Secondary Trauma and Social Work Safety

[waddlyman]

I was cutting through the big fields near my house this evening to get home. Well, I was about to anyway. I stopped before the grass and rolled up my pant legs to avoid them getting wet in the grass. I saw a dog some 20 ft from me without a leash or owner. It looked at me too and I thought to myself: "Be cool man be cool and he'll do nothing". So I began to move like I normally do and suddenly I feel a bump on my calves. The dog was jumping up and down at me. It was sort of friendly but it also used its teeth. I started making soothing sounds and tried to keep walking away but it kept circling and jumping at me. I was also afraid that it was abandoned and I thought of how I could help it. It started using a lot of his teeth at this point so I had to distract it with my umbrella...it started play biting that but it also liked my right arm -.- Fortunately, the owner was somewhere and whistling and after about 5 mins. of the guy whistling (I could not see the owner or else id have walked toward him) the dog finally ran a huge circle around the field and returned to the owner.

All that time, in my head I was thinking: Okay how do I social work my way out of this one. I was thinking of how I would deal with potentially violent clients. Then I realized, "Dude this is a dog."