Note: this article may contain experience and pictures which are graphic to some people, please refrain from reading on if you are sensitive.
I was on my way for the usual walk while waiting for Nicole to come along, as the lift door open, all of the dogs attempted to dash out, as they were all on leash so all i had to do was to hold tight onto the leashes to stop them from rushing forward. All of a sudden, i heard a *pop* sound, a collar came off one of the dogs! I do know that this particular dog was a special case with serious behavior problem, to be exact, he snaps whenever he doesn't like anything. Instinctively, the first thought on my mind was, "what should i do?" with my hands reaching out to grab the dog by it's body first, remember that during this period of time i only had about 3 seconds (at the most) to react, i didn't even have a choice to reconsider but to just grab the dog first, then decide later, the second thought was "am i getting bitten?", the dog was unstable and afraid, he started to puncture multiple holes onto my hands and pain was taking over my thoughts, i still wasn't ready to let go though, the next thing to decide was - "what can i do to hold the dog down with currently 3 dogs on hands?!", remember again, all these reaction, decision and thoughts were happening within a 10 seconds time frame, readers might be able to analyze and criticize because they have all the time in the world to read this and think of a better solution, however unfortunately for me, i was still getting bitten as i decide, i had 2 leashes on me, one which was tied to a coupler (the escaping dog was supposed to be on one side of the coupler), and the other leash was on another dog.
With my right hand holding on to the escaping dog, i tried using my left hand, which was already holding onto 2 leashes to grab the collar that came off, i tried to hook it over to the escaping dog, as he saw the collar closing over his face, he started struggling again, then gave a few more holes onto my hands, at 14lbs this dog wasn't big however when faced with fear, any dog can do a fair amount of damage to human skin. At this point of time one of the owners came over to meet their dog, not wanting to scare the escaping dog, i quietly asked them to wait with me, saying that Nicole will be coming soon, i decided to wait for Nicole and try my best not to get bitten while holding this dog down. Nicole came after a while, i spoke to her calmly to help me with the dog, we managed to leash it back using traditional knots, surprisingly after all these struggling and bleeding the waiting owner still did not get what was going on, which was good because if they had panicked the escaped dog would've caused even more unnecessary injuries.
This incident was very unexpected because we always check on collars before going for walk, i was sure that it wasn't loose and the clip was strong enough. After some thoughts, we came to a conclusion that the collar was the type that would loosen during walks, especially with dogs that pull, which means that this particular collar was a badly produced product.
Once again there are a few things to learn from this experience:
1) never again to trust collars we have never heard of - self made, china brands etc
2) dogs with behavior problem will need to be on stronger leash and collars
3) go for walks with as many people as we can (whenever there are dogs with behavior problems)
4) never panic or make noise, this helps to calm the dog down (which is what we have done)
5) if necessary, grab by the hind leg instead of body, this might be very hard to react in times of need
I was on my way for the usual walk while waiting for Nicole to come along, as the lift door open, all of the dogs attempted to dash out, as they were all on leash so all i had to do was to hold tight onto the leashes to stop them from rushing forward. All of a sudden, i heard a *pop* sound, a collar came off one of the dogs! I do know that this particular dog was a special case with serious behavior problem, to be exact, he snaps whenever he doesn't like anything. Instinctively, the first thought on my mind was, "what should i do?" with my hands reaching out to grab the dog by it's body first, remember that during this period of time i only had about 3 seconds (at the most) to react, i didn't even have a choice to reconsider but to just grab the dog first, then decide later, the second thought was "am i getting bitten?", the dog was unstable and afraid, he started to puncture multiple holes onto my hands and pain was taking over my thoughts, i still wasn't ready to let go though, the next thing to decide was - "what can i do to hold the dog down with currently 3 dogs on hands?!", remember again, all these reaction, decision and thoughts were happening within a 10 seconds time frame, readers might be able to analyze and criticize because they have all the time in the world to read this and think of a better solution, however unfortunately for me, i was still getting bitten as i decide, i had 2 leashes on me, one which was tied to a coupler (the escaping dog was supposed to be on one side of the coupler), and the other leash was on another dog.
With my right hand holding on to the escaping dog, i tried using my left hand, which was already holding onto 2 leashes to grab the collar that came off, i tried to hook it over to the escaping dog, as he saw the collar closing over his face, he started struggling again, then gave a few more holes onto my hands, at 14lbs this dog wasn't big however when faced with fear, any dog can do a fair amount of damage to human skin. At this point of time one of the owners came over to meet their dog, not wanting to scare the escaping dog, i quietly asked them to wait with me, saying that Nicole will be coming soon, i decided to wait for Nicole and try my best not to get bitten while holding this dog down. Nicole came after a while, i spoke to her calmly to help me with the dog, we managed to leash it back using traditional knots, surprisingly after all these struggling and bleeding the waiting owner still did not get what was going on, which was good because if they had panicked the escaped dog would've caused even more unnecessary injuries.
This incident was very unexpected because we always check on collars before going for walk, i was sure that it wasn't loose and the clip was strong enough. After some thoughts, we came to a conclusion that the collar was the type that would loosen during walks, especially with dogs that pull, which means that this particular collar was a badly produced product.
Once again there are a few things to learn from this experience:
1) never again to trust collars we have never heard of - self made, china brands etc
2) dogs with behavior problem will need to be on stronger leash and collars
3) go for walks with as many people as we can (whenever there are dogs with behavior problems)
4) never panic or make noise, this helps to calm the dog down (which is what we have done)
5) if necessary, grab by the hind leg instead of body, this might be very hard to react in times of need
Day 2 healing process, you won't want to see my palms
Struggling while kneeling down to get hold of the dog
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