# Dog Training Related Injuries



## Vandal (Dec 22, 2000)

Ok, let's discuss health care. No, not THAT health care, just the care you needed after injuries related to dog training. 
I will start:
Torn ACL and destroyed meniscus in left knee from stepping in hole during escape bite in SchH. Knee "reconstructed" by two separate "quacks". There are supposed to be two screws holding my replacement ACL in place but there is only one. A mistake anyone could make...uh huh. :help:

Front tooth removed by dog when I took the ball out of her mouth. I was bent over the dog, she went up to get the ball and hit me in the mouth. Nothing a dental implant couldn't fix. 

Numerous stitches due to dog bites during helper work. 25 on left hand from Rottie when the handler dropped the leash during agitation. Too many other dog bites to count that all happened during years of helper work and a dog fight or two and just training.

Black eye when I bent over to pick up a dog bowl and the dog on my right side jumped to get on the top of the dog house to my left. We met in the middle somewhere. Looked like Spuds Mackenzie for a couple of weeks. Coincidentally, I had to build a Budweiser display at the market I was working at a couple of days later. Most of the customers found the black eye and the Spuds display more than a little amusing. The rest were sure I was the victim of domestic abuse. In case you are not familiar with Spuds:




 
I might think of a few others later but the head injuries have fogged my memory a bit


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I've been lucky so far, nothing beyond the dog missing the toy and getting my hand or chin or other skin instead. I got one actual puncture training dock diving with Kong Wubba, it bled a little bit and my thumb was numb for a few months. No stitches or Dr visits, nothing even requiring a bandaid. I have arthritis in some areas of my body and that tends to flare up with lots of tracking (right foot) and with playing with toys and lots of line handling, but there's nothing that really can be done about it. I get more stiff in the winter so obedience is mostly working indoors with food (don't have problems getting chomped when using treats) and teaching new behaviors with more precision and less drive. Once I threw the ball (the hard rubber kind), it bounced off something and knocked me in the face. I thought for sure I'd have a shiner but didn't. The most blood was when I had this huge blister on my foot (from something else) and Kenya stepped on my foot, caught the blister with her claw and my foot got all ripped up, but that was not even during training.


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

LOL, nothing dramatic like Anne!! I think there should be some prize for surviving all that!

My biggest issue in dog training is that I have psoriasis and my hands and fingers are almost always affected, so I almost always wear gloves when line-handling, either in protection or tracking. But even then, just throwing a toy, playing tug or feeding treats can open a lesion and cause bleeding, making everyone think that I've been viciously chewed on. 

My worst training experience so far was showing up at the club and forgetting my gloves at home, but shrugging it off and doing protection training anyways - gawd, my hands were a raw bloody mess . . . I double and triple check now that I have gloves in my kit when I go somewhere, not wanting to go through that again!


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## Chris Wild (Dec 14, 2001)

Other than a few pulled muscles, wrenched body parts, rope burns from long lines and bloodly knuckles I've been lucky to not have any serious injuries from training. One nasty rope burn around my ankle got infected once and my foot swelled up like a balloon and I had to be put on some heavy duty antibiotics and couldn't wear shoes for a week. Once I was doing retrieves over the jump with Raven and threw the DB way too short so it was just inches the other side of the jump. Told her to sit and walked around the jump to get it and rethrow. As I was bending over to pick it up and disappeared from her view for a moment, she decided not to sit and to try to get the DB anyway. I straightened up right behind the jump just as she was arcing over and our heads cracked together as she was mid air over the jump. I ended up going over backwards and sitting on the ground holding my head seeing stars for a few moments. Not sure she was even aware anything happened as she grabbed the DB and came over and sat in front of me holding it with a puzzled look on her face as if to ask me why I was on the ground. I learned her head is a lot harder than mine and had a headache for a few days afterwards. But since those are about it, I count myself very very lucky thus far. <knocks on wood>

Just playing and hanging out with the dogs however has resulted in a broken foot from stepping in one of Wulfie's "excavation projects" when playing ball and 3 broken teeth (actually, that is the same tooth broken 3 times) from accidental head-on collisions caused by dog jumping up as I was bending down.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

I've had a bite in my elbow that healed without any stiches or major medical treatment. I had one of my front teeth broken in half. Scars on my ankles from a line that caught me. Minor concussion when my dog pulled me into a car door. Various and sundry bruises and marks too many to recall individually. He likes to use his feet when we tug and in the summer without much protective clothing it looks like I've been mauled by a tiger.


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## CainGSD (Nov 15, 2003)

Let's see the most dramatic was the bite to my upper thigh that resulted in an abscess and a trip to the operating room and wound packing (not my dog).

Cain sent me to the ER for stitches to my hand after knocking me down on pavement as a young guy. A bone bruise to my spine while teaching the blinds.

Dazzle most recently has blacked both my eyes the first one sounds a lot like Ann's experience. Split the skin and turned every shade of black to yellow/green. Second time was less dramatic, I say because I have gotten faster, NOT!

