A Shiba Fight and Battle Wounds

Not having the best month here. We went for our morning pack walk this morning. Our destination was Petco because I needed to pick up some supplies for our boy. We headed over to the one in Union Square and I decided that we had some spare time to spend at the dog run over there. We've never taken Shio to that dog run before so it was definitely something new and fun for him. He trotted around and marked some poles.

Five minutes after we entered, two more Shibas walked in to play! I was so excited and started chatting with the owner. He had just mentioned that his Shiba can become aggressive towards other dogs just as his Shiba and Shio started fighting.

We were able to break up the fight quickly and pull our Shibas away from each other. It looked like the both of them walked away physically unscathed but they clearly hated each other. Shio displayed some fear aggression after the fight which has only happened once before when he was younger and another male Shiba lunged at him. I took Shio out of the dog run since it was clear that we could not have both in there at once.

We went off to Petco and bought what we needed to. I may have bought a bit more than we needed to because I felt so awful about what happened. I took Shio back to the same dog run after Petco to make sure he wasn't too traumatized by the fight and made sure he would be okay at the park if we were ever to return. Also made sure he wasn't afraid of white dogs or dogs in general. He was fine.

Then when I came home, I discovered that he had a battle wound. Right behind his left ear, I noticed some dried blood. When I looked a bit closer, Shio had lost a quarter-sized patch of fur ripped out and a small puncture wound.

I showed Josh and cleaned it right away with hydrogen peroxide and dabbed some neosporin onto the wound. Behavior-wise, Shio has been eating and playing like always. Doesn't seem to be affected by the fight in any other way but I am sure heartbroken.

There's always a risk when bringing your dog to the dog parks since you can only hope that the dogs in the run are well mannered. Even if you think yours is, all the parents need to be careful.

Over the next few days, we'll have to watch to make sure the wound heals properly. Just happy that we were lucky to walk away with little damage this time.