Terwillegar Park

Last month, Breton and I were walking back to the parking lot at Terwillegar Park, practicing loose leash walking when a very excited, young, English Sheep dog came charging towards us from the parking lot. When he got close and wasn't slowing down, I stomped my feet to get him to back off, but he went around us and then he was on top of Breton, growling with way too much energy. I let go of her leash, and all I could see was this big hairy dog on top of Breton, while I could hear Breton crying. The owner was able to call his dog off of her, and I examined Breton, and she seemed okay, just shaken up. It wasn't a moment later that another excited, young, Bernese Mountain dog who was in the background during the attack came barreling towards us, and of course, Breton who was nervous tried to run away, and the Berner, chased her and then was on top of her too. The Sheep dog attacked her, but the Berner seemed more playful, because he got off of her when she wasn't reciprocating play. I was shaken up too, but didn't want to share that energy with Breton. When she was safe in her kennel, I drove to Safeway and went in by myself and shopped alone so that I could calm down. It was a helpless feeling, not being able to stop the attack myself. The next morning, I noticed a big scab on Breton's shoulder and took her to Dr. Scott four days later, when the scab fell off and I could see a puncture about an inch deep. I have never experienced having a dog with a bite wound, and so after I let DWW know what happened, we wanted to make sure it wasn't going to get infected, or that she didn't need a stitch. I am so proud of how well DWW takes care of all of their dogs. Too me, it looked like she needed at least one stitch, but Dr. Scott said, nope, she's fine and that it will heal on its own, and of course he was right. She wasn't bothered by it at all, and it did heal completely fine. Unfortunately, she's been acting very submissive around bigger dogs at the off leash park and progressively worse, to a point where our girl pees, tucks her tail and or runs away from big dogs. I've been trying to ease her through it on my own, but in the new year, we're going to hang out with some of the dogs at the office and build her confidence up again. For now, we aren't going to Terwillegar Park anymore either. Maria doesn't want her to associate the negative experience she had there, with other dogs there. Eventually, Maria and I will take her to the puppy park with some of DWW dogs to help her feel confident. So, for now, we're going to hang at the puppy park (when it warms up)!