Everybody makes mistakes.

Woof has crated a lot of drama as of late and even put his life on the line. Over a week ago he bit our landlord fairly seriously. He was overly excited on his tie out, very worked up, barking, kangaroo jumping, husky talking etc. We were standing with her talking about tree trimming and removal, she decided to say hi to him, I went with her afraid that’d jump on her nice work clothes and attempted to keep him from ruining it. She bent down to his level, held her hand out for him to sniff, which he did but followed it by a serious bite to her wrist. Immediately after he laid down and was perfectly calm.

Our landlord was incredible about it, she stuck around for awhile after, still talking about the trees and some gardening questions we had, we asked several times if we could flush it and bandage it for her but she refused. Afterwards I sent her an email, explaining how sorry I was and that we weren’t taking this lightly. I was scared to death we’d be evicted or Woof would have to be euthanized, something I was heavily considering myself as I didn’t want to have a dog that did this sort of thing. She stated she wouldn’t be pressing charges did want us to muzzle him, make sure he couldn’t get loose and said she wanted to be kept up to date on his progress as I said we would be contact a professional to get their opinion.

We meet with said professional tomorrow evening. I’ve spoken with her on the phone and she calmed my fears. He is not an aggressive dog, truly aggressive dogs are rare. He is frustrated, he is stressed, he is lacking confidence and he is lacking impulse control however. All of which can be changed with training. Thank goodness!

So after this I went on the hunt for a muzzle. I decided on the Baskerville Ultra. It’s lightweight, mouldable, great airflow. Plus they can still drink, receive treats during training and there are countless decorative ideas with these handy muzzles. We had tried a metal basket muzzle for a few days prior to getting the Baskerville but not only did I not like it Woof despised it. It was heavier, I feared the metal would get hot in the warmer months and cold in the colder months, it was hard to praise him with treats as the bars didn’t allow enough space which only frustrated him and he kept banging it off objects (including myself which hurt) hurting himself. He was much more accepting of the Baskerville muzzle. We’ve been working daily on conditioning him with it and he’s doing incredibly well even been walking with it on and 90% of the time he doesn’t bother with it until he decides he wants it off to go after a bird, or another dog.

We've had a few encounters as you can imagine of people not liking the fact that I am muzzling one of my dogs. But surprisingly, the majority of people we encounter are very positive about it. I'm eager for tomorrow and what else the behaviorist has to say.