It’s funny you should say this because I learned my lesson with those long leads with our “small” (65 lbs) dog.  She is not good on recall and I used to take her to an open field to play with some other neighborhood dogs.  I used a 30 ft lead to give her freedom.  Well, one day I was absorbed in talking to someone and she took off running full speed after another dog in play and next thing you know, I was in the air then being dragged about 10 feet before I could regain control.  Of course, I was not letting go of that leash even if it killed me because there was a road at the end of the field!  Fortunately, no one had a phone out to film.  My Dad was with me, though, and he just LOVES telling this story whenever he has a chance.  🙄    I can only imagine how far I might be propelled if Honor was at the end of one of those running at a bear!   😂

mischief said

benny55 said

Eustacia when you take Honor for leash walks, you can try one of those 20 ft 30 ft long training leashes. That gives him a little more freedom and gives you the security of being able to hold him back if he sees a bear.😱 Of course, right now the main thing is to keep his walks short  to avoid fracture and eliminating pain as best as possible while he's going under this treatment.

Honor really is such a good boy. Extra smooches for him from us.🥰

  

Long lines are great for a lot of things, but I'm not sure this is a good use case.  Honor is a very large, very strong dog.  If he goes after prey and has 20' or more of line in addition to his leverage advantage from being lower to the ground, he's just going to rip the leash out of Eustacia's hands or, worse, pull her over.

  

I’ll definitely be saving that bandanna.  All of the staff at this specialist hospital were really great with him.  I didn’t feel like he was even very reluctant when he walked in this morning for the 4th day in a row so that says something. 

So…things were going really well.  Yesterday, I took Honor over to our neighborhood lake to walk around and he was walking so much better and had more energy. Then, last night we had a mishap.  🙁   I have been extremely careful to put his leash on before we head outside.  Our yard is fully fenced but in past he has occasionally spotted something outside and gone flying out to the far end of the fence.  Before all this, it used to be amusing.  I had told my husband he must have a leash on when outside.   Our other dog had scared a bear back into the woods shortly before my husband was heading out to take Honor for a short walk.  For some unknown reason (probably thinking about work), he opened the door before clipping his leash on and Honor barreled right past him and went running to the far side of the fence.  He said he had never done that to him before so he wasn’t expecting it but, to me, it was entirely predictable as there had just recently been a bear outside and Honor smells their scent for some time and has always gone crazy running around the yard afterwards.  Now, I feel like he isn’t walking as well as he was yesterday.  It’s not fractured.  He’s not limping and he is putting weight on it but things aren’t as good and I have no idea how to assess what damage is done.  I’m still feeling angry about it and feel like, if a fracture happens at any point, I am going to blame this incident. 

And,  here we have the downside of stereotactic radiation.  One careless mistake could ruin everything and, even if I am 100 percent committed to not making a mistake, I’m not the only person in the house.   Just praying not too much damage was done and agreement has been made that no doors are opened unless leash is on and in hand. 

Thanks Sally.  Unfortunately, he has gone back to head bobbing and favoring his good leg.  He has also largely not wanted to move around today.  🙁    Honestly, I knew this was possible with the radiation and we would need to be careful.  I WAS being super careful.  And I am trying not to place blame, but it’s difficult because I feel like I saw a light and it was snuffed out before I even got to fully enjoy it.   I had banked on 4-6 months being a worst case scenario I might get out of this; not days.  To make matters worse, our UF appt would have been Thurs and I have now missed out on the vaccine as well.  I feel like I could not have messed this up any worse. 

At our happy place.