His wounds are all nearly healed, he let me soak and clean the tear in his ear last night and it looks really good, I am so happy he is healing well!

But I have spent the last couple of days with Clingy Mcneedy pants literally pressed against me. I wake up to him with his head on the edge of the bed breathing on my face and when I go to the bathroom he wants to sit their with his head on my lap.

I don't know if he is just really enjoying being able to be with me all the time, and have so much more attention or if we are going to start seeing some separation anxiety creep in.

He will occasionally also look around, whine a little bit then hightail to "his room" like maybe he feels unsafe and is worried he is going to be attacked again. I have no idea what triggers this other than some confusion about where the other scary dog went.

I have been going and getting him and giving him a high value treat or something to chew on in the living room and shutting the bedroom door so he can't hide from nothing.

Was Loki attacked Jen?

actually, i see in your last post you say he was attacked, so i guess my question is what happened?

 Quote: Wendy Lefebvre

Was Loki attacked Jen?

actually, i see in your last post you say he was attacked, so i guess my question is what happened?

Yes, somehow I missed this, too.

Our containment system failed and while I was at work He and Yote ended up in the same room. I walked in to Loki cowering and in avoidance and Yote gave me a quick nose bump then raised every hair on his body and attacked him.
It happened to fast for me to grab Yote before it started and although he did nothing to provoke it, Loki did fight back. It was a serious fight and went on for nearly five minutes.

Loki could have been hurt much worse, he ended up with a lot of puncure wounds and a with a large tear in his ear. He is ok, but we are now trying to deal with the aftermath as far as making him ok mentally and emotionally again.

I realize now that even with separation he was living with a lot of stress and fear just by Yote still being in the same house even with a zero contact policy in force to so many months.
I ended up badly bitten because of my own stupidity trying to pull them apart, the water hose and a broom shoved in their mouths didn't work so I tried to grab Yote's hind end and pull them apart and he still managed to come around and get me.

The whole thing breaks my heart and I feel like a big fat failure. We tried so hard to make it work and to do the right thing to keep everyone safe and to try to solve the problem.

not a failure at all!!!!!

You tried to make the best out of the situation for everyone concerned.

sometimes things just never go the way we want, but you're far from a failure.

failure is an event, never a person.

Are you doing a load of marker work with him?

It's such a confidence builder. Tricks, anything ....

I love Agility for bringing out the confidence in a dog. My husbands dog was locked in a shed for the first 3 months of her life (housetraining was a nightmare) so when she came to us she had never seen a human and was TERRIFIED of us. We had to tether her with a long line so she had enough space to feel comfortable while we earned her trust.

She started Agility at about 8 months with ver basic contacts. Within 4 months this dog completely blossomed. She does demos with our dog club, has her CGN and participates every year in the kids and dog safety program that our City holds.

You sound like you are definitely on the right track with the desensitization. Once he is more confident around other dogs, give agility a try.

Also, you are not a failure. Everything that happens to us in life is a lesson, no need to dwell on it or regret it. Your dogs are SO lucky to have someone who is willing to say "darn, I messed up. Now how do I make this better for my dogs."

I am not a failure, I do feel like I failed in my role as pack leader in this situation...but I also know I did everything I needed to do even when it came down to making really tough decisions for the good of the entire family.

Yes we are doing lots of marker training, I have been doing lots of sit and down and back up etc which he already knows and is totally non stressful. I thought we might do the playground again tonight.

This is a dog who withers with a strong No, and a stern look will cause him to roll over and how his belly...Not a new thing, he has always been Mr. Sensitive.

I confess we have slacked with anything beyond the basic stuff with him because he is so well behaved. He doesn't know any "tricks" so I will have to come up with something simple to start with.

Ok so two questions..
Am I do the right thing by gently luring him out of his safe room and back with us then giving him something to distract him from being afraidl. I just don't want him to wallow in fear and anxiety.

And what about letting him watch Nico interact with the puppy we plant to do some work with.

Would seeing her act happy and safe with the pup help him relax a little or do dogs even reason that way. LOL

 Quote: jennifer lee

And what about letting him watch Nico interact with the puppy we plant to do some work with.

Would seeing her act happy and safe with the pup help him relax a little or do dogs even reason that way. LOL

I know that Caesar often uses calm, balanced dogs to "show" other dogs what is appropriate, and that energy helps them as well.