I spent most of today processing it in the background, because it was something I wasn’t prepared for. I’ve always been honest with myself about the fact that we can’t have any small pets that he could gain access to, because he is not safe to have around them. I would not leave him unsupervised with a small dog. I still wasn’t really prepared for it to happen, because I thought that it was in my control to avoid those things.
This was one of those situations that very much cannot be properly controlled for. We run him off leash in a fenced in area, after dark to limit the chance of an unseen pet running into him, with rescue treats on hand. He has a harness that I can carry him by if necessary, and is trained to associate that with high value treats. He considers it one of the tricks he does for fun.
He’s even sensitive to correction from other animals. Being hissed at by the neighbour’s cats when he saw them made him unwilling to try and play with them.
None of that can really protect against him being out of sight for fifteen seconds, and immediately finding a small and fairly injured fluffy thing that makes the BEST noises when he slaps it.
Sometimes rescue treats aren’t good enough, and by the time I’d gotten close enough he’d already begun resource guarding. We’ve been working at that, and on his recall. More work still clearly needed, but it’s pretty fucking hard to trade for an entire bird when what you have to offer is just a dog treat, no matter how nice the treat is.
Anyway. It was not a good time. Athos had to front because he was the only person who could be calm for that situation, and panicking was only hyping the dog up further when he’d already gone far past threshold. He’s been known to try and swallow forbidden food whole if he feels it’s being threatened, and we really needed for that not to happen.
Rouke came out with the highest value rescue treats we had. We got him back on leash and continued the walk after disposing of the bird. We’ve been keeping an eye on him to make sure that whatever had the bird grounded and unable to get away wasn’t something that can make him sick.
It helped to know that there are a lot of foxes in that park. They like to tease the dog. It’s why he only runs in the fenced area; the bars will let a fox through, but not him. The idea was always that he was the only thing in that park that couldn’t leave at will. But it also meant that the bird would have died no matter what. It was just a matter of when that night it happened.
Anyway. The main point to this post was. Well, partly to put it in a different perspective from total panic. Recontextualise it a day later with a clearer mind.
The other main point was that this is normal. It was a bad experience, but it doesn’t make him a bad dog. It wasn’t a major failure of training or management. It was a situation that was fairly impossible to preempt, and which was dealt with as best we could manage.
Dogs kill small animals. It’s a large part of why we bred a good number of them. He’s a working line dog, and just because he lives in a city it doesn’t change the fact that many of his siblings are working as hunting dogs. The traits which make him an effective assistance dog when he’s on duty make him a risk to small animals, because focus and drive and food motivation are a double edged sword.
It’s not just him, though. It’s more of a risk for him, which is why we’re careful, and why this has only happened once in over three years. This is the only animal he has ever hurt.
A lot of people are not so careful, and the results are similar. The dog is fine, tolerates other animals reasonably enough, until the conditions are right and things go wrong. In those cases it’s often another pet. One which the dog has coexisted peaceably or happily enough with. Until something hit just right: the cat ran past it at the wrong time or it wasn’t careful when playing, and… yeah.
It’s not a bad dog. It’s a management issue in a lot of cases. A dog being set up to fail. But despite the best management in the world, there will always be unforseen circumstances. So I guess this was to raise awareness, because this… Happens. It’s horrible, but it happens. All we can do is manage it when it does.
Thank you so much for writing this. I believe it is incredibly important to raise awareness of dog behaviour and dog training, even when it’s about things like this that are so unpleasant and stigmatised.
I adore this dog, and he’s not any less of a good boy for this. It is a dog thing, and it happens. And he has what I’d consider medium prey drive, not high. He’s able to walk right through huge flocks of pigeons in the city centre, while on duty, right next to my wheelchair, and barely give them a look. He lazily and half heartedly chases flies and has never caught one. There are hedgehogs at the park, and once he booped one with his nose and got very slightly hurt, he’s stayed away from them.
He still killed a bird, because he’s a dog, and the circumstances aligned in a way that made it a possibility. It sucks, of course, but that’s nature. It made me cry a bit. But what we cannot do (like i know some owners do) is get angry at him or expect him to seem remorseful or guilty - Which are not emotions dogs are capable of.
Dogs don’t know right or wrong. If we had gotten angry and reacted with hostility, it would have simply provoked appeasement in the moment, and increased resource guarding next time he had something valuable.
So, after Dave got him back on the leash, I grabbed some dog poop bags and used them to pick up the bird and throw it in the trash as nonchalantly as I could. Then dog got treats and we went to the fenced football field so he could still run around. He behaved perfectly normally. It had to be as close to a normal walk as possible, because we couldn’t make it into a big deal.
So yeah. Remember that dogs are dogs, manage them and their environment accordingly, and understand that there are still circumstances you cannot control for.
Detail:The Fallen Angel,2007, by Arantzazu Martinez|If you are sensitive to the majestic beauty and delicacy of this painting, don’t go searching for his head. Just enjoy the little things about life.
Chilled night air drifting lightly in from a half cracked window, cooling sweat drenched limbs that lay amongst a tangle of sheets.
A still racing heartbeat thundering in your ear.
Long, loving fingers threading gently through your hair.
At times, the warm afterglow of satisfaction nearly eclipsed the hot, heavy passion that it was born from.
Nearly.
Tonight, lying within a tangle of warm sheets with your flushed face nuzzled against Loki’s bare chest, it was difficult to compare the two. With his fingertips softly floating over your upper arm and the solid feel of his chest beneath your cheek, you felt safe, sated, loved. There was, in truth, no feeling comparable to that of being held so securely against him, as though he couldn’t stand to be separated from you for even the briefest of seconds.
Yet, you still tingled delightfully with the aftermath of his love, practically still squirming in his arms at the exquisite pleasure he had drowned you in only minutes before.
Wait, there’s physical copies of Fallout Equestria? That’d have to be massive.
The first run was five hardbacks of progressively increasing girth. The stack is hefty, but the books are comfortable. Each chapter has chapter art too, which I consider a plus in all fantasy books.
Later runs were single-book softcover monstrosities. I think I saw another five-volume hardback run recently, but I’m not deeply involved in the fandom anymore.
The second print run was two volumes, hardback, with jackets. Dunno about any subsequent runs.
I still think the 5-volume split was the best option. It’s a big damn story.
(For anyone who hasn’t read it: yes, that’s a functional replica of the main character’s go-to weapon. No, I didn’t customize it like that; I bought it from the person who did.)
anon PLEASE tell me your teacher is the author of this
Ok, I Kind of hate that I know this, but I’m pretty sure that anon’s teacher did NOT write the books the others are showing off. He wrote the darker, edgier and somehow even longer fanfic OF that fanfic called Project Horizons.
Original Fallout Equestria was written by someone known as Kkat who I’m 90% sure is a woman and the story only has some PG-13ish scenes at worst (you know, aside from the violence and gore that comes with a Fallout setting.) Project Horizons was written by a guy known as Somber, who I remember him mentioning in the post-chapter notes that he got fired for failing the wrong student once and the fic itself includes multiple explicit sex scenes.
it’s important to me u know what the 3rd printing looks like. please note the gilded pages
one of tumblr’s secret trump cards is its ability to deliver absolutely OBLITERATING gut punches like this post without any context or warning whatsoever
