For Candice Lys, a weekend walk with her dog Maple turned into a very scary situation.
Lys and Maple were charged and attacked by two larger dogs that managed to break free from their owner on 50A Avenue on Sunday evening.
“I was out walking my dog on a leash in our neighborhood, just on the sidewalk,” said Lys. “I could see somebody turn the corner to come onto the street ahead of us. They were walking two pretty big dogs and they were about 100 feet away. The dogs started growling and getting really angry and I could see the person who was walking them tried to pull them out onto the street to go around us and around some cars that were there.
“While they were doing that, the dogs were pulling on their leashes a lot and then she yelled out, ‘I can’t hang on to these dogs,’ and let go of their leashes and they charged us and attacked my dog.”
Maple suffered bite marks during the altercation.
“My dog, I think she knew that she wouldn’t be able to fight back, so she turned her back to the dogs and they bit her backside instead of her neck,” said Lys. “So I think that was really helpful in her not getting too hurt.
“So the dogs were biting her backside and I was kicking them and then screaming, eventually (managing) to kind of kick them off. They ran up the street behind us and then I made the decision for us to book it home because I was a bit worried that they were going to come back because they were still running around dragging their leashes.”
Initially, Lys was “quite angry” about the situation and at the individual responsible for the two larger dogs. However, the other party came forward and apologized profusely and will be paying for the vet bill.
“I had the feeling that perhaps it was like a dogsitter or somebody who was out walking the dogs, because it just seemed so unusual that somebody would take these big dogs out knowing that they were that strong,” she said. “So it was really bothering me that I didn’t know who the person was and that’s why I decided to make the Facebook post. Because I think it’s really important for people to recognize how serious it can be if they’re out with dogs who they can’t control.
“They saw when I made the Facebook post, and a few hours later, a person reached out to me and apologized for it, which has been really helpful for me because it kind of gives me a bit of closure on the incident and it helps me to know that it really does seem like this incident was just a mistake.”
After everything that occurred, Lys feels that the individual has learned a lot from the incident and is confident that they won’t make the same mistake again.
“I appreciated that they apologized several times and that they really seemed sorry about it,” she said. “It kind of restores my faith in humanity a bit and that they paid for Maple’s vet bill.”
Through all of this, Lys hopes to raise awareness regarding the importance of people being responsible while walking their pets.
“It’s really important for people to have control over their dogs because we got really lucky in this incident,” she said. “I was kicking them but they also made the decision to let go of my dog and to run away. If they hadn’t, and they had kept attacking her, because of the size of the dogs and how vicious they were being, I don’t know that we would have been able to get them off her without this ending much more badly than it did. So I think it’s really important for people to be aware of their responsibility to always have control over their dogs.”