What It Means to Be a Dog’s Best Friend

By Chris Kellett (originally published in the March 2007 edition of The Mount Baker View)

We live in a beautiful neighborhood with a wonderful park system that many people enjoy along with their dogs. But responsible dog ownership requires us to choose our canine friends carefully, to spend time on their training and to keep them leashed when walking in public areas other than an official off-leash park. I understand the pleasure dog lovers experience watching their dogs engaged in off-leash play or running free, and it is tempting to consider our pets perfect and fault-free, but the fact is, even the best-behaved dog can become unpredictable when placed in the right circumstances. People who think they can completely control their dog may not be able to in every instance; within seconds, the results can be tragic, ending in the death of a beloved pet who has been hit by a car or involved in a serious dog fight or attack.

We recently had our on-leash dog attacked and nearly killed by an off-leash dog in Mt. Baker. My husband, along with three other people, could not restrain the attacking dog until it had done serious damage. With jaws clamped onto our dog’s neck and shoulder, the attacking dog attempted to snap his neck by shaking him. While my husband was able to hold our dog firmly enough so that his neck was not broken, our dog lost a great deal of blood to a deep puncture wound. Deep bruising was sustained by both my dog and my husband when the only way he could think to stop the attacking dog was to straddle it and force it and himself to the ground. The attacking dog’s owner was bitten two times in the scuffle and my husband was covered in blood and feces by the time the attack was over. It took almost two hours of slow sedation to get our dog to a point where he could even be fully examined by the veterinarian; he was in so much pain. After finally getting him onto an operating table, and setting the dog up with an IV drop, our vet gently turned to my husband and said that while it appeared he had saved our dog’s life, he could easily have been killed himself.

The cost of this attack was expensive, both emotionally (for everyone concerned) and financially for the attacking dog’s owner. The vet bills came to over $1,000 and the citation from the city cost just over $400. This was not a freak incident, something that almost never happens. Three of our neighbors have experienced attacks on their dogs in the last few years and all of them required medical treatment.