Lunchbox Material
Spooky Had
Wondered Off And Thats When It Happened
*wandered, but that's beside the point.
This makes him unsupervised. The second anything becomes unsupervised is the second you can no longer see it. Children, puppies, kittens, whatever it is;
the second it leaves the guardian's field of vision, it is unsupervised.What did the vet say to do?
As for not looking so steady, to be honest, how would you feel if you just had an eye knocked out? He's probably having a bit of a time adjusting to the loss.
Don't hold Princess responsible. She doesn't understand the concept of responsibility for her actions. She's a DOG. Dogs don't grasp the concept of responsibility. It's a solely human concept. She'd already forgotten what exactly she'd done by the time you were done tying her up.
Understand, I am REALLY trying not to chew your and your family out over the irresponsibility shown in not properly introducing the two dogs. Partially because if I start, I'm going to have a hard time stopping. It's Princess' house, her family, her yard. Pits and related bully breed mixes are, by nature and by breeding, protective sometimes to the point of violence and are prone to aggression. That is just how they were bred to be. And some dogs just don't adjust well to new arrivals. Princess may be one of those dogs.
Shoving a puppy into the mix without letting the two adjust to each other was just asking for something like this to happen. I'm sorry to say that, but you can't just throw in a new animal with an established resident and expect everything to be okay. :/
Also understand, I'm not trying to accuse you of not loving these animals, in case that's somehow the way my post gets construed. I'm sure you love them very much, else you wouldn't be worrying over Spooky. But I hope you and your family learned that you don't throw two unacquainted dogs into the same territory and leave them alone for an instant. Especially not a grown one and a puppy. Puppies are like children; they can't be left alone for a second or else they get into trouble.
I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but when an incident could have been completely avoided... I become more than just a little bit bitchy, especially when it comes down to animals.
To soften the blow a little: Follow the vet's advice, do what you have to do in order to help the little guy heal. He will adjust to the loss. Have a little faith in him. Dogs are bloody resilient like that. But you and your folks HAVE to make sure that an infection doesn't take him first. That is his biggest enemy right now: Infection. In the meantime, research
how to introduce new dogs into an established pack. That's the nice thing about the way dogs "live in the moment". They tend to forget why they didn't like something, including the new puppy. Princess should be no different. But you and your family have to be involved every step of the way, just in case she
does happen to be a jealous girl and something starts. Learn to recognize the signs of aggression, and never panic. She will pick up on it and it will cause her to escalate.
But as you'll read in those links, do not punish her if she shows aggression. She is only following instinct, she doesn't know (yet) that showing aggression is unacceptable. Distract her, redirect her attention; show her that the puppy is not the source of bad things. Teach her that she will be rewarded for acceptable behavior around the new puppy. Bully breeds are smart; she'll get the idea.
I want you to understand something before I finish up here, because this is the reason I may seem to come off so bluntly/harshly/crudely: I have a
very low tolerance for ignorance/naivete/not-knowing that results in someone or something getting [irreparably] hurt, especially animals. It is
very easy for me to get riled when I read about situations like this, and I am a VERY passionate person when it comes to the welfare of pets. This was me holding back. And on top of that I'm trying not to seem like I'm attacking. Because I'm not and I want that known. I just want to make sure you and your folks have learned from this and that there will be no repeat incidents of this magnitude if you and your family can prevent it. And you can.
So... Yeah. Please do keep us updated. Take good care of him, and I'm sure he will bounce back.