poor little daisy!
thank you for posting this wake up call.
Zack is really friendly at the dog park, he goes up to every dog there, wagging his tail, and checking them out, he is quick to lay down on his back in submission if he picks up a certain vibe, but he would most like to sniff their butts and to play. there's never been a problem, sometimes bigger dogs get too rough, but then it quickly dies down.
but a couple of weeks ago, there was a man there with two big yellow labs, and another dog, the man was very responsible, he was going around cleaning up poop that other owners had left behind. We were chatting about vets and things, and he told me that he just finished paying a $300 vet bill because at the dog park, his dog's teeth accidentally caught another dog's neck causing a small wound, which he paid for the treatment for.
Then, he and his wife and their dogs were leaving. He put them on leashes and was moving toward the gate. We were still chatting. These were the only dogs in the part at that moment, and Zack was playing with one of the big labs. the big dog had a ball in his mouth. I turned my attention away to speak to the man, and suddenly there was the sound of loud angry growling and snarling and barking, and that big dog was on top of Zack, they were about 10 yards away from me, then i heard Zack shrieking, and i think the man may have pulled his dog off, anyway, Zack got away and came running to where i was, at a picnic table and he was shrieking and screaming the whole way, and he continued shrieking for a pretty long time. The man came over, very concerned--he had just told me about paying that other dog's vet bill--and he was feeling Zack's body, looking for injuries.
There weren't any injuries, thank goodness, but Zack was so upset, scared, hurt, he is the gentlest little dog, he would never growl at anyone, and he is not forceful or violent when he plays, except he does this annoying thing of jumping up on other dogs, i'll bet that's what he was doing when he got attacked, anyway, he did seem emotionally traumatized. he didn't stop screaming for quite a while.
After that, he seemed ok emotionally, like his usual self, and we have been back to that and another dog park several times since then, and he's just as sociable, but having read your post, i am thinking i better keep him on the leash when we're around big dogs and keep him back from them, at least depending on the dog.
One of the dog parks has a smaller enclosure within it for smaller dogs, and we can just spend our time in there. the big dogs have big strong jaws and they can be unpredictable. The owner of the dog who attacked Zack said he thought probably his dog, a somewhat elderly lab, got fed up with Zack's playfulness and lost it. But smaller dogs can also cause injuries.
It's kind of sad because zack enjoys socializing with the dogs so much. but your post brings home the lesson that things can happen so fast, with no chance to do anything.
thank goodness daisy's injury was treatable, but the whole this was so traumatc. How old is she?
