Some downtime, and getting back in the game

Her entire neck is bandaged up. :(

Lotte and I have had some downtime the past week and a half. We were just gearing up a couple of weeks ago to start a couch-to-5k program together, and on what should have been our second night of running, we were attacked by a pit bull as we were walking down the street. Yes, walking - we were still within the 5 minute "walk to warm up" period, and yes, it was actually a pit - I know how to identify breeds. The other dog blindsided us. It slipped under a fence and came running from the yards on our side. By the time I saw it coming, out of my peripheral vision, it was practically on top of us. I tried to get Lotte behind me first, and shoo the dog away, like I do with any other dog (like the annoying chihuahua that runs around barking at everything that moves). 

It wasn't coming at me, it was coming at Lotte, and that fast, it got her by the neck. I hit the ground and grabbed the dog - put it into a choke hold - to keep it from shaking her, and to get it to let go. Somehow, I managed to get Lotte in my arms, and a guy coming down the street stopped to help us. All told, we weren't hurt too badly (thank God!). I got bit (minor - only because I got in the way of the teeth protecting Lotte), and Lotte has stitches in her neck. Fortunately, she had her thick leather collar on, and if the teethmarks in it are any indication, it protected her neck from more serious damage. 

So, we've had a bit of downtime. Lotte's been checked, rechecked, and OK'd to go back to agility class (I thought we might have to drop the rest of this session), so we're just going to get back into the game and move on with ourselves. 

Lotte's ready to dive head-first back into the game. 

She was testing out our new tunnel. It's just a cheapy practice tunnel I snagged off Amazon. Certainly not great quality, but it does what it's supposed to, and for a 12 lb dog, I'm pretty sure it'll hold up just fine. Lotte was so excited to run through it that she didn't even wait for me to finish setting it up (it has to be staked into the ground). When I was about halfway down my set up, Lotte ran through, and pushed her way through the collapsed end like it was a chute. 

Now, I just need to work on getting her to run all the way through the tunnel and out. She likes to stop right at the end, and just watch me keep running past her. Guess that means we'll be doing some target practice later!