We all joke at our training sessions that we are not training if someone isn't bleeding.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

So far I think Anne wins.  

Mostly bruises and some bleeding knuckles. I had one put a canine through the fleshy part of my hand when I was teaching her the retrieve. She also nailed me HARD in the inner thigh when I went to kick the sleeve. The bruise was rather pretty with all 4 canines and the incisors showing up. I ended up cancelling a physical because I was NOT going to explain that bruise. I got a puncture wound on my arm when a dog spun around and redirected on me during protection (both of these were young dogs). 

I had a dog nail me in the forearm when I was standing talking to his handler. This bite would have been very serious if I hadn't had on all of my heavy winter clothes and jacket. I have a pretty nice scar from that one. 

Last year Nike went to jump into the back of my truck, wasn't going to make it, and when I went to catch her, her head came back and slammed me in the eye. I have also been caught on the chin and in the head a few times by dogs being in the wrong place at the wrong time (or maybe it is me being in the wrong place  ).

Most of my injuries have been from working with large animals (horses, cattle, etc) and my parrot.


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## Vandal (Dec 22, 2000)

Chris reminded me that I do have a chipped tooth. Hardly noticeable and right next to the implant. That tooth was chipped by another female who was the mother of the dog who removed the front one. Sort of a family tradition that continues to this day. I almost got hit in the mouth by that dog's great granddaughter just the other day. She likes to spend most of her time airborne, so, whatever is higher than four feet is in danger of damage.
The more serious injuries always took place after work. When you work a stressful job and then try to train when you are tired, you have to really be careful. The dog who took out my knee was just a slammer on the escape. The dog would hit so hard, I would have to accelerate to catch up with my upper body and sleeve arm. When I went to do that, my foot went into a hole and I started to fall. My arm was bent and where the dog was at that point prevented me from straightening it and slipping the sleeve. The dog moved in front of me as I was falling and then torqued the sleeve. All my weight was on my left leg and when the dog did that, my knee bent in every direction except the right one . I was able to slip the sleeve at that point but of course, it was too late and I just dropped to the ground. Didn't really feel pain but when I tried to get up, I just fell over again. Leg didn't work at all. The thing I regretted the most about that injury, (besides the two surgeries because the doctors were incompetent), is that it affected my mind a little . Meaning, I started thinking too much when dogs would come at me on the long bite and it took a long time for my knee to be stable enough to do escape bites. You can't really think when you catch a dog, it has to be natural. Simply put, you cannot be worried about your safety or both the dog, and you, can get hurt. I started doing shorter long bites because of that . It's not really necessary to do long bites all the time so, it is not that great of a loss there, just when you could do something and then you can't anymore it kind of bothers you a bit.


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## Vandal (Dec 22, 2000)

> and my parrot


Oh yeah, I could see how that would happen. The evil Toby parrot who sends dogs after house guests.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Vandal said:


> The thing I regretted the most about that injury, (besides the two surgeries because the doctors were incompetent), is that it affected my mind a little .
> 
> [...]
> 
> just when you could do something and then you can't anymore it kind of bothers you a bit.


I can relate to this not with dogs since I haven't been hurt like that but doing gymnastics. One of the worst and most potentially dangerous falls I ever had was doing a skill so simple I never even thought about it or had to focus while doing it. For whatever reason that day I slipped and flew off the bar with my body going like a projectile into the ground head first. Even with a mat that's not cool for your neck. Once I got over it I went through a period of second-guessing something that was always so natural. I also injured my back when I was 16 and never seriously trained vault or floor/tumbling again. OK, vault I never liked anyway but it was incredibly frustrating to not tumble and I can actually do more now after not training for years now that the injury has healed.


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## Heidifarm (Sep 20, 2006)

I have also had the leash burn on my ankles so bad my feet swelled up and I was on antibiotics for about a month. That incident was actually not from training, but from playing with the dogs with the long line on while we were on vacation. I ended up in the emergency room for that! About a day after it happened, even though I was using Neosporin, it hurt so bad I couldn't sleep!

When Heidi started bitework she had the habit of going for my leg when I would kick the sleave away. She got me good one time. Luckily it was winter and I was heavily clothed, but it still broke the skin.

I have to say though, the scars from my leash burn are still way worse than the bite. I am paranoid about the long line during protection training!


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## Ruthie (Aug 25, 2009)

So far, nothing major. Lot's of bruises up and down the left leg from standing next to Bison when he first started learning protection and was doing a lot of jumping and surging. 

Like Chris, my worst injuries have been just from living with the dogs. Bruises, fat lips, and goose eggs from him flinging his head up just as I bend over. Tripped in my big boots because he cut in front of me while walking to go potty. Hurt my knee and scrapped up both hands pretty good.

The stupidest one though was a few weeks ago. Bison likes to lay at my feet in bed and chew a bone while I read. Then when I close my book, he jumps down and lays down on his dog bed. One night he stepped right on my ankle bone. I am still limping every morning until the stiffness wears off.


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