Challenge a la Philip

Oh yeh Warning: pictures of bites with some blood and stuff are in this entry...

UPDATE: Sooo this was gonna be a combined blog on all sorts of things that have happened in the last few months...turns out this first section has gotten so big that I'm now making it one blog and will carry on with other things in the next!

I meant to have this update before the Afternoon with Buddy but I published by mistake and couldn't find how to unpublish it...oh well...

Here is were I meant to write excuses about being busy working 7 days a week, then going to Gtown to get my passport stamped (I am now allowed to stay until Jan 2011!!) and have a break, then coming back and getting super uber food poisoning and being ill for a few days, then back to 7 day a week work and then when I finally got time off a few days ago all I wanted to do was absolutely nothing...and that's why I haven't updated my blog? Weak I know....so I'll just get on with the stories and pics already!


Without a doubt the biggest and most common challenges I have here at Karanambu come from Philip. He was always a nipper from the day I arrived. At first we put it down to the fact that he was teething through his back molars and that prior to our (Ana, Stefi and myself) arrival there hadn't really been any serious consequences for his biting. Quite quickly he seemed to learn that nipping meant a flick on the nose and "NO". That was that right? Not really....it sorted him out for the most part aside from the occasional bite here and there when he decided to retest the boundaries or when he was in a hunger frenzy - before the fish and after it was all gone.

I should explain that Philip is what I would call a desperate eater. 4 meals a day, 7 days a week, 4 weeks a month, so far for 5 months (can only speak for since I've been here) he eats like someone is about to steal his fish or it is about to disappear or like he hasn't been fed in a week. Regular, individual, generally large meals have done nothing to change that...some animals are just like that I guess.

After I got back from the Kaieteur Falls trip and time in Gtown I sort of had to re-establish myself with Bel and Philip. They knew who I was, they were just a little wary. I had, after all been away for about 2.5 weeks, and they were also at the age that they started becoming more aware of their surroundings and a little more wary of many things.

I don't remember when exactly it started but Philip changed from occasional nipping to aggressive biting with me. He started lunging at my feet whenever I let him out of the pen, especially on the walk down to the river. He started lunging at my feet when the fish was all gone and he figured he hadn't had enough. He started biting without warning, without provocation, without fish being involved. So it was easy enough to explain some of the biting as being caused by food issues, other bites I feel were/are caused by a dominance issue. By that I think Philip sees me as a dominance threat on some level. He doesn't behave the same way towards Diane, who I think he sees as more of a litter mate. Other bites I cannot explain other that he is a wild animal and it is a hazard of the job. One which I respect, understand and accept.

The first really big bite from him was when I had a towel and was drying him a little. I thought it was going pretty good and that we were making headway because previously we were pretty wary of each other. Well...perhaps I invaded his space for too long, rubbed too close to his head..who knows...but for whatever reason he suddenly grabbed onto my hand, bit hard and then proceeded to pull backwards. I heard my skin pop when he bit, then rip as he pulled...I was in so much shock that I was barely able to stutter out something like "no...stop...let go". He did let go eventually, whereby I then immediately left the pen and came back to the main house to do first aid.


I look at this picture and see how little the bite looks, how shallow it looks. However the two outer most punctures on the far right and far left were actually pretty bloody deep and took a long time before the skin would seal up.

I thank the universe that on that particular day when actually ice in the freezer (a very rare occurrence out here) so I immediately got the ladies to give me some ice, wrapped it in a few tissues (all that was available that I knew was clean) and put it on my hand. Even with ice and nurofen my hand was still super swollen and bruised the next day. Having no ice would have made it much worse and generally made the whole situation suckier! By that stage was hurting and bleeding like all buggery. Once all the ice had melted I poured on some betadine, which proceeded to get washed out by more blood...oh well, piled on some gauze for absorption and padding and then wrapped my hand in vet wrap. Vet Wrap is one of the greatest inventions ever, it stretches, wraps and and sticks to itself, negating the need for bulking crepe bandages that get smelly and require a clip to hold the bandage that always falls off, like I said - great stuff!


Can you say showering, dressing, eating and functioning with one hand?

Three days later and things were starting to look a little pussy...oh greattt!

I then spent over an hour that morning soaking my hand in hot water to open and soften the wound and then pick and scrub out the puss and bad skin...it was not fun to say the least and made my already swollen hand ache like hell! But, better than getting an infection!!

