08/08/2026
This week has been a tricky week for me. On Thursday, I got home from a morning dog walk to a fight between an escaped loose dog and a dog just on his walk for the morning (on lead, with his owner). The fight involved the loose dog locking his jaw onto the neck of the walking dog, and I was able to separate them and get the loose dog on lead to return home.
I spend a LOT of time doubting myself and not believing in myself but I was able to use skills I’d learnt to break up this fight - I do also recognise there was an element of luck, as there always is in these situations, that the situation was able to be immediately diffused. Without my intervention, the lady would not have managed to get the bigger loose dog off her smaller (yet still sizeable) dog. I’m glad I helped, I’m glad I managed to stop the other dog getting further hurt - and the lady getting hurt too.
The attacked dog was okay physically; shallow puncture wounds. The effect on the dog long-term psychologically? Who knows? The effect on me? It’s been two days since it happened and I’m still feeling a bit twitchy on my street. I was lucky my own dogs weren’t involved since they are significantly smaller, but that doesn’t stop my own hyper-vigilance increasing. I will calm down and it will become part of my history, but right now it is still in my adrenaline and my thoughts. Thank you to everyone who supported me that day and yesterday.
This leads me to the dogs we work with and live with. If I’m still feeling the spike and full cup two days after, they will be too after heightened stress - which for Bridget sometimes can be a leaf blowing towards her, or could be more extreme like a dog fight. Different things cause different stressors. We need to let dogs (and ourselves!) work it out the system - which requires individual support for the dogs. It might be movement, more sleep, different/no walks… depends on the dog. It’s just important we don’t ask them to keep filling an already full cup after a scary situation.
Am I still walking my dogs? Yes. It’s good for me, personally, to do this and stop myself letting the area it happened become a problem. Might the response look different in someone else? Also yes. And there’s no wrong response to this as long as we are acknowledging and working to our own needs.
Anyway, I’ve rambled and I’m okay. I just wanted to explain why I’ve been a bit quieter and I’ve left a cute, sleepy picture of Dobby to lighten things a bit 😂💓
