Teaching an Old Dog

My dog and I just met up with another dog and her owner, this evening. My dog, in her usual fashion bounced about, tail wagging, sniffing away. The other dog held still and took it all in with a calm bordering on apathy. After watching this for a few moments, the dog’s owner smiled and asked “Your dog is so excited! How old is she?” When I answered that my dog was six year’s old, her eyebrows raised. Clearly, she had expected a different response based on my dog’s behavior. 

Puppy behavior. Excited about the world and new experiences. Even after six years, forty-two in dog years, my dog still dances in circles at meal times and greets every person with wild abandon if they show her even a modicum of interest. No one would think that only a month ago she was viciously attacked by a dog in our apartment building. We were waiting for the elevator on a Friday night and an apartment door across from the elevator opened. The next thing I knew, my dear sweet dog was being picked up and shaken like a rag doll by a dog ten times her size. 

I don’t know how the owner finally dragged her dog back into their apartment or how my dog survived with minimal physical damage, but I’m grateful for it. She was traumatized. I was traumatized. It took us a long while to get back to feeling normal and there is a residual effect. She startles much more easily and I still feel less than my normal, sunny self. It’s been a month, I should be over it, but I’m not quite there. But my dog is my role model. Even though she had quite a bit of anxiety in the week following the attack, she realized that the dog that attacked her was one dog out of the many living beings she encountered. That the incident was an isolated one. There was no reason not to let it affect how she related to others. She may be scared to be picked up, but she could still wag her tail excitedly. She may wake up panting with fear in the mornings, but she would still lick any hand that came within reaching distance. We did have our trust issues following the incident, but she has completely forgiven me, in that way only dogs can, for not protecting her. Her physical and emotional scars have almost healed entirely and she hasn’t let it change her normal, sunny, puppy-like disposition. Surely, I can follow her lead.