When on a stroll with my toddler around the neighborhood I always fear that an off-leash dog will approach and is not friendly. I’ve had off-leash dogs approach us on walks and both dogs were friendly. Phew!

Then I see this video! cat saves boy

and I think.. that’s one of my biggest fears. And I think thats because I know better, I’m not ignorant to what dogs are capable of doing, I’ve seen it and I’ve established behavior protocols for them…

First: You don’t need a lick of behavior knowledge to know that this dog is not nice and it was a terrible situation. Three cheers for the kitty cat.

What I see in this video that makes my spine shiver, specifically:

1) the dog isn’t barking – because barking alerts your target to your presence, check out the topline of this dog, its totally flat. the dog knows exactly what he/she is doing.Cat Saves Boy - stalk

2) the dog goes to the front of the kid, he could have just grabbed him from behind.. but instead he orients around to the front… Creep-ola.

Cat saves kid - frontal 1Cat saves boy - frontal

3) the bite is a grab, hold, shake and take down – there is one reason to hold and pull your target to the floor, I shudder to think of the outcome

cat saves dog - take down

4) no dog wakes up one morning and does this – someone knew what this dog was capable of and didn’t do enough. It appears this was a neighbors dog.

As my trainer colleague, Mandy, said “Gnarly.”

No question! I’l follow this up with what you can do  or can’t do during a dog attack. I often get asked what do I do when an off-leash dog approaches? I’ll answer that next…