Tuesday Topics #29 - Getting Over a Bad Experience

Yesterday, after posting about how nice all the dogs at the soccer field are, we had a negative encounter with a vizsla. We see this female vizsla often and haven't had any issues, although Cabana has never really played with her directly. But yesterday, right when we walked up to the fields, the vizsla and another dog, Ginger, were walking by with their owners. Ginger, who normally doesn't like to play, came over to Cabana and initiated play. This surprised me because Ginger is not usually very playful. In fact, Ginger usually lets Cabana know that she does NOT want to play. But this time, Ginger was wiggling her body, wagging her tail, and moving in an unmistakably playful way.

Suddenly, the vizsla started to chase Cabana in what I thought was play. But within a few seconds, Cabana let out a long stream of yelps and stopped running. She sat down in the grass with a forlorn expression on her face. I hadn't even known that the yelping was from Cabana until I saw her sit down. I calmly went over to her to investigate, but I couldn't see anything--no broken skin, no blood, no marks of any kind.

The only thing I can figure is that maybe the vizsla felt jealous or protective of Ginger and didn't want Cabana to play with "her friend".

For the rest of the time there, Cabana was very subdued. I watched her carefully, but I couldn't detect any limping or favoring, yet she didn't play with any of the other dogs--quite weird for Cabana. Meanwhile, the owner of the vizsla was still there on the fields, but she never once apologized or asked if Cabana was okay. Whatever!

Today, we went back to the fields, and this time, the vizsla was not there--yay! Again, I kept a close eye on Cabana. She started out a bit skittish. Even on the way to the fields, Cabana reacted to a loud car, which normally doesn't affect her in the slightest. Then, it took her a while to get into the swing of things with the other dogs.

But thankfully, Cabana's sweet puppy friend, Maggie, a 10-month old springer spaniel, coaxed Cabana into playing. Cabana and Maggie LOVE to romp and roughhouse, and I was relieved to see Cabana back to her normal self. She seemed 100% back to being Cabana.

UNTIL...we got back home. Cabana had gotten wet and muddy in the grass, so I tried to dry her off with some old towels. But whenever I tried toweling off her left hind quarters, she BARKED at me! Three times I tried, and all three times, she barked. Cabana almost NEVER barks, so it is extremely unusual behavior for her.

As a test to see if Cabana was hurt, I played tug-of-war with her, but she played very normally. While playing, I tried touching her all over, giving friendly pats on her back and legs to see if I could get another reaction out of her. But she didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

I can't figure out if she's hurt or if she's just being protective of where she might have been nipped by the vizsla. Should I keep trying to poke around and see if I can get a reaction? Should I keep taking her to the fields, like I normally would, to make her "get back on the horse"? Or should we take a break from playing with other dogs?

Maybe she was barking for something totally unrelated? I was drying her off in the backyard, near her baby pool. Now that I think of it, she HAS barked a few times out of excitement while playing in the baby pool. So I might be linking two incidents that have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

I'm trying my best to not transfer any feelings of fear, anxiety, remorse, or over-sympathy. But it's really hard because I just don't know what to do, and I DO feel affected by it. Is it Cabana trying to get over the bad experience, or is it just ME trying to get over it?! Help!