Hurt..It's more painful to be hurt by someone closer to ur heart :'(

After gou-gie's walk last sat evening, upon reaching home, as usual..

"gou-gie sit. " Gou-gie will always obediently put his polka-dotted buttocks on the floor on the command. "good boy, gou-gie!" The usual, nothing exceptionally exciting, he'll have to sit first before i'll take his leash off.

After that, I'll walk to the entrance of kitchen. "gou-gie, come here.."
No gou-gies allowed in the kitchen, so i'll always carry him from the entrance of kitchen into the toilet to wash his gou-gie paws. As normal..nothing different from the usual.

As i held him in my arms, as usual, sorta gou-gie-talked him.. "hmm..guess who's back, back again? salty's back, tell a friend.." (gou-gie's ears always smells saltier by the day since his last bath). As i sang that, i playfully bit his gou-gie paws... ... The incident that followed was totally beyond my imagination.

It happened so quicky that i seemed to have lose track of that few seconds in time. I analysed myself in the mirror (in the toilet) 10 secs later (with gou-gie still in my arms), my eyelid was swelling and slightly bloody. There was pain too...

My gou-gie had bitten me.

Upon a couple of play-backs in my mind, i figured that this happened:
I bit gou-gie on the paw, i heard a snarl, next, i saw a flash of gie-gie's white teeth, the next sensation felt was that of his sharp teeth sinking onto my eyelid forcefully...

I was overwhelmed by anger by the next hour or so. The residue of that was, the tears and hurt.

My gou-gie had bitten me.

It's not as though i've never been bitten before by gou-gie before. But the bites in the past, were the play-bites, when his was teething, when his was playful. Harm was never intended. This time, it's different, nothing usual bout this.

My bro was home when it happened, I saw concern written all over his goofy face. I thought it was pretty sweet of him.

I left my 2 sistas a msg saying that i got bitten by a dog.

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Chippy called to ask me bout it (so what? get an animal psychiatrist to counsel gou-gie?).

A couple of days later, chippy came back with the homework that she did, and told us that gou-gie may be displaying classic symptoms of dominace aggression (when he thinks that a particular person is lower than him in status in the family, he may display aggressive behaviour towards that person). She sent me n pig pig the links of webbies tt she found.

woah.. i.. even bringing up a gou-gie can be so tedious k. The Dr mentioned in the web that very often, people get bitten by dogs, 2 out of 3 times, it is by their own gou-gie. He also mentioned that allowing gou-gie to sleep on the bed with us is a kind of luxury for gou-gie, that may allow gou-gie to forget his place at home. There's also things to observe in the non-verbal communication aspect okay.. things like stuck out chest, eye-contact, are signs of challenging your authority (and it means, NO GOOD..). He also discourages people to play tug of war with their gou-gies. cos such games are clearly activities that makes the gou-gie challenge your authority. His recommendation if you do want to play tug-of-war is, make sure you always end up having the toy--> show the gou-gie who's the boss around here. According to him, gou-gies are happier when they are not in charge. how true? I have my qualms bout that. It is a conflicting world man.. There is even power struggle between you and your gou-gie.

Anyway, it was recommended that the people whom gou-gie thinks he dominate over should have more contact with him, i.e., feed him, walk him, etc. firstly, it allows him to realise, even if the member of family is the lowest in status at home, he/she is still higher than him. secondly, a gou-gie will not dominate a person he has to depend on. Signs of submission: tail btw legs, "down" ears, avoidance of eye contact.

Well, so far so good.. Think we're doing quite well. Chippy says we'll have gou-gie's balls "amputated" as she calls it. not sure if it'll help with his aggressive and dominating behaviour, but jus try lor.