My Cowardly Lion

[cheryl & oliver]

Well Oliver , my great protector showed his true colors yesterday.  We were out on the driveway of our house, just practicing some sit and stays, when one of the neighbors granchildren, saw Oliver and came down the street on a scooter, not a motorized one, just a regular little scooter.  Oliver knows this child, and the child has 2 goldensdoodles of his own. I don't know what triggered it, it was too fast, for me to remember, but the next thing I knew, Oliver spied the scooter, yelped and made a beeline for the garage to go into the house.  The problem with that was that I was holding on to his leash.  I went flying to the ground, and Oliver was by the door whining to get in the house.  When I was able to get myself up, I see him come out of the garage, and go to the kid for belly rubs and petting....I guess he was scared of the scooter, but I ended up having to go to the orthopaedist the next morning, I thought I had a broken hand.  It is swolllen and black and blue, with the exception of 2 fingers.  I take aspirin everyday, so it made the under the skin bleeding even worse, which made the swelling worse.  so now I am in compression bandage for 3 days, and the Dr. said to keep the hand elevated, ice, and use those fingers, so that is why I am typing, slowly but typing.  Of course it had to be my right hand to make things worse!!...Just another doodle happening, but let me tell you we are going to do some serious training when I get out of this mess...he has never bolted like that before, or pulled like that, but I guess it is my fault too that we didn't work on that end of training. I hope I am not too late to start, he just turned two.  But a 72 lb dog doing that is not fun, that is for sure....

[Smita, Ollie and Juno]

I am so sorry about you hand, Cheryl. A flying 72 lb dog pulling you along does not sound fun. I hope your hand heals quickly.

[cheryl & oliver]

Thank you for kind words...I hope so too, it is not a pretty sight, for sure, lol..and it does hurt...but this to shall pass...

[Coco Chanel and Cheryl]

I am glad that I'm not the only one with a scaredy doodle!! Coco is afraid of sliding doors, back doors, windows, and moving bikes!! I have to be hyper aware on walks because of that!! She also won't go out through a back door so I can't let her out in a fenced yard. She whines at open windows and sliding doors!! She is a 50 pound chicken!!

[cheryl & oliver]

Well today he was afraid of a bouquet of balloons that was on a table, he would not enter the room, just stood there whining and barking at them, he is such a coward, never was before, but I guess he is now. 

[Lorraine Bromley]

I get frustrated with my husband who allows Neely to pull and venture on the leash. It makes it nearly impossible for me to control him when he does this. My joints can't handle it. I do get control very quickly after I make it clear its me that is walking him and he has rules with me. But If he ever did decide to take off I would be a mess of bones separating in a sack of skin! I do make sure that I don't wrap the leash around my hand and am always ready to let go then I GO for the collar with both hands.

[cheryl & oliver]

I did have the leash wrapped around my hand, and that is why I went flying...I should have let go, but it just happened so fast...But I know better now for sure..

[cheryl & oliver]

thanks Linnea, he did do some real damage, but it will heal, just looks so ugly, awful colors on my hand right now...

[Donna K & Quincy]

 Ouch, hope your hand heals quickly, did he at least feel a little bad for what he did? Quincy, who is not prone to bolting did a similar thing today as we were going out the door and he spied the dog next door ouy playing on his lawn. He pulled the leash out of my hand or I may have had a similar story. The little stinker then picked up the leash in his mouth and took off to play.

[cheryl & oliver]

He did come back as I was trying to get off the ground, and sat and went to give me his paw..So did he feel bad, lol, who knows...Isn't it amazing how smart they are..Quincy knew that that he needed to take that leash, or u would have held him back, or at least ried, and he was going to go play...Smart like I said...

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Cheryl - so sorry about your hand - ouch!  Oliver just didn't want the big bad scooter to get him - Rooney would have done the same except that at 20 lbs, he would have hit the end of the leash and then he'd have gone airborne!

[cheryl & oliver]

Thanks Jane, my hand is the ugliest thing u have ever seen, but it will get better, Rooney is 20 lbs, that I could have handled, I think, but maybe not, it just happened so fast...And today the scardy cat was afraid of a bunch of balloons!!!..Would not walk into the room where they were, just stood there whining and barking at the balloons...

[Heather and Rocky]

Ouch!  I know our Rocky is much stronger than me so if he bolted unexpectedly it would not be good.