I wasn’t proud of my behavior.
In fact, I felt awful after it happened.
Let me back up and splain what happened.
Sunday afternoon we decided to pack up the van and take little Scarlett for a hike along the beach in Middletown, RI. When we got there we decided to drive into Newport and grab a quick lunch.
As we were trying to decide where to go for some chow I took a wrong turn and had to keep driving. We decided to go to a different restaurant. We got there and it was closed so we decided to go back to the original restaurant.
We got there and again I took a wrong turn and then it happened.
I snapped at Rachael. It was short but unacceptable. I apologized a few minutes later and she asked what my problem was.
Truth was I woke up with an awful headache. I had spent most of the day before reading small print on my tablet and it resulted in some serious eye strain.
It was no excuse but there was an underlying physical reason that resulted in my short fuse.
The day before I had just started working with two new dogs. One of the dogs had attacked the other after living together for almost two years.
Come to find out, the dog that attacked had a severe leg injury no one knew about. Dogs being as tough as they are can mask a lot of pain. This one did for a long time.
But the pain of the injury eventually led to an aggressive incident with the other dog.
Many behavior problems are rooted in some type of physical problem. Whenever I take on a new client that has a dog with behavior problems I always have them do a complete and thorough vet check.
We need to make sure there are no underlying physical problems that could be contributing to the problem.
In my case I took some aspirin and chugged some H2o and offered a long foot rub when we got home. (I learned that pregnant women love foot rubs.)
Let’s wrap this up.
If your dog is showing any signs of aggressive behavior, let your vet know that you want to make sure there is no physical pain that the dog may be dealing with.
Most behavior problems can be stopped and if you’d like the “How To’s” of solving them,The Good K9 Manners Program will help you in a way that is easy and effective.
More info at:
Best,
Eric