Now that I work a job Monday through Friday, I really treasure my weekends. I make a little to-do list, and I try to always include something fun.
Today, one of the things on my to-do list was take Kodiak to the veternarian, so we can get her spayed. I know they will want to establish her as a patient before they schedule a surgery, so I thought, "The walk-in hours on Saturday morning is the perfect time for us to get this done!"
So we hop in the car, and I would say overall she does very well. She's not perfect, but she doesn't pull too hard at her leash, and I can get her attention with some kibble, and she will sit or lay SOOO NICELY at my feet.
Until a stranger gets close to her....
Some background: when she hit about 6 months old, she went from being friendly to everyone, to being skittish toward pretty much every human. I'm not exactly sure what changed. Generally if we are spending a good chunk of time with people, she will eventually calm down, but she acts wary the entire time.
Back to the present: when the nurses came in to get a blood sample, she started barking, and running away, and trying to crawl under me and behind me. The three of us were on the floor trying to coax and sorta wrestle (with her leash) her into a position where they could get a sample of blood. We ended up putting a muzzle on her, because we weren't sure whether she was going to bite, but she was acting scared enough that she made me nervous. And then she trashed around like she was demon possessed... I felt really bad, but we were able to get the sample, and I kept telling myself she wasn't always going to do this poorly.
Then the doctor came in... and it was worse... we put the muzzle on her again, but I abolustely could not get her into a position where he could examine her, and he wasn't coming near her because of how crazy she was acting...
So he refused to see her, treat her, or schedule a surgery for her... He said, "She's too aggressive. She's an aggressive dog."
I can see why he would do that, but that doesn't mean it didn't sorta completely crush me...
As I'm driving back home, I start to think,
"Did I do something to make her so aggressive toward strangers? Is it my fault? Am I a bad dog mom? Oh my gosh, am I going to be a terrible human mom!? Or am I going to somehow mess up my kid so bad that people are going to move away from my child in public???"
And then, of course, the tears come. I'm ashamed and embarrassed because I imagine in my head that the doctor and nurses are judging me so harshly right now, and wondering why a person like me was even allowed to have a dog in the first place... and that she's probably one of the worst dogs they've ever had to deal with.... And I just can't stop my mind from going a little crazy with ways to fix this before she's the most permanently bad dog on the face of the planet...
Right now she's sleeping nicely at me feet, and I'm looking at the brochures I picked up at the office for dog training. I'm not 100% sure where to start, but I think I am going to have to hire a trainer.
I'll just add that to my To-do list...
So we hop in the car, and I would say overall she does very well. She's not perfect, but she doesn't pull too hard at her leash, and I can get her attention with some kibble, and she will sit or lay SOOO NICELY at my feet.
Until a stranger gets close to her....
Some background: when she hit about 6 months old, she went from being friendly to everyone, to being skittish toward pretty much every human. I'm not exactly sure what changed. Generally if we are spending a good chunk of time with people, she will eventually calm down, but she acts wary the entire time.
Back to the present: when the nurses came in to get a blood sample, she started barking, and running away, and trying to crawl under me and behind me. The three of us were on the floor trying to coax and sorta wrestle (with her leash) her into a position where they could get a sample of blood. We ended up putting a muzzle on her, because we weren't sure whether she was going to bite, but she was acting scared enough that she made me nervous. And then she trashed around like she was demon possessed... I felt really bad, but we were able to get the sample, and I kept telling myself she wasn't always going to do this poorly.
Then the doctor came in... and it was worse... we put the muzzle on her again, but I abolustely could not get her into a position where he could examine her, and he wasn't coming near her because of how crazy she was acting...
So he refused to see her, treat her, or schedule a surgery for her... He said, "She's too aggressive. She's an aggressive dog."
I can see why he would do that, but that doesn't mean it didn't sorta completely crush me...
As I'm driving back home, I start to think,
"Did I do something to make her so aggressive toward strangers? Is it my fault? Am I a bad dog mom? Oh my gosh, am I going to be a terrible human mom!? Or am I going to somehow mess up my kid so bad that people are going to move away from my child in public???"
And then, of course, the tears come. I'm ashamed and embarrassed because I imagine in my head that the doctor and nurses are judging me so harshly right now, and wondering why a person like me was even allowed to have a dog in the first place... and that she's probably one of the worst dogs they've ever had to deal with.... And I just can't stop my mind from going a little crazy with ways to fix this before she's the most permanently bad dog on the face of the planet...
Right now she's sleeping nicely at me feet, and I'm looking at the brochures I picked up at the office for dog training. I'm not 100% sure where to start, but I think I am going to have to hire a trainer.
I'll just add that to my To-do list...
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