'Complete turmoil': Saskatoon man warning pet owners after dog attack

A Saskatoon man is warning pet owners after his dog was attacked at a popular park.

Barry Coakwell was out on Monday with his son’s dog Lambeau, a two-and-a-half-year-old Labrador he spends time with every day while his son is at work.

Coakwell and Lambeau were at the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation area on the southwest edge of Saskatoon at 11 a.m. Monday when he says another dog ran up to Lambeau and bit part of his ear off.

“All I heard was the squealing,” Coakwell said. “His ear is half gone and the blood is just pouring out.”

When he turned around he saw the dog’s owner standing there. He says she calmly leashed her dog and walked away without offering an apology or explanation.

In the moments after the attack, Coakwell said he was rushing to wrap Lambeau’s ear to stop the bleeding and get him into the city to go see a veterinarian.

“Turmoil. It was complete turmoil. I mean, that’s my buddy, right?” he said.

“The bleeding, the whining all the way back — a mile back to the car. It's just unacceptable. Why do I have to go through it? Why does Lambeau have to go through it?”

Unable to stitch Lambeau’s right ear, the vet cauterized it instead for $500 and told Coakwell he wouldn’t be allowed near other dogs or to go swimming for the next two weeks.

More than anything Coakwell was taken back by the other dog owner’s calm demeanour, especially since he believes he already had a run-in with her in February. That time, Coakwell lunged between the two dogs and was unable to separate them.

After posting about Lambeau’s attack on Facebook, other dog owners shared similar stories of dog’s matching the same description as Lambeau’s attacker.

Coakwell says he will take a walking stick with him to help protect Lambeau when he’s allowed to roam free again. In the meantime, he said the whole family was shaken up by the ordeal. His wife is scared to go back to the park.

“She’s asking, ‘Should I take some bear mace or bear spray?’ Because she would be in trauma if that would have happened to her,” he said.