Poor Grey got bitten

We had a bit of a scary end to Friday evening. We were meeting up with Grey's springer friend for a beach run. We've not seen them in ages. We parked up and R was chatting with a friend by a car. The car had dogs in. Grey and I approached the car and then out of nowhere a male black lab shot out from behind the car and went straight for Grey. It was a horrid snarling noise, Grey was screaming, all the humans were reaching in trying to seperate the dog. Grey's front left leg was bitten. We got the dogs separated. Grey was paniced and was backing out of his collar. I was struggling to keep hold of him and didn't want him to slip his collar next to the road and the commotion. We stopped the traffic and went to the other side of the road to check him over. He settled down and we thought he had just a scrape on his inner left front leg. He was fine with his springer friend.

He got up fine on Saturday and I took him straight out to see if he'd be ok with some positive experiences with other dogs. He played fine and had a nice run with a couple of labradoodles. But by the evening he started to limp and his leg swelled. He became poorly puppy and was generally sorry for himself.

We took him to the vets today. He's got an infection under the skin and a slight temperature. He's on Metacam and some antibiotics. He's supposed to have rest for 3 days. He seems much better already, so not sure it will be easy to get to the end of 3 days rest.

Week two of puppy training class

Lots of training this week. Tuesday day we met up with K and worked through stuff on a 1-2-1. We were doing exercises on 'down' and 'wait'. He did really well, despite it being really windy.

Tuesday night we went to the puppy class. This week it was working on 'down' and more loose leash walking. They teach the 'down' without luring. Grey was pulled out to demonstrate the teaching of the down by asking him for a 'sit' not giving a treat and waiting to see what he did next. Grey knows 'down' and because he's been clicker trained since little, he quickly offered a 'down' on his own. It seems clicker trained dogs know to offer different behaviours because they're used to having to work out how to get the reward. He seems to have come along in leaps and bounds because 'down' was always very hit and miss with him. His leash walking was great too. Not that that translates to walking around town though. He had to be distracted loads through the class with treats in his toy box, and he did seem to be the only puppy who dry humped a few times. Hmm, hopefully this isn't going to be a thing of his.

This morning we had a bit of an unfortunate run in. We were in the park with a someone we've met before and his dog. Grey has met him a couple of times before. And while it's not been a big love in, things were ok. We were in the park for ages and had come to the end of the walk and out of nowhere the dog attacked Grey and had to be pulled off. Grey ran around yelping like I'd not seen him do before and he has a swollen and scratched eyelid. I feel terrible as I'd always aimed to shield him from really bad experinences while he's young and still learning. Not that I want him to ever have bad experiences, but I think that never ever is a bit of an impossibility. Hope that Grey's good nature can shine through and that he doesn't become nervous of other dogs. He's now sleeping and I'll keep an eye on his eye.