Hello all. Its been a long silence at this space again... .... Well, alot of things happened. Mostly unhappy ones. So, it was time then to just stick my head in the dirt and stay like an ostrich. Honestly, leaving the ostrich theory isn't so bad after all.
The cause of the likening of ostrich life-style --- my little boy has got into trouble time and again over the past month. The last incident made me and PD feel like parents being called to the principal's office due to phui phui's bad behaviour. It made us feel we are entirely to be blame, but yet, we feel that we have done everything we could possibly do. We feel helpless... Now that a couple weeks have passed by, at least it doesn't make me feel so sad talking about it. I think.
First incident made it to Singapore's popular dog forum. Everyone was shelling out insults at little Phui. It made my heart crinch. I cried for a couple of days after reading the mean comments about my little boy.
The incident unfold like this. Phui was playing with his usual playmates, 1 female husky and a large female malamute. (I don't deny that he plays better with females) He was initially on leash, but PD and i decided to have him off leash as he has played so many times with these lovely furry mates. He was enjoying the play, running around with them, chasing them in the far end of the park.
The next minute, when I turned to face him, I saw phui in mid air trying to snap at a golden retriever. Everyone rushed in to try to pry Phui off the goldie. It took 5 big men, and he refuse to let go. In the end, as I stood opposite Phui, me feeling helpless, 5 people trying to get him to let go and 10million others watching on in horror, Phui let go on his own accord.
When he let go, PD dragged phui aside to discipline him while I stuck on the golden and try to check his wound.
Thank goodness it was a superficial wound. We clean it with water and antiseptic.
When I finished tending to the goldie, I went over to phui. I was angry with him - for sure! I smack his snout with all my might. At this point, by standers came by and told me to stop punishing him anymore. They told me that it was not phui phui's fault, and it was the golden who had snapped at him first and tried to had a go at him a 2nd time before phui defended himself.
They told me that they saw the golden retriever rush up to phui while phui was playing, running with his friends. They told me that the goldie managed to knock phui down while running and nipped him. The goldie then went on to try to snap him a 2nd time on his neck, and unfortunately, Phui with his niffty paws and teeth... ducked....snapped the goldie's ear.. and held on.
The whole incident happened so quickly and all I could do was to piece whatever bystanders offered us. But yet in the forum, there were people who claimed that they were there too and insisted that Phui snapped at the goldie unprovoked, like a crazy, aggressive dog.
Sigh. We live in this state of mind for about a week or so. I wrote into the forum, hoping to clarify what happened instead of having these people speculating. Unfortunately, some individuals wrote in to slam my Phui Phui and me. However, on the brighter side of things, there were friends out there who vouch for the character of Phui Phui. Thank you guys for doing that, it really mean alot to PD, me and Phui Phui.
Unfortunately, after this episode, Phui seem to have evolve slightly in his mental state of mind. No! He didn't become a mad dog like so many ill informed people think. Phui did become very defensive whenever it comes to any golden retriever puppy in the vicinity. He was fine with grown golden retrievers. But he particularly hates golden retriever that are around 8 ~ 11 months of age.
Our nightmare begins without warning...... .... ....
The 2nd and last incident that happen 3 weeks back involving another golden retriever. PD and I were at the pet run to purchase a pee tray and we bump into a friend of our's. We started to chat. Phui was on a short leash. Even upon arriving at the run, we are aware that Phui has taken an unfriendly interest in a particular golden retriever puppy.
Everything was ok as phui was on leash and he obediently follows us and seats at the bench while PD and I caught up with the rest of the gang. However, despite his demeanor, Phui's eyes were roving at the golden retriever puppy.
We were about to move on to the shop to get Phui's tray and head back for dinner when it happened. We were saying goodbyes to our friends and moving off when the same goldie headed our way to have his shower as the shower points were near the shop.
Phui saw his chance. He leaped, snapped and held on. Unprovoked.
Again, everyone got frantic.
Someone mention to us once : It is an extremely difficult thing to break up a dog fight, much less one with a bull terrier involved.
No amount of myths on breaking dog fights worked. A trainer told us to choke phui. We insisted it doesn't help and it will definatley make phui even more angry. The trainer went ahead and did it, and true enough phui took the goldie in his teeth and swung it around. Next method, someone wanted to try, was to hold the hind legs of phui up to loosen his grip of the other dog. Again, they tried and in the end, phui feel forward, but still not letting go. Honestly, it seems that all these 'myths' seems to bring more pain to the goldie in phui's teeth.
Thankfully, God gave Man the wisedom t invent medical oil and perfumes. Thankfully, God made dogs noses extremely sensitive. Phui let go of the goldie immediately when we used someone's perfume near his snout. Thankfully, God gave Man the wisedom t invent medical oil and perfumes. Thankfully, God made dogs noses extremely sensitive.
And thank God, this time, PD and I had good advise on how to break up a dog fight.
Phui immediately let go of the goldie when we used someone's perfume near his snout. The goldie was traumatised.
We couldn't be more sorry for the 2 goldies. And we couldn't be more angry with phui phui. Most of all, we couldn't help anymore to make phui phui dog friendly. It was a painful experience for PD and me.
For weeks after the last incident, we tried and we thought through on what went wrong to that sweet little piglet of a boy who use to run around the dog run and called everyone his friend? What did we do wrong??? He has gone through obedience training, he is never out of control. He listens to our commands and he does what is expected of him. He has never cause much destruction at home as compared to other dogs. He huddles up to me and PD at night and loves all things soft. He loves to hide under the covers in the morning and complains in little whimpers to weird sounding growls that make people laugh when his awaken before he wakes up.
He is a sweet, endearing little boy - who freezes and hides under the curtains when PD catches him doing something naughty. He tries to cuddle up and lick me when I am upset and crying.
What happen to that sweet little baby? What happen along the way? What did we do wrong?
PD and I have been scoring through doggie help books. We are reading Ceasar Millan's books, watching the critically acclaimed Dog Whisper, hoping that it will teach us something useful to help us to help Phui Phui. From the tapes, we see 'red zone' dogs become dog friendly so simply.... I wish Phui can transform just like that too.
We got useful tips on training from people which seem to work initially. We have so many tips, so many tricks up our sleeves to make Phui Phui a good boy in the eyes of the general public.
Sometimes, I get so mad with myself that Phui isn't doing what he should be with all the commands I've learnt. Sometimes, this anger and frustration overflows and phui becomes the target of my frustration.......
Phui Phui. I am sorry.
The large and ugly looking ones are our first attempts - and it gets better. See the slightly smaller and golden-brownish ones in the background? that's our second lot and pretty near to perfection. (",)
