Since her previous incident Lola had been living life quite happily, going on trips to the park, the beach, to family’s houses. She didn’t even seem too put off by what had occurred. We did notice that she had stopped being as submissive when other dogs were around and was instead standing up for herself a little bit more. We, along with everyone else who saw this happen, thought that it was a good thing that she wasn’t getting pushed around anymore. Looking back I see that these were the early signs of a dog that had learned a new way to deal with a situation she was unsure of, but I nor anyone else realised how undesirable this behaviour would become.

Let me start by saying that this is extremely difficult for me to write. Each incident upset me more than I realised at the time. Clearly if they had such an impact on me then I can only begin to imagine how they affected Lola, especially being the nervous, fearful, anxious dog that she was already. None of these incidents were caused any significant physical injury but sometimes it is the unseen ‘afflictions’ that can have unwanted long lasting effects