And walking problems

Almost forgot to mention.. The last days have been hectic vet days again.  I mentioned it in a post some time ago that she was limping a little on her right front leg. Now and then it got worse, and some day last week it suddenly got so bad that she almost couldn't walk. We already had an appointment with the doctor, but Jurgita threw her in the car and drove her straight to the vet.. 

Nothing to see on x-rays, blood samples are normal.. So with a little bit of reading here and there, talking with the vet and checking forums, we are hoping for  panosteitis (also called "growing pains" by vets), which is a disease that is quite common among young big-breed dogs. It is unclear exactly what is the reason for the disease, it lasts for some months and then it disappears. She is now on steroids. We set the shots ourselves, it is a bit scary, but Maja is so amazingly patient, wagging her tail while we give her a shot. Amazing dog :)

The last days she has been much better. We try to be a bit careful and not deliberately take her to places where she will meet and play with other dogs, and she walks perfectly normally now. Let's hope it will stay like that :)

It is like waiting for a child to take the first step :) We are waiting for Maja to take the first swim.. Oh, she is so close, so close. She loves water, especially now that it is hot outside (26 degrees in the sun), and she loves to walk out into thewater to fetch sticks. But to swim... Mmmmm... sceptical.. She has met other dogs that have swum, but she has never followed them, but she gets a little closer every time. 

Yesterday was the big day. Only for some few seconds, only as an accident.. She was playing with another dog, and the other dog got a stick in the water that Maja just HAD to compete for.. And, ooops, no ground underneath her feet anymore. Hard starboard, and straight towards land. But she DID swim :) Friday we will probably go all to the lakes. If it's not to cold, maybe I'll take a swim myself and see if I can trick her with me :)

Even a little sweet dog has to find out one day that not all men or dogs are nice and friendly and that life can give some bad surprises, and yesterday it was Maja's turn.

The neighborhood that we are living in is full of dogs, and unfortunately many of them are treated quite badly. Most of them never get out of their backyards, they never get excercised or get to go for a good walk, and many of them seem to be permanently leashed. It is quite a tragedy.

Close to us - and on one of our walking routes - there is a huge German Shepherd that is running around behind fences in a yard. He is big and goofy and barks loudly at everyone passing by. Maja was totally unafraid of him from the first day she was brave enough to go the distance, and she loved to go to the fence to meet him. I have to admit that I didn't think he was dangerous, I somehow thought he was just showing off.

Yesterday he attacked.

When we passed the yard on our way home from walk, he suddenly came straight to the fence and pressed himself underneath and then launced at Maja. Once he was on our side of the fence, there was no barking, he just went straight and with full force for Maja's throat. I don't know what would have happened if I had not been there (which would not have happened, but still..), but this was not for fun or showing off. He took a good jaw-grip around Maja's neck and started to pull and shake and Maja started screaming. It went really fast. I grabbed the dog's neck and pulled as fast and as hard as I could, shook him hard, threw him away and gave him a good kick. When he came back again, I yelled at him, and then he gave up and ran back home. Wow, it was fast, maybe just five-six seconds? And still Maja was screaming, like she was in complete shock. I felt so incredibly sorry for her, but resisted the temptation to comfort her too much..

It must have hurt, although she didn't have any wounds afterwards, but maybe the shock was the worst. She has never experienced anything like this before, never experienced being attacked or experienced anyone wanting to hurt her. Maybe it was some trust or naivity that was broken yesterday. That would be really sad. Or, more probably, that is a human way of thinking, and as Cesar Millan points out; dogs do not live in the past the same way as we do, they live in the moment. Well, not completely so; when Jurgita went out with her today, she was quite a bit more careful than earlier. But when she found some smaller dogs to play with, she was as trusting and as happy as before. And when I came home to play with her, she was so happy and exited.
She is really an amazing dog :) It was a small warning sign for us also, that not all dogs we meet are as friendly, and sooner or later I am afraid that we will find out the same about people.

A WORLD BEYOND OURS

Jurgita was out walking Maja some days ago, when they met a strange man in a park. Maja stopped and watched him some 20-30 meters away from him, and then barked loudly twice. She usually never barks at people. The man immediately came up to Jurgita and started yelling at her for not keeping the dog on leash and not having control over the dog. Well.. that had to happen sooner or later. What I find more interesting: what did she see or sense that made her bark at him. Obviously, somehow, she was right: there WAS something strange about him. It is so fascinating to think about it: there is a huge world beyond what we can sense or hear. Just think about the smells, how Maja can find so much interesting and collect so much information from some things that I cannot even smell, how she probably can hear lots of things that I cannot hear. Maybe dogs are better at reading some body language and body signals than we are. Is it even more that she can sense or feel that we don't even know what is - vibrations or energy? Or is how she puts the information together that is different from us. It would be interesting to know what. Or maybe it is really more fascinating to know that there are so many things that we don't notice and maybe even things that we do not know exists. And parts of that world Maja has access to..

Flower Girl