In the end it took at least two weeks for the two deep punctures to actually seal up and start healing...that is a long time!


The third scar can't be seen in this picture, it's too the left, on the side of my hand. Since it was deep and wide there is still quite a bump and it's rather purple looking. 2 months later and I am now left with 3 neat little scars that are fading more with every day

After that I decided/realised that everyone treats, trains and reacts towards animals of all kinds in different ways. I needed to find a way to coexist with Philip that was best for the both of us. For me that involved and still does - giving him more space, whilst he is more than free to come to me if he wants to.


What to do to minimise the biting? Stop the biting? That'd be great. But how?
I tried negative reinforcement - a smack and a loud "NO". I tried to feed him big meals to keep him full (not always possible and very difficult once the water started rising).

I called on my uni lecturer and supervisor Dr Andrew Tribe for help who then enlisted another great vet who specialises in dog behaviour - Dr Cam Day begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting. They both went above and beyond what I could've hoped for, going out of their way to try and find a solution that would help me out. The idea was to reward periods of non-aggression so that he would eventually realise that that was the desired behaviour that would yeild food treats. Unfortunately Philip is just too food and hunger orientated and the sight of chunks of fish as treats would send him into a screaming rage - literally. With the kids, if you take too long getting them a piece of fish from the bowl they will stand up and brace themselves on your leg. With Philip if you continue to take too long he will then bite you on said leg. Unforunately that is exactly what happened...

There goes that idea! Again I am struck by how insignificant this bite looks but it sure as hell hurt a lot. He was hungry and he was mad, he bit HARD! The only reason I didn't get huge canine puncture marks in my leg was because I had sturdy long pants on. As it was he still put some nice punctures in and left a huge bruise about half the size of my hand on my leg.

All healed now but I can still feel the scar tissue lumps in my leg... *sigh* yet again this scar looks so tiny

Another choice I made was to wear shoes at all feedings. One reason was so that I could go about my duties without having to always watch Philip with one eye and watch my feet with the other (not so easy for me haha). This way I could do what I needed to do in a more relaxed and confident manner, thus hopefully allowing Philip the opportunity to relax too. He and I were always watching each other, wary of each other. So I wanted to take my feet out of the equation. Shoes did this. In some ways (not all of course) things became much easier...especially the walk down to the river. Philip still lunged at my feet when I let him out of the gate but having shoes on allowed me to give no reaction so he seemed to learn that it wasn't really worth it because "nothing" happened when he did it.


You can see the bottom of the scar is still quite red, that's because that was the start of the bite and it went deep. The last bite I've had from Philip was on my birthday...yes I know, great birthday present huh! It was down at the river, Philip was hungry, all the fish was gone and so he went into one of his screaming rages and firstly attacked my feet (thankgod for the shoes), he then ran around behind me and slashed the back of my leg quite nicely.

So over the last few months, especially through May and June I think, Philip and I definitely had some...confrontations? episodes? challenges....
One thing helped - at one stage the river dropped just a little bit, but it was enough so that for some unknown reason the fish really started biting. So I was able to start giving him a lot of fish so that helped take the food tantrums out of the equation..for the most part.
The other thing that seemed to be quite effective was the No Reaction system. Philip really seemed to lose interest in my shoes and going after them when I let him out/food was gone etc

Basically things seemed to be going really well....spoke too soon it seems. Philip suddenly returned to attacking my shoes when the fish was finished....and then he started stalking them when I was in the enclosure. By that I mean he took to lying less than a meter from my feet with that look in his eye that I know all too well (seriously I can tell when he's gonna go at it) and then he would suddenly lunge at my feet, bite my shoes and back off again. This suddenly for some reason is where the No Reaction started to fail...he didn't let go anymore...he started chewing...he has now put 2 holes through the rubber on the toe of one of my shoes, the other isn't far behind. When I'd had enough of him doing this for over 5 minutes I took the kids on a huge walk to hopefully tire them out...it worked I think...or rather it distracted Philip and got him doing something else.

So at the moment I feel like I'm back at the "What to do" square. His unpredictability worries me a great deal, especially as he is getting bigger and bigger, at an ever increasing pace. All I can do at the moment is deal with it as it comes and hope that nothing happens while I'm away!

~End of the Philip Challenge~ (well not really as it's obviously still going, but end of it on this blog at least!)