Dog just got hit by a car - hand holding please

[Whyissheontheship]

Stupid firework went off and spooked him when he was off lead in the park and he bolted onto normally quite road where a car hit him.

Been to Vet who said no internal injuries or broken bones but he is very bruised. Had had pain killers and anti-inflammatorys. We are supposed to monitor him at home (less stressful for him) he is whining his head off and won't settle. It's heartbreaking!

Me and DH are both really shaken up

Any advice? Our poor dog is physically fine a few days down the line but has developed a real phobia of his walks and any crashing sounds.

He just shakes and refuses to move, refuses his favourite foods, won't respond to his name just has a complete melt down, every time we walk him. He is jumpy in the house, we are at a loss of what to do.

He used to be so good on walks walk to heal without a lead etc and now we can't risk letting him off because the slightest noise spooks him.

what do we do!

I will be watching this thread... I have a jumpy rescue dog as well. No idea of the background therefore no ide awhere to start.

I hope he feels better soon, the only thing I would say is keep trying, do not let him stay at home.

I think, like with a person who has been through trauma, it'll take time and reassurance. I would start with short walks and loads of positive attention. Try to keep to calm environments where you can and let him rebuild his confidence.

Just keep him on the lead and give him time.

Poor thing.

Try not to react when you hear something that might set him off and keep talking calmly to him. He will pick up on your concerns about him which in turn makes him more anxious.
You could try Zylkene or Adaptil. If neither help, you may need to try prescription medication though.

Thanks for the advice! We will see how he goes over the next couple of weeks. Lots of reassurance I think!

I should have said he seems to be fine on walks in other locations (although to be safe we are keeping him on lead at all times) , it's the just the park where the incident happened (which happens to be our local park where we take him every day)

It'll just take a bit of time I think, our latest rescue got a fright when he pulled an extension cable on himself (don't ask), but a few days later he was back in his old spot (and the extension cable was in the cupboard).

i know a ddog that was hit by a car and would shrink back from traffic and loud engines particularly, it passes with time.

At this early stage just be very gentle, and do you drive yourself? Can you take the ddog in the car therefore avoiding the road walking and going straight out to fields/woods, but be able to use the car parks with very slowly moving car here and there to get calmer around first?

Be as upbeat as possible, taking favourite ball,etc to constantly distract around the car park, whilst on lead, meet up with other ddogs that are calm around cars.

Thanks for the advice!

We had a better walk today. We have a game we play sometimes where I tell him to look and then he gets a treat, so I decided to do that all the way to the place where he was freaking out and he was so absorbed in the game he didn't even notice. Then I let him walk for a bit and any time there was a noise I would tell him to look again. It worked a treat he didn't get stressed at all.

I managed to let him off lead in the woods today (have been too scared to since the accident) and he had a great time running around.

I think he just needs a bit of time and patience and he will be back to his normal self. Although I don't think we can ever let him off when it is dark again because of the firework risk. Not a massive deal though as most of his walks are during the day apart from the dead of winter.

Sounds like great progress already! Glad to hear he's doing so well

thats a relief to hear. well done both of you!

sort out the firework risk too, and then you won't have to worry, start playing a fireworks tape, its better that he's easy around it than this.

Shriek, how would we go about that? Do you play it and try and distract him? It would be amazing if we could help him be less scared!

There's a sound desensitisation programme on the Zylkene website and it is available on CD too.