The dog trainers, Farmer H and The Pony, had left for town ten minutes earlier, when I heard the kitchen door open. I went to the kitchen, and found an upset Pony.
"We were watching to see if Pepper chased the truck when we left. He was running along on our grass, but still in the boundary. I could tell he wasn't going to stop at the end, so on my phone I started manually giving him the warning sound. Pepper didn't react. He got shocked when he crossed the boundary, and WENT UNDER THE TRUCK! We ran over him! Dad stopped and put him in the back of the truck, and I got in and rode back to the house with him. We can't SEE anything wrong, except he's limping a little bit on his front left leg."
Farmer H came in next.
"Did you run over Pepper? Or did he just go under the truck, and the wheels missed him?"
"No. We definitely felt a big bump."
"But it was the back tires, Mom. So not all the weight from the motor."
"It's a freakin' TRUCK! He might have internal injuries, or a concussion!"
"I'll take him to the vet tomorrow if he's hurt. He looks okay. I pressed all around on his ribs and back, and he didn't yelp or nothin'."
"He probably has a concussion, and can't think! He's in shock, and doesn't know he's hurt."
"He yelped when the shock hit him, Mom. It kept shocking him when he didn't turn back. It was terrible. I shut it off manually on my phone. I think he went under the truck trying to get to Dad, because he thinks Dad will make the shocks stop."
My theory is that Pepper was running full speed beside the truck, and the shocks made him lose control, like when a person gets tased, and his momentum made him tumble under the truck.
While Farmer H drove The Pony to town, I called for Pepper, who was under the carport in a hole he likes to lie in. He came to the kitchen, and CAME IN, which he hasn't done since he was a pup. Walked in and stood by the table, his back to me at the door. I sweet-talked him and he finally turned around. He looked droopy and sad, with a slight limp on the left front leg.
I finally coaxed Pepper back out on the porch with a piece of stale bun dipped in bacon grease. He sniffed it, but wouldn't eat. He slunk into Juno's old house right by the door, and wouldn't come out all night.
Tuesday morning at 5:45, Pepper came to the laundry room door where Farmer H feeds him. He walked into the laundry room, and sat in front of the washer, wagging his tail. Then went back out when commanded, and ate some food.
When I left for town that afternoon, Pepper was his usual peppy self. Romping and waiting for his treat, ears up, curious. I think he's probably stressed from the ordeal, and seeking safety in the house, remembering puppyhood when he got to come in every morning for petting.
Right now, Pepper is staying close to the Mansion.
6 comments:
Omg! What an ordeal. I am glad Pepper seems to be feeling better!
Perhaps if Farmer H had stopped the truck as soon as they saw him running, so Pepper would stop running, that might have helped, but Pepper hasn't yet learned "Go Home" has he? I am so sorry he was hurt. There are solutions, but you won't like them. One is a large high-fenced enclosure, maybe a quarter or half acre, that you put him into before driving out, so he can't follow. At least until he learns to not run after the trucks. His breed suggests an extremely trainable dog, but that should have begun immediately, as soon as he was used to all of you.
jj,
Pepper is right now tormenting Jack by not letting him go around the kitchen windows to get to the water bowl. So I'd say he's back to normal!
River,
I guess Farmer H should just stay parked in the middle of the road, heh, heh? At some point he has to drive to town. Can't be stopping every time. When Jack started to chase the neighbor's horses, and we trained him not to do that with a shock collar.
If only we were psychic and knew this would be a problem! None of our other dogs have chased vehicles. It's hard to train a dog not to chase vehicles when they don't chase vehicles.
For almost 30 years we've had dogs live freely with no problems. Only Scarlett, the beautiful Australian Shepherd we took in when she was a year old. She was a roamer, not a chaser. Now she's living in town, spending days inside with her new people.
Fencing is expensive, and it's still a pen. Also, dogs dig under fences that they can't jump over.
I bet that gave everyone a scare! I wasn't allowed pets until my Dad retired from the Navy. I don't remember how we came to have the dog named Snuffy. He wasn't a big dog and just a mixed breed, but he was a character. He would run the mile to my grandmother's house for a biscuit every day. He started chasing cars, so Mother employed her wisdom to fix the problem. She hit him with her car and broke his hip! He was still apt to chase vehicle after he healed. Funniest thing was that little brown dog walking on his front legs with his hind end in the air all the way down that dirt road for a biscuit! I could have taken him on America's got Talent if it had been on the air then. My life would have turned out totally different! I was so mad at Mother, it was cruel. She would put newborn kittens in a bucket of water because she didn't like cats, too. Not an animal lover, my mother.
Kathy,
The Pony was holding back tears. Even Farmer H was sad. We're so relieved that Pepper is fine now. It's upsetting to run over an animal (your mother excluded)! That thump makes my stomach churn. A couple times on my 6:00 a.m. 60-mile drive to Steelville for work, I had the misfortune (more so theirs) of running over a rabbit and a squirrel. You can't swerve on 2-lane blacktop, there's no shoulder.
My mom ran over my mutt dog, but not on purpose. He came from some pups dumped at my grandma's house. He was brown and white, a small beagle-shaped dog that I named Charlie Brown. He took to chasing cars, and got hit by the right front tire, still in front of our house. That, too, was 2-lane blacktop. I cried for days. I wanted to blame my mom, but she was only driving to town. Not targeting my stupid dog.
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