This story is about Snickers’ who is my 2 year old Yorkie Terrior. Snickers is a fun loving friendly and cuddly little dog. He is filled with love and enjoys doing silly things that always keep my wife and I smiling. He is definitely something special and a part of the family. This story is about a second chance that we thought would never come…especially for Snickers. On July 1st 2010 snickers was attached by a pitball in a local on leash park. The other dog was off leash and not muzzled while snickers was on leash and quietly walking next to us. The pitbull came from behind and scooped snickers up by the neck while tackling him in the park. It was a horrific experience, I can replay the sight of that event over and over in my head and each time I am filled with sadness and anger at the same time. I can remember prying open the other dogs jaw in order to get him off my dog. After a few attempts we got Snickers off, but he had sustained an enormous amount of damage to his neck. We rushed him to the vet and thankfully snickers was ok in a few short weeks.
After that event we really noticed him becoming anti-social and avoiding all dogs at any cost. He would run behind our legs or try to run away from any dog. In some cases he was so scared he would growl when other dogs approached him from afar. At this point my wife and I were heart broken, our little baby went from a playful pup to a frantic dog who wouldn’t entertain meeting new dogs and people. For months we watched him get worse to the point where he couldn’t stand next to a dog without lunging at them out of fear.
Then one day we came across an indoor off leash dog park for little dogs. We took him in and at first just watched through the glass door. There must have been about 40 dogs in there which I thought would be a little overwhelming for Snickers. At first, I was hesitant because I thought Snickers would bark and lunge at them out of that same fear.
We ended up taking Snickers in and while he was fearful at first we walked him around and slowly he started to come around. The glowing moment was when Snickers was pawing at other little dogs there and looking to play. As the dogs approached him he did walk away but was open to letting them sniff him. We are hopeful and grateful that our little baby who we never thought would have approached another dog, is not given a second chance to be a loving, balanced and playful companion again.