Last night I came home after a wedding reception and went to let the dogs out of their crates.
The crates are set up 3 in a row, Piper, Sid, then Shades. So, as normal, I let Shades out first and opened Sid's door. All of a sudden there was a commotion in front of me and she started screaming. I looked down to figure out that her foot was caught in the crate wires along the front side and she was furiously attempting to pull away from the crate to free herself. In the excitement (and because of her screaming, I suspect) Shades started biting her. She was so scared she peed on the floor and someone blew their anal glands. I was quickly able to shove Shades back and get him to stop biting (thankfully he responds well to being scolded-- he went back into his crate). Then I grabbed Sid by the collar and pulled her back towards her crate, at which point her leg was freed.
All the while Piper was barking and crying at the craziness.
Sidney wouldn't put her foot down for quite a while and hid in her crate when I tried to check it out.
Thankfully later she started walking on it and today she's back to normal, not even a little swelling.
Had me shaking and my heart pumping.
I'm really glad the dogs had their collars on. This helped me usher Shades out of the quarrel and also pull Sidney back so she didn't hurt herself more.
I often wonder if it is a bad idea to keep their collars on when the go in their crates, but in this instance I'm happy I didn't. I guess fluke things can happen either way.
Poor Sidda is having it rough-- this happened just a couple days after I accidentally closed her in the basement for an hour or two.