Adverse Event Protocol

ADVERSE
EVENT
PROTOCOL

One of the most important skills to teach your dog is Recall. Choose a special word that always means treats. Practice this everyday during a pup’s first year and always give a high value treat for compliance. Don’t cry wolf – treat every time. Having this skill down cold will save your pup from 95% of all dust-ups that occur.

Recall is meaningless, though, unless the most important component of this arrangement is in play. Owner awareness of canine body language—sensing trouble is brewing, noticing the intensity build—is how you know when and how forcefully to intervene.

Awareness is bliss.

Helps you see when your dog poops too.

DOGS DISAGREE OFTEN. The great majority of events in the park are bluster in nature. Allowed to continue, though, these can develop quickly into full on dog fights, depending on the pups involved.

Dog fights are avoided by prevention: managing problematic or obnoxious behaviours and peacekeeping. That is done by having knowledge, awareness, presence and intervening quickly. Understanding canine body language and training pups to have 100% reliable recall are tools every owner should have down cold. These skills give an owner control over their pup and the situations that can harm them, or others.

To Prevent a Fight

• Always be aware and present to notice intensity building between dogs. If your dog is not picking up cues from others (eg: mounting and humping, or fixating), redirect your dog to you and reset the pup with a time-out.
• Maintain vigilance and proximity to your dog in the park at all times.
• Separate dogs when the mood become too intense or play gets too rough. Noticing these changes and acting upon them is preventive.
• Create distance by moving your dog away so he can shake it off. Soothe your dog. This is effective much of the time but not all of the time. Give the pup a leashed time-out for a few minutes so he can reset.
• Some pups are a little more fixated and may return to the other dog to keep going. In that event, it’s time to re-leash for a longer time-out or leave the park. Walkers don’t have the option to leash-and-go, so they will keep an offender on leash for as long as a reset takes.

Ask questions! Pet professionals know body language and can advise if your pup needs a bit of interventional support.

If your dog is not comfortable around other dogs, leash-free is not a viable option. Focus on your dog’s strengths and deliver other great experiences.

Safety note: when in leash-free, remove dangling things from dogs that another dog can bite/grip onto—leashes, slip/choke/prong collars, harnesses—as these can cause grievous injury if dogs get tied, caught or stuck together.

Neutralizing a Fight + Owner Protocol

SEPARATE
Secure the upper hind legs near hip, lift and walk backwards

LEASH
Keep dogs at a distance

COMPOSE
Take a few breaths to calm down and soothe your dog

CHECK DOGS
Injuries can be internal or external

EXCHANGE INFO
Owner of the dog who injures pays vet bills

VET VISIT
Take injured dog(s) to vet immediately

COMMUNICATE
Inform other owner of vet bill, or that all is OK

TRAIN THE DOG
Remove triggers. Train to protect your dog and others.

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