster. He only whined very quietly, twice, on our way there. This is a huge improvement from when he used to jump and bounce and whine with excitement about going to the P-O-N-D.

When we arrived, he did a very nice sit-stay before unloading, and while he did not sit immediately when I asked him after he jumped out, he didn’t pull, and he did sit after three or four seconds, which is loads better than he ever did before. I c/t and he stood. I asked for a sit again, which he did, asked him to stay, took off his leash, asked for eye contact, and released him. He was perfect!

Betsy and Barnum went off down the trail and I settled in to listen to the pledge drive for our local NPR station. (I actually enjoy their pledge drives more than most of the programming; I know, I’m very strange.)

A car pulled in next to me which had a beautiful great Pyrenees in the back. The person seemed to be waiting, as did the dog.

Eventually she got out, and we recognized each other. She farms nearby. We chatted about our dogs. Hers is a stray she recently adopted, apparently a great Pyr/Maremma mix.

He was absolutely gorgeous, with such a friendly face and softly waving tail. He seemed the picture of mellow doggy pleasantness, which just shows you that 1. looks can be deceiving, and 2. that I need to relinquish my foolish habitual assumption that a dog that appears friendly in the moment is an entirely safe dog.

At any rate, she said she had a friend coming who had several dogs who do all sorts of dog sports and such, and they were helping her dog learn. That all sounded terrific, I thought, and was wondering how I could hook up with her friend for more doggy community.

Her friend drove up. Three mixed-breed dogs of various sizes came pelting out, and all the dogs romped happily together. I hoped that Barnum would behave well with all these dogs and not refuse to come back because he wanted to play.

My thoughts always go first to my dog’s behavior.

Next thing I knew, I heard a lot of serious barking. It sounded like one dog barking a lot, and I didn’t think it sounded like Barnum, but I wasn’t sure. He’s usually very good with other dogs, ranging from excellent to overexuberantly obnoxious, but never aggressive. However, he has barked at people a couple of times in the past (though not in several months), so I was concerned. I was also worried about the possibility that he was on the receiving end of the barking.

I got out of the van and called, and Barnum came running. He accepted some treats and then ran partway back, where Betsy appeared, to play with a smallish dog (about 30 pounds)  that looked a bit like a fox. Betsy walked toward me, Barnum and his friend bowed and bounced and chased — in Betsy’s direction.

The small dog slammed its  entire body sideways into Betsy’s knee, hyperextending it. This is the same knee that was injured (by hyperextension) last winter, preventing her from being able to do most of her preferred outdoor activities last summer. Quite reasonably, Betsy landed on the ground and cried.

I was sitting on the ground with her, asking her about her knee and about what the barking had been about. She said the white dog had been barking at Barnum and gone after him, and that Barnum had cowered and run away. I was concerned about Betsy’s misery over her knee, but glad that Barnum had not acted inappropriately. It didn’t seem like him to run and cower, but he is a lover, not a fighter.

The little red dog’s person showed up and called her. The person didn’t seem at all concerned that Betsy and I were sitting on the ground, and that Betsy was distressed.

We got into the van and went home. Betsy hobbled inside to get my other powerchair, since we’d decided to leave the dead one in the van. Once inside, I took off Barnum’s hunter orange vest (we heard a gunshot just before we left home, even though it isn’t hunting season) and leash, my shoes and socks. Barnum went to his favorite dog bed, by the window, and collapsed. That’s when I saw the droplets of blood on the floor.

Betsy hobbled by to avail herself of a package of frozen peas and said, “He’s injured. There’s blood on the floor.”

I told her that I knew and as soon as I’d put on my slippers, I’d assess the situation. There was a huge smear of blood on the window now. This explained the hiding and cowering!

I didn’t think it was his paws because of the location and shape of the blood drops and smears. I put my hands on either side of his mouth, and one came away clean (okay, it was slimy but not bloody) and the other came away bloody. I was about to open his mouth to check his lips, gums, and teeth, when Betsy said, “I think it’s his ear.”

She was right. Apparently, the great Pyr had bitten Barnum’s ear, though it took me a long time to figure out what the damage was, because of all the fur and blood. I know from a previous incident (when I nicked Gadget’s ear with the clippers, and it bled for almost a day!) that ears are very vascular and bleed profusely, which makes injuries there difficult to assess. I called the ER and they told me what would necessitate a visit. I went back to investigate more. (Thick, black fur and dark red blood on Barnum’s body part that he least likes having handled made for a difficult cleanup and assessment.)

At first I thought it was bitten through, and that I’d have to take  him to the ER — Betsy and I really did not want to have to do that — but when my PCA came tonight, she got me stuff to clean the blood off more thoroughly and then fed Barnum hot dog pieces while I trimmed the fur and cleaned the area. It seems to be a simple laceration on the outer flap of the ear. I think I cleaned it reasonably well. Once it forms a scab, I’ll try to clean more hair out of it. I don’t anticipate needing to go to the vet unless it gets infected.

Unfortunately, I don’t know the last name of the friend whose dog bit Barnum, and we know nothing about her friend, whose dog knocked Betsy over. (If I had a dollar for every story I’ve heard about dogs playing who knocked someone over! It’s a well-known dog park hazard! Makes me glad I’m seated!)

While we were attending to Barnum’s ear, my PCA said, “Wow, what a difference!” I didn’t know what she was referring to.

She said, “He’s licking my hands! Before, if you offered him a treat, he was like, “Oh, okay, if you want. . .’.”

I’m very tired, and I feel bad for Barnum’s ear and worse for Betsy’s knee, but very pleased with my little dude who is growing into such a nice, well-behaved dog. Now I want to find a friendly dog — preferably a few — whom he doesn’t know so this doesn’t become a reactive issue due to a single-event trauma. I don’t think it will, because he just loves other dogs so much (he was playing with another dog right after it happened), but you never know when a phobia will blossom. Better to take preventative action.

-Sharon, the muse of Gadget, and Barnum, very likely SDiT material