By Mia Fraser on Dec 2, 2007 | Reply

Hi, I found this site… we took in a black lab about 6 months ago, could tell instantly that he’d come from a home where someone spent alot of time with him, although he’s not fixed and will hike in the house, so he’s OUTSIDE, but I figured, “oh, a grown lab, out of the idiot stage, will be easy to place once we exhaust efforts to find an original owner… Well 3 wks after being around this wonderful smart dog, and the whole time knowing for someone to spend that kind of time with him, he HAD to have been dumped because of some retaliation… maybe by marital problems or a mad neighbor… because he’d sat on the side of the road for three days before we took him (per a neighbor). Well 3 wks after we had him, I’d bn keeping him in the bathroom and he came out and I instructed him to get back in the bathroom that it wasnt time to go out yet, and he still stood by the door (he is SUCH a good boy that he knew I wanted him to stay in the bathroom so I wasn’t even having to lv the door shut… he’d stand in the bathrm and look at us down the hall, with his head out, but wouldn’t leave. … but this time, he came out and was insisting on going out..I’d let him, but then he did it again, and so I was demanding he go back in the bathroom. He refused, so I raised my voice and cant remember, maybe reached for his colar, and he growled at me… I went and got a broom and with the handle, swatted him on the butt to let him know I was SERIOUS, and you DON”T growl at me, and he then did this snapping/growling/ barking at me and lunged at me. I gave up. THAT was why someone dumped him. I sat on the floor by him and just bawled my eyes out becasue THAT is what’s WRONG with him. He’d had a good owner, and I guess they just werne’t going to put up with a dog that bites and were probably MAD and rather than putting him down, dumped him. (which I don’t agree with, but I have NO DOUBT that’s what they justified doing). I have usually bn able to tell alot about the care the owners have given when I find a dog. I felt SOOO bad for him, becasue as precious as he is, he is very defensive for some reason No, I DON”T believe he’s been abused, he just has this alpha dog thing, … he won’t even start a fight with any of our other dogs,- he gets along with dogs and cats, but if the other dogs start a fight with him, he’ll abruptly END it. Well, my 15 yr old son is wonderful with dogs and horses especially. He is very forgiving and doesn’t hate this dog, but rather appreciates the wonderful things about him. Dillon really has a gift for relating to dogs and horses and seeing straight through to their personalities and reads them so well, but he REFUSES to back down to this dog when the dog has growled at him, so he’s gotten bit a few times, twice, pretty bad-I’ve treated with Thieves. Dillon still doesnt resent the dog, he knows he just has a problem that we can’t understand. But although Dillon is a 6′3ft 15 yr old, I do have 5 younger children and oh, my gosh, I just can’t have the black lab here. Dalton is 12, Duncan 10, Delaney 5 her sister Drew is 3 and Devoni is 10 mo. and the black lab (see, he doesn’t even have a name) is SOOOO precious, he gets SO excited when we pull into the driveway and brings us a ball… and he and “the yellow lab” (another dog that’s such an idiot that we haven’t bn able to place him, but Dillon is working on obedience w/ him and he LOVES and minds HIM)the black lab and yellow lab actually GROWL at each other when we play with them, NOT out of PLAY but JEALOUSY over who gets pet. Black lab is alpha and yellow does’t challenge that so there’s no prob. I’ve fallen in love with the black lab and it scares me that most people wouldn’t blink over having him put down but my kids have to come first. So tonight, he was in Dillon’s way in the feed building, and Dillon tried to get him to go out and I’m not sure what happened, but he bit Dillon on the hand, and that’s how I found your site, looking for a way to treat the bite. Three punctures on Dillon’s hand. The two on top are kinda deep. And I’ve had his hand soaking in espsom salt and betadine (what the vet has me soak my horse’s feet in when they have thrush to draw out infection, so I fig it’s the thing) and then I’ll treat it topically with Thieves and let that sit on there, then after rinsing THAT off I’ll wrap the wound w/ a piece of Silverlon on it. (Silverlon is what our natropath uses for wounds) I’m giving Dillon your antibiotic recipe. Not sure how to, but he also needs the probiotic, so I guess I’ll have to fig. out a schedule where the two won’t negate each other. If you know anything about behaviour training w/ dogs, or any leads that may help, I’d appreciate any info. I can’t imagine how I’m gonna find this dog a good home now. I think getting him fixed cant’ hurt so that’ll be the next thing we do, but he still needs to go, NOT in punishment toward him, just the fact that my kids can’t be around this. Thanks for the recipe. God Bless, Mia Fraser