Mad Dog!!

[mbc1963]

I was just letting Buddy in from a snow storm, so I yanked the screen door behind him to keep out the weather, and accidentally pulled it shut, hard, on the tip of his tail.

 

Well!

 

A couple times I've seen Buddy "teach" another dog a lesson by flipping the dog and standing over it, growling and looking it in the eye, until he felt the dog had been scolded the appropriate amount. It's scary to watch. And I swear, he just did the equivalent to me!

 

He wheeled around and stood there, looking me in the eye and growling for maybe 10 seconds. I froze, and let him come down off his painful incident. Then we slowly moved into the kitchen, but he kept spinning back to keep an eye on me - in case maybe I was going to slam his tail in a door again? After about half a minute, he seemed to realize that he had been inappropriate and came to me for (careful) inspection and comfort. I'm hoping I didn't break a tail bone - it's still very sensitive.

 

Anyway, a good lesson in being more careful with the door, and on how a dog in great pain will behave. I'm filing this in my "just in case he ever gets a sudden injury, be careful" file!

 

Mary

[Shetlander]

Owww! Poor Buddy. And poor you. We feel so terrible when we accidentally hurt our pals. Hope his tail is better today. Years ago, one of my family's cats had his tail broken when it got caught in a door and it healed up fine, but let's hope it isn't anything that dramatic in your household.

 

My old Sheltie is the most likely of my dogs to get trod on and whenever I step on her paw, she goes after one of my other dogs, clearly displacing her stress/anger response. Fortunately she doesn't do any damage and they look more embarrassed than upset by her display. Animals do often act instinctively when in sudden pain and it can be disconcerting when you see your pal suddenly acting, well, like the animal he is. Sweet of Buddy to mend fences as soon as he settled down. It is amazing how much they forgive us for our mistakes.