Guilt

I mentioned on another post about the mistakes I have made with Ben, but it has not just been Ben that has been affected.

The worst injury he caused to another dog was to an elderly Labrador. I was on the local park with him sitting at the café having a coffee, which I shouldn't really be doing with a reactive dog like Ben. He was on lead and laying next to me on the ground. The other Labrador, which was off lead came up to us, and Ben just went for its face. It was a lot of noise and what I thought was air snapping. The owner who had his back to his dog, also having a coffee came and put his dog on the lead after checking him. I saw a tuft of fur on the ground but didn't think anymore of it. I apologised to the owner and asked if his dog was okay, and he said he was.

I guess the strange thing about this incident was that Ben knew this dog, he had seen him (and sniffed in greeting) several times on the park and had always been fine. He is generally good with elderly dogs as they are calm. Maybe it was because we were sitting by the café and he used to have a biscuit from the café when we went, so perhaps he was resource guarding. Maybe the other lab startled him. I don't really know, but suffice to say I do not take him on that park anymore unless its at 5am.

The worst part was I took my little sisters dog to the park the next day, and saw the elderly lab and its owner. He shouted to me "your dog cost me hundreds of pounds yesterday". I walked over to him and he explained that when he got home he noticed blood around his dogs ear and realised the ear itself was torn. His dog was too old to be sedated for stiches, it was just too risky so he was having antibiotic injections and anti inflammatories. I offered to pay the vet bill and he would not let me, so I offered to pay half and he still wouldn't let me.

I felt absolutely awful, this poor old dog. His owner did say that he should have had his dog on a lead around the café. My dog was on a lead and an off lead dog came up to him, however this is no excuse for Ben to react the way he did. I just kept thinking, why can't my dog just have a little grumble at another dog if he is not happy with them in his space, why does he have to launch on them in such an aggressive way.