Harlequin's "Bellybutton/Turtleneck"

Harley likes to dominate things because he is a bossy sort, and so got himself in trouble of the penile variety. And by that, I mean he hurt his penis.

This was two nights ago. I haven't been able to write about it because we were both traumatized. He was traumatized physically and I was traumatized psychologically.

When I first brought Harlequin home, he thought he was the boss-face of our living arrangements, so I had to put him in his place pretty quickly, and he didn't like that one bit. He used to fight me all the time, growling, biting, the whole nine yards, and he meant business, but so did I. He was very headstrong and stubborn, and if he was a big dog, it would have been much more difficult to train him. I'm glad he is only 7lbs - that was difficult enough.

When he was about 3lbs, I gave him a Cookie Monster teddy bear to play with so he could take out his aggression on Cookie. At the time, he wasn't even the size of Cookie's head but he dominated Cookie like there was no tomorrow, and there wasn't a thing Cookie could do about it. Cookie didn't fight back, and Harley made sure Cookie knew who was Boss of their living situation.

So the hierarchy was set in our household: I was alpha (although Harley continued to try to be alpha for a long time), Harley was next, and Cookie was always on the floor. Cookie was always walked on by Harley; he didn't walk by Cookie without somehow biting him or the like. And by 'the like' I mean Harley loved Cookie, A LOT. It was a bit embarrassing to leave Harley with a sitter because Harley would fall asleep in Cookie's arms, if you understand me here.

After I had Harley neutered, the behaviour ceased quite a bit. But, if I am out of the house for long periods of time, Harley thinks that the house is his territory, and when I return and reclaim the alpha spot, he needs to reestablish some sort of dominance for himself, and so off he goes to visit Cookie.

So this he did just a couple of nights ago.

And then couldn't walk immediately afterward, and started to cry.

I was sick with worry, as I thought he might have broken his knees when he was running and playing, but after I looked at him, I noticed a part of his anatomy was missing.

The missing piece of anatomy was the penile sheath. For those of you who do not understand what I am talking about, look it up on the internet. It's apparently a normal thing, although I have never seen that before.

My dog is a savage.

So I was worried sick, and called the vet emergency line. I explained that he was crying and couldn't walk, and what he had done to get that way. She asked me to describe what it looked like.

Well, at that point, the poor dog's penis looked like a cross between a bellybutton and a turtleneck. Isn't that terrible? All I could do was laugh, despite the seriousness of the situation. What is wrong with my dog?

She said if it didn't fix itself within an hour, I could bring him in and she could fix it, or I could try to fix it myself. Um, not likely. She could deal with savage Harley's bellybutton turtleneck.

She told me to feed him treats so he wouldn't lick himself and make the area inflamed. That was kind of funny because he looked like a female dog at that point - there was no real 'area' to inflame.

It took about another 30 minutes or so for him to calm down and things to return to normal. All in all, it was about an hour. His poor little area was bloodshot, but it is ok today.

If it happens again, the vet said we may have to look at surgical repair work so it doesn't continue on a regular basis. Is my dog some kind of sexual predator on himself?

And no, I didn't take pictures. The poor animal deserves some shred of dignity.