Oops, I did it again...

So, it's Saturday afternoon - sunny, cool breeze, beautiful! You'd think that Eden Park would be crawling with dogs. NOT ONE! I set up doggy training for Z at the park so we could work on his little issue with other dogs and we couldn't even find one! Good grief, what is wrong with this town?? So, anyway, on the walk back to the car we did find one nice little pup whose owners let us "work" with them for a bit. Z went a little crazy, but not much as this other dog was strangely calm. So, all went well. We get in the car to drive home and I took Z's muzzle off, cause there's no need for that in the car, right?

We get home, get out of the car and walk into the courtyard and one of the neighbor crazy dogs, a fat little bugger, comes walking out the door. This little doggy goes insane and Z goes INSANE! I start into my training and pull him closer to me and...BAM... he bites me in the back of my thigh! My immediate thought... "How did he do that through his muzzle?" My second thought... "Ohhhhhh, the muzzle is in my hand!" What a dork I am... totally forgot to put it back on after leaving the car. Well... I got him inside and upstairs with no problems... took off my jeans to see the damage (yikes!) and stood there with Z and was like, "Look what you did to me!!!!!" He was appropriately sheepish, hung his head and was off to the back room, where he stayed the rest of the day. I washed the bite and took stock of the situation. He definitely broke skin, but it's more of a nasty bruise than anything else.

I called our trainer and told her what happened. I'll admit that I am a little frustrated here. I mean, Stephen never used a muzzle and Zoli never bit him... twice! So, trainer-Joan said that I should not be discouraged as we have made great progress. She said that Stephen is taller, stronger and actually Zoli's owner... all true! We also discussed how Z's instinct takes over when he's around crazy dogs and that the muzzle is IMPORTANT! So...even though we have made progress I feel like we've taken a few steps backwards this weekend.

Stephen... don't worry and don't feel bad. I'm fine and my leg is fine (although it does now have two Zoli holes!) :) Z and I will survive this together. He has been acting very obedient since this little "oops"... he definitely knows he was a bad little pup!