For those of you who don’t know I will start at the beginning. I rescued a Cocker Spaniel puppy from the Clarksville Humane Society almost 6 years ago. It has been a rough and bumpy ride from the beginning with my “special needs” dog. Bailey and 6 other puppies, plus the 2 mommies were taken from a home and then put up for adoption. I assume it must have been a pretty rough start to his little life, but I still wanted him. So off we went to his new home.
From the beginning, Bailey was a handful. He was very strong willed, possessive of his food and things, aggressive. At the time he was only a tiny thing, but I after getting him fixed didn’t change anything I decided to seek professional help with a trainer I found online. Bailey was 5 months old and I wanted to nip some of the problems in the bud early before he was full grown. I took Bailey to the trainer and he lived with him for two 2-week periods for obedience training and work on his aggression. The trainer guaranteed his work and he seemed to learn his commands so I felt that I couldn’t really complain that I was still having issues.
Over the years I found that most of our problems could be avoided. We don’t travel to many places, have raw hides, mess with him while he is eating and I try very hard not to spook him. The vet had told me to just “not do things that trigger him”. So, I’ve gone out of my way to avoid certain things. Bailey is just a very nervous and anxious dog. This in turn makes him dangerous. When he gets wound up he sometimes lashes out.
As most of you know we have had a series of bites, mostly just superficial wounds over the years. In January of 2007, I had my first big bite that I take full responsibility for. Bailey warned me to leave him alone and I disregarded that. I asked him for a kiss and he told me no. So, like an idiot, I leaned in and kissed him on the snout. This resulted in 14 stitches in my lower lip. Thanks to a great ER Dr. I have almost no scarring and nothing anyone else can see.
That brings us to Christmas day 2008. We had already had a rough trip up. On Christmas Eve I was to go see both sets of Grandparents and family. Bailey, because of allergies and his known aggression had to stay in the car. I walked him several times that day, but all in all he was in a car traveling or waiting from 9am-10pm EST. This started off our visit with some anxiety. Then you throw in a place he only visits once a year (my parent’s home) and extra people and his anxiety grew. Christmas morning we were all in the living room together. Mom and dad were in their recliners, my brother was on the couch and I was in the floor in front of mom helping her with her new camera. I think Bailey must have thought we had something food related because when I turned around he was sitting as still as possible and shaking with anticipation. I said something to him and he lost it! Immediately he was on my nose and chaos ensued. Apparently I got up and started towards the bathroom and dad went after the dog. I understand I was screaming at dad not to kill Bailey and mom was screaming for dad to come see my face. I was pretty calm about the bite since this wasn’t my first rodeo, and waited on mom to get me an old towel to try and clean it up. Poor Scott didn’t know what to do. I sent him to get me something to put my hair up in and he was quite the trooper. He got me one and then tried to help me get my hair up out of my face. Ultimately we had to go to the ER so dad went get dressed, Scott put on my shoes, and I tried to calm poor momma down. As if my mother doesn’t always have enough on her plate, here stands her daughter looking like she had been shot in the face. If you have never had a face wound. They bleed like no other!!! Anyway, I ended up at Indian Path ER and had to have some stitches again. They don’t like to stitch noses or dog bites, but we were dealing with my face. They were able to get 4 stitches in to hold together the biggest parts of the wound. I will say that the stitches were the worst part. They hurt a lot and my Dr. was not a gentle handed woman. The bite itself wasn’t very painful. It’s amazing what adrenaline will do for you. It’s a very serious “natural” pain killer. Don’t get me wrong. I knew I was bit. It just wasn’t the pain you picture when you think about it.
The rest of Thursday was a bit rough because I couldn’t get any medication. There are absolutely NO Pharmacies open on Christmas day in the city of Kingsport. I finally got my antibiotics on Friday and started healing up. On a quick side note, apparently people in East TN must take out their own stitches very regularly. I had both the Dr. and the Pharmacist ask me if I was going to do this. To both I answered a very quick NO!
On the way back to Nashville that weekend, I called my vet. I needed to talk about options we had for Bailey besides putting him down. I know some of you think I’m crazy, but this is my baby and I can’t put him to sleep. The vet recommended that I talk to specific trainer who specializes in these types of dogs. He didn’t want to resort to drugs as that would just “mask” the problem and cause Bailey to be a zombie. I called and setup an appointment last Monday with Jim Molnar at Cumberland Canine. While at the trainer I got quite an education. It seems that the trainer I used 5 years ago beat my baby into submission. Jim said that they had re trained many dogs from that trainer. All of which were nervous, jumpy animals. He said this was a lot of my problem. So, here I sit realizing that I caused some of this. I took my new baby puppy to a man that I thought was going to help me and as it turns out, he beat fear into him. Of course there is nothing I can do about it now. I also found out that the old trainer was in jail the past 4 years for conspiring to kill Jim and is now out. I sure don’t want to sue or mess with some freak with a tendency to murder.
Anyways, Bailey is at what I call “boot camp” for the next 4-8 weeks. During this time Jim and Tammy Molnar will earn his trust and then re-program him. I have been assured that when they are finished, my baby will be relaxed, calm and happy. Then I will be given a weeks’ notice to come out for my 2+ hours of training on how to work with Bailey and how to be the “Pack Leader.” I am excited to see what happens and how he does. I’m also a bit nervous about it, but I’m hopeful that they can fix my baby. I will keep everyone posted on his progress.
These are pictures taken when we got home from the ER on Christmas Day.
This picture was taken on January 5th (11 days later)
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