Unnecessary new experience

[fivemack]

Got bitten by a dog today. Trivially - a nip on the lower leg, tore my sock and drew blood but no puncture wound; I went to a doctor just in case, but was sent away immediately after she checked I'd been given a tetanus jab less than four years ago.

There were four of us, on a nice walk round Belas Knapp and Cleeve Hill, and we had just come down past the nice large (if scarcely stately) house at Postlip Hall, going back to the car park by Corndean Hall. Walking along a track (a public footpath, marked on the map) past a farm; two sheepdogs, one standing in the road, one basking in the sun by the side. They came towards us barking; we carried on, as ramblers do, and one of the sheepdogs bit my ankle.

The owners were around, and very apologetic; I assume we came across to the dog as a group of unusually large sheep with unusually few legs, to be moved on by nipping at the heels of the hindmost. Not quite sure what the right thing to have done would have been; I'm not a great fan of farm dogs, but mostly I just carry on past them; sometimes they jump up, but none had bitten me before today.

I think I'd have had to have been more clearly careless to justify myself feeling guilty for having been bitten; after all, I am English, and began talking to the farmer with 'I'm very sorry, but one of your dogs has just bitten me'.

If it swells or reddens I'll head briskly to the doctor again; anything else I should watch out for? Any idea how to stop this happening again?

Comments

[antinomy.livejournal.com]

Hmm, with sheepdogs there's probably not much you can do to avoid that sort of thing happening. The good news is that dog bites are rarely serious, and mostly are crush injuries that cause bruising and soreness. If it reddens, swells, and gets really hot, then it's probably infected and needs a course of antibiotics, but it probably won't if you keep it nice and clean and wiped down with TCP or something similar for a few days.

In general when it comes to avoiding run-ins with dogs, I think a lot has to do with attitude and body language, but you should never feel like you shouldn't talk to dogs that approach you - shepdogs are beautifully trained on the whole, to go with their hearding instinct, and should respond favourably to commands like 'no' and 'down'.

Hope your leg gets well soon!