Ouch!

The first time I met Brydon she had a bandage on her hand from where Gator had missed the toy. The first words out of everybody's mouth that day was "Is it broken?" I thought I understood then. Sure a good sized shutzhund trained dog had gotten her hand while going for the toy. Yeah right. Like I had a clue.

I took Vivre out today. While she did get out to run for a little bit last night, today was the first day in a couple of weeks that we really spent time outside running and playing. I hadn't intended to do any training. We were just out for a walk. But Vivre will play with anything, so when I decided to do some training I just grabbed some downed branches. We would heel for a few feet and then use the branch either as a tug or I would throw it. I had switched to using food to teach heel, this is the first time I have used a toy exclusively for a while. I whipped the branch around for her to grab, as soon as she got it, it broke and before I could register it she dropped the broken piece and went the small part still left in my hand. Thanks to the fact that I was still moving and has some momentum and she is still young it really wasn't too bad. A couple of small places where she just barely broke skin and some swelling between my knuckles that took the worst of the hit. Needless to say that after that I quit tugging with the branches and just tossed them.

I have been meaning to order some new tugs from Denise and just haven't gotten around to it yet. That just became a priority. I want to leave some hanging by the door to make it easy to grab one as I go out, but Vivre doesn't leave handles on the tugs. As soon as I let her win the tug I either need to get it straight back or the handle is gone. I also lost some handles by holding on to them while we tugged. The stitching on the handles isn't strong enough to handle Vivre's pulling. So this week I am ordering some new tugs and putting a hook by the door so I can always grab a tug on the way out. And hopefully help to save my hands.