Poor JJ.  It's really hard knowing your dog's in pain and not much you can do about it.  Hope everything goes smoothly at the vets today.

              Julie

Oh dear - poor JJ - thank goodness it was not as bad as it could have been (bad enough I know).  Fingers crossed for his visit to the vet!

Well, the wee dog managed to get himself into the car this morning on the third attempt.   Stiff and sore but still looking hopefully for treats so not at death's door yet.   I haven't heard how the stitching has gone so far.

UndercoverElephant wrote:

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... it must be quite intimidating for other dogs when a big, fit grey comes bounding towards them. Good luck with the vets.

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I know and I don't really blame the other dog at all - although the vet keeps saying "usually they give a warning nip, not this!"   

A lot of work to be done on reinforcing recall I think.   If JJ ever gets off lead again that is.   He's not aggressive at all but this other dog clearly wasn't taking any chances. 

Thanks for everyone's concern.

Poor JJ and poor you!

Hope everything went well at the vets. Give him a hug from me and some Sardines from Blue.

We didn't get JJ home on Friday.   The stitching went okay but he has a drain in so they gave him an extra night.   We should get him back Saturday morning.   The vet said that, despite it being a pretty bad wound, JJ had been lucky as the intercostal (sp?) muscles were ok and there was no evidence of a puncture anywhere.   Wee soul is to have at least 7 days of complete rest, on lead toilet visits to the garden only.   Will pass on your kind thoughts when we get him home. 

JJ came home this morning.   He looks dreadful but seems to be quite comfortable - came in and started his "where's the food then?" routine!   He is quite quiet and cuddly but not distressed.   His mobility isn't noticably impaired so I think the vet has done a really good job on putting the layers back together.

I'd like to say he's learnt something from the experience but he was doing his best to get close to a dog in the vet's reception (a GAL greyhound/german shepherd, Simba I think the lady said).  

My dog owning confidence is a bit frayed round the edges.   JJ had been doing really well with his training - but when it mattered my authority wasn't enough.   I'll definitely be looking at getting some professional help once he's passed fit again.   I was also thinking he'll be pretty bored while he's on this complete rest stint so I'll carry on training with him to exercise his brain instead of his poor bod.   Bring on the hotdogs. 

When I was a nipper, one of our Labs got a good hard bite (for no reason other than she was trotting past another dogs house), the poor thing couldn't even lie down for a good week, just used to stand there looking more and more tired until my Dad 'felled' her so she could get some sleep.

Hope you didn't think I was being rude (just re-read), Blue goes bounding up to loads of other dogs, the look of panic on some owners faces does make you wonder what the dogs think. And no, he only comes back to the whistle when there's nothing else worth doing.

Thanks guys.   JJ and I are graduates of Vivien's puppy classes - me more than him, cos he had a stomach bug which kept him out of class for a while so I went on my own.   I think we might enjoy the greyhound and lurcher classes - he was a lot more respectful around the dogs at the Greyhound Walk.   I'll probably speak to Viv once we get the all clear.

UCE - certainly didn't think you were being rude!   It's that parental guilt thing isn't it, you always think you should be able to keep them from harm and wonder how you're going to manage it in the future.  

Anyways, apart from the gigantic lampshade, the ugly scar and the blood dripping out the drain, JJ has been great today - he's a very accepting kind of a dog.   Not brave tho!   Made more noise over an injection than he did over the actual incident.   God bless him, easy seen he's a boy - oops, who said that!

Thanks again for everyone's kind thoughts, much appreciated.