This happened this past summer, but i thought i get peoples takes on it.....
Sally likes to chase and kill critters. Last summer she had about a month stretch where she killed 4 birds, a raccoon and a possum--Jack was outside with her for all of these incidents, but DH actually saw her get one of the birds and she was always the one carrying the dead stuff, so we are assuming it was her that did the deed.
When she killed the raccoon it was dark, and I was on out upper deck when she brought it too me. I had her drop it on the stairs and put her in the house to check her over for injuries. Jack was at the bottom of the stairs, but refused to come up the stairs with the raccoon body sitting there. He didn't want anything to do with it--he didn't even want to sniff it--he seemed freaked out.
We would call him and encourage him and he would wag at us but refuse to come. I felt that moving the raccoon for him might be babying him too much, so we continued to call and encourage and after a few minutes he darted by the raccoon and came to us (and got TONS of praise).
Jack is not a dog that is normally timid or skittish, and he thoroughly enjoys bringing me dead fish and frogs when we walk by the lake. He is normally a very inquisitive dog and I have seen him try to approach kitties after being clawed by them, so it's not like small furries freak him out in general...
So I have to wonder, why was he so freaked by the raccoon? My two theories are: that he either saw the raccoon as a high value item that belonged to Sally, and so stayed away from it even when she was not there. I have seen him avoid things that she has "claimed" before, but not like this. Plus, if she is "claiming" something there is usually some verbalization on her part, and I was outside and didn't hear anything.
or
He saw the chase/attack/scuffle/kill and was perhaps bothered by it? He does not have what I would call much of a prey drive. he does not "kill" soft toys--he just carries them around, he could care less about chasing the laser pointer dot, can be called off critters pretty easily, the most violent thing he has done to small critters is lick them too hard, etc. He does like to "chase" things that you throw, but only to grab them and bring them back. Perhaps what he saw just bothered and confused him, and the result was dead raccoon fear? I mean, he did not seem to fear Sally afterward at all....
Sally likes to chase and kill critters. Last summer she had about a month stretch where she killed 4 birds, a raccoon and a possum--Jack was outside with her for all of these incidents, but DH actually saw her get one of the birds and she was always the one carrying the dead stuff, so we are assuming it was her that did the deed.
When she killed the raccoon it was dark, and I was on out upper deck when she brought it too me. I had her drop it on the stairs and put her in the house to check her over for injuries. Jack was at the bottom of the stairs, but refused to come up the stairs with the raccoon body sitting there. He didn't want anything to do with it--he didn't even want to sniff it--he seemed freaked out.
We would call him and encourage him and he would wag at us but refuse to come. I felt that moving the raccoon for him might be babying him too much, so we continued to call and encourage and after a few minutes he darted by the raccoon and came to us (and got TONS of praise).
Jack is not a dog that is normally timid or skittish, and he thoroughly enjoys bringing me dead fish and frogs when we walk by the lake. He is normally a very inquisitive dog and I have seen him try to approach kitties after being clawed by them, so it's not like small furries freak him out in general...
So I have to wonder, why was he so freaked by the raccoon? My two theories are: that he either saw the raccoon as a high value item that belonged to Sally, and so stayed away from it even when she was not there. I have seen him avoid things that she has "claimed" before, but not like this. Plus, if she is "claiming" something there is usually some verbalization on her part, and I was outside and didn't hear anything.
or
He saw the chase/attack/scuffle/kill and was perhaps bothered by it? He does not have what I would call much of a prey drive. he does not "kill" soft toys--he just carries them around, he could care less about chasing the laser pointer dot, can be called off critters pretty easily, the most violent thing he has done to small critters is lick them too hard, etc. He does like to "chase" things that you throw, but only to grab them and bring them back. Perhaps what he saw just bothered and confused him, and the result was dead raccoon fear? I mean, he did not seem to fear Sally afterward at all....
