My dog Boomer tries to "herd" me everytime that I go outside. He also does this when we are on the lawn mower. It's not that I don't want him to run around, but yesterday he had a very serious accident. I was walking toward the shed and he was going around me in circles as always. He gradually makes his circles bigger and bigger. He ran around the side of the shed and I heard him whimper. He came back around and he was limping. I thought that maybe he had gotten a thorn in is paw or cut the pad on his foot. (Both of those things have happened before.) I was bent down inspecting his foot when I noticed the huge gash about 8 inches long down the front of his chest and up under his front leg. I knew right away that the only thing around the shed that he could have ran into was the rototiller. I immediately ran inside to get a towel and the telephone. I called my husband (crying hysterically) and he ran right home as I looked for the phone number for the vet. I was very unhappy with my vet, when the secretary told me that there wasn't a vet on duty untill 11 am (It was 9 am at the time) and I would have to call another vet. I took him to another vet. ($75 emergency fee) and he told me that Boomer was a very lucky dog. There are arteries right under the front leg that he could have hit, but thankfully he only tore the skin and fat tissue. The doctor sewed him up and he came home in the afternoon. (After I paid the $550 bill) Anyway, after Boomer gets the drain tube and stiches out, how can I get him to slow down and be more careful about where he is running? I will definately move the rototiller and cover it. I will go around the property and try to find anything that can obviously hurt him if he is running, but I can't remove everything. How can I get him to be more careful? Thanks, Staci
P.S. Please say a prayer for Boomer. The doctor said that sewing him up was the easy part. The hard part is making sure that it doesn't get infected. Below is a picture of Boomer getting ready to "herd" me.
