Vancouver dog owner devastated after her corgi was attacked by another dog

A dog owner says she is devastated after her corgi was sent to the hospital after allegedly being attacked by another dog.

Tanya Kinach says a dog who was not on a leash attacked her pooch, one-year-old Finn, while her husband and daughter were out for a walk in Yaletown Friday.

“He was in shock, there was a lot of blood coming from his shoulder,” she said. “My daughter was holding him, so we took him to the Burrard Animal Hospital.”

Kinach says she heard the attack from her tenth floor apartment.

“I heard a dog fight, I heard a dog screaming,” she said. “It was going on for almost a minute, and I went to the window and I looked and there were about 15 people standing watching the situation.

“My husband said the dog came from out of nowhere and bit Finn, so his reaction was to pull him up.”

But the dog continued attacking and wouldn’t stop, she said.

“The dog kept jumping up and grabbing his arm so luckily he didn’t get a hold of his neck or anywhere on his body.”

Kinach says the attack has left Finn with a massive puncture on his front left leg and other bites on his hind legs. He lost a lot of blood, she says, and he ended up staying overnight at the animal hospital, racking up a $1,700 vet bill.

She says she wants what happened to her pup to serve as a cautionary tale to all dog owners to keep their pets on a leash to make sure they have full control.

Alice Fisher from DOGSmart Training says it’s the owner’s responsibility to ensure their dogs have good manners and are fully trained, especially dogs that are bred to guard.

“You need to keep training your dog every day to learn to ‘drop it’ — and to leave it,” said Fisher, who has been training dogs since 1990.

“I have lots of pitbull clients, and none of them are aggressive because they have been going to class since they were 11, 12 weeks old.”

She says if you’re ever caught in a situation where you need to stop a dog from attacking, there are several methods to use.

“At various shelters, they often go in and pick up the hind legs like a wheelbarrow, and that makes the dog back up and look behind him,” she said. “That’s not a solution for everything, but it is a method.”

Kinach says in Finn’s case, it was very hard to get the other dog off of him.

“My husband is 6’2″ and 200 pounds,” she said. “He’s a big guy, and he and the other owner couldn’t get any control. If you have a dog on a leash, you can pull the dog back.”

According to the City of Vancouver, pet owners are required to keep their dogs under control at all times. Owners cannot allow dogs to run free on the street or in any public place other than one of the 36 dog off-leash areas in the city. Owners are encouraged to make a report online if their dog has been involved in an attack.

“I really don’t want anything else to happen to other other dogs or small children,” Kinach said. “It is very important that we all take responsibility for our animals.”

She says she has reported the incident to the city’s animal control unit.

Fortunately, Kinach says, Finn is still able to walk after the attack.