My dog was attacked - will she be traumatised for ever?

[HipsterAssassin]

My little JRT was attacked last weekend by a husky and one other dog, resulting in a nasty wound to the shoulder. It happened in a split second and seemed to be nothing (I was behind the other dog). Very strange incident. At the time she was covered in mud but later a trip to the vet revealed a horrible laceration. She’s had to have it cleaned and sutured under GA and it looks awful. She tiny and the wound around her neck is around 3 inches and is swollen and bruised.

My dog is naturally very nervous and fearful of dogs. We’ve had a behaviourist in to help with it last year and had some progress.

She’s been extremely fearful and unsettled since, despite lots of TLC and cuddles and is currently sleeping under my bed

Will she ever go out again? Is she permanently traumatised? This is awful. I feel totally gutted. Could her fearfulness be to do with not enough pain killers? We are back to vets tomo.

I doubt it will be permanent, but you're right to be concerned - I would be.

Could you call the behaviorist from last time and ask them for some help, and perhaps a visit now before fearful behaviours become too ingrained?

I've only had my dog under a year and sadly this is a story I heard from multiple dog owners when out walking mine.
I can't be much help advice wise but I can say the dogs I have met, have generally seemed fine and happy. As i never met these dogs before they were attacked I cant say what they were like before but speaking to the owners it sounds like they just have a specific breed, size or colour dog that their dogs are now aggressive towards (I guess this is related to the breed that attacked them), or that they are just a bit more nervous than they use to be when they first meet a new dog.
But otherwise as I've said the dogs seem happy, and to enjoy their walks. Dogs are very good at bouncing back.

Do you know anyone with very calm placid dog(s)? If so try and get some carefully controlled brief interactions done, as soon as your dog is physically up for it.

Unfortunately, as she was already nervous this is even worse and you need to be very careful that this doesn't make her fear aggressive to other dogs.

Do you do the "watch" command with her (where she is rewarded for looking directly at you/focusing on you)? If not I suggest starting it as soon as possible (Google it). It means that you can get her to focus on you rather than another dog - then any dog you don't know is friendly and calm, you get her to focus on you whilst the other dog passes (tell the other owners he is dog aggressive and they are normally good at keeping their dog away). Then allow brief calm interaction with dogs you know are calm and friendly. That will allow her to rebuild her confidence and hopefully avoid ever becoming dog aggressive.

Thanks all, I spoke to my behaviourist and she has given me some good advice about enrichment and confidence building when she has settled down a bit, while she recovers.

Yes I use the watch command as she can already be reactive with dogs. I get her to sit and look at me while the dog passes. I am just worried that things will be really difficult now and that I will not be able to have her off lead at all (currently use off lead time judiciously - well I thought I did!). I can’t imagine her reactivity won’t now be really bad.
We will do what we can and give her lots of time....
thank you.

You might find she is wary of the breed that attacked her. Always used to make me chuckle when people said that but I had a staff that was attacked by a black lab, required stitches. After that, he would go into reactive meltdown every time he saw a black lab...but overall recovered fine & was his usual chippy self with other dogs.

Hope she recovers okay bless her it's awful

it depends on the dog. My partners dog was attacked by my neighbours dog and since then, we have to keep her on a lead round other dogs because she became a bit reactive (which is quite a common reaction after being attacked) Shes normally fine, but if another dog growls or yaps at her, she will now have a go back, and as a staff we cant risk it. Its a shame.

Last summer my very elderly dog who’s admittedly terribly easy going was attacked twice in a fortnight, the first time was a cocker spaniel the second time a young very virile looking male black lab he was not at fault on either occasion.the second time he was badly injured in considerable pain and vet also thought very frightened.
I was worried how he would be especially around labs. He did growl for a while when one came very close to him, and I put him on his lead when I saw one coming mainly in the hope that the lab owners would do the same and now he seems fine although I’m much more wary now of other dogs than I used to be and try to avoid dogs I don’t know which is a shame.
Good luck.

My dog was attacked 18 months ago by a SBT x PBT - he was nervous for about 6 months around large SBT but after meeting with a number of dog friendly SBT seems to be back to how he was before he got his throat ripped open.

My miniature yorkie was picked up by a greyhound and he's ok now. I've not made a big deal out of it, just made sure his puncture wounds healed. I'm more wary now of dogs likely to see him as a toy (because of how their breed may have been treated) but dogs are dogs, I expect some issues over their lifetime