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4 thoughts on “The Red Notebook - A Fictional Memoir About Unresolved Trauma After a Dog Attack Based Upon a 1980s Incident

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  1. I liked your story. Back in the 1980s I was.a teenager and I owned a big dog that jumped on a man who came to our house while we were gone. He tried to leave some tools he borrowed in the house. We didn’t lock the doors back then. My dog who was part husky and shepherd knocked him down and then stood on his chest and wouldn’t allow him to move. The dog would growl & bare his teeth but he didn’t bite him. I didn’t think he developed PTSD from his experience but he didn’t come back and open the door when no one answered it. He was aware that the dog was in the house alone but he didn’t think the dog would do anything when he let him out. He just wrongly assumed that since he knew my dog and he was always friendly and let everyone pet him that he would be friendly and not react aggressively towards him when he was in the house and we weren’t there. I don’t think the man ever opened the door and tried to go inside anymore houses where he could hear a dog barking at him again. We were just happy that the dog didn’t bite him and he wasn’t hurt. I actually never considered that he might have lasting psychological distress from having a dog that weighed more than 100 pounds standing on his chest bearing his teeth and growling at him for close to an hour. I’m sure it must have been scary as hell to be in that situation. Of course the difference was that the man opened the door and let the dog out because he was under the impression that “the dog liked him” since he didn’t act aggressive towards anyone. No one ever opened the door when the dog was alone inside before . I suppose the guy was at least more cautious about trying to enter other people’s homes no matter how friendly a dog acted with the owner present. If he had PTSD from his experience he didn’t share it with me but he was definitely more cautious with my dog after that and he’d tell him he was “one big scary bastard”

    • Wow! That is similar! Thank you for sharing. One area I did not emphasize in the post is that Monster did not bite her. Neither did your dog. This is vastly different behavior than what we normally write about. Dogs in both accounts had strong bite inhibition. In the case of Monster, the owner was also at home at the time. So, the owner was able to call off the dog quickly. What if the motorcycle man had not been home at the time? Possibly something similar?

      “standing on his chest bearing his teeth and growling at him for close to an hour”

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