2 days ago, my dog Noggin and his best friend Luna were wrestling and doing their games, when Noggin's lower jaw got caught under Luna's collar (2 PetSafe break-away collars just arrived in the mail for them!)
It was quite a tense situation, one dog was screaming in pain, th other gasping for air, the dog owners struggled to reduce the two dogs thrashing, and a third dog owner after a couple minutes of struggle finally got the collar released. Both dogs were in mild shock. Luna the dog who was almost choked-out was checked by a vet. Noggin who had his lower jaw caught was bleeding lightly but nothing serious.
This morning, Noggin and Luna saw each other for the first time since the incident. Noggin was happy to see Luna, but Luna was scared of him and did all she could to avoid him, tail between her legs, walking away and avoiding eye contact. I can see that from her point of view, it seemed like Noggin had her by the neck and was trying to kill her. Noggin seems to have understood Luna had nothing to do with his trapped jaw. It's tragic that these two best friends be forced apart.
From my understanding of counter-conditioning, Luna could be clicked and treated for looking at Noggin while under threshold, then after a time, increase criteria and clicked and treated for walking behind him, and finally click-treated for walking with him. I don't want to rush things, since I could see Luna fear biting and other problems if we do.
What things should we do to get these two buddies back in the swing of things?
It was quite a tense situation, one dog was screaming in pain, th other gasping for air, the dog owners struggled to reduce the two dogs thrashing, and a third dog owner after a couple minutes of struggle finally got the collar released. Both dogs were in mild shock. Luna the dog who was almost choked-out was checked by a vet. Noggin who had his lower jaw caught was bleeding lightly but nothing serious.
This morning, Noggin and Luna saw each other for the first time since the incident. Noggin was happy to see Luna, but Luna was scared of him and did all she could to avoid him, tail between her legs, walking away and avoiding eye contact. I can see that from her point of view, it seemed like Noggin had her by the neck and was trying to kill her. Noggin seems to have understood Luna had nothing to do with his trapped jaw. It's tragic that these two best friends be forced apart.
From my understanding of counter-conditioning, Luna could be clicked and treated for looking at Noggin while under threshold, then after a time, increase criteria and clicked and treated for walking behind him, and finally click-treated for walking with him. I don't want to rush things, since I could see Luna fear biting and other problems if we do.
What things should we do to get these two buddies back in the swing of things?