So Who Poisoned My Jamaican Dog?

Jamaican Dog by: Karrie Williams

Hi Everyone!

I’ve decided to start a monthly blog! Each month I will write one personal article about the happenings in my life. I hope you will share in by leaving your comments and telling me what you think; even if our opinions differ, I’d still like to hear them.

This is my first post, do enjoy!

SHORT LIFE OF MY JAMAICAN DOG

I am a dog lover and I have been a dog owner since I was 6 years old. Many people fear dogs, others despise them but I have always just love them.

Fast-forward to twenty something years later (And you better not try guessing my age either…smile). Now I have my own home and I own two big dogs that double up both as my best friends and security.

As my dogs are not particularly friendly, I usually keep them in their kennels for most of the day time but I release them at nights so that they can conduct their security duty; they are also trained to stay in the yard.

One bad habit though that I couldn’t quiet break from my dogs was them running behind the car following me to the gate whenever I drive out. So what I usually do is whenever I would leave the house at nights, I would keep one chained and release the other.

My belief is that they should not both be away from the immediate vicinity of my house at the same time. Even though they are in chains they also know how and when to break the chain if it ever becomes necessary. Yes I trained them on that too.

Getting back to them running behind my car…No big deal, they have done this a thousand times before; they’d run behind the car barking, and then run back to the house as the car disappears through the gate.

So why did that Tuesday night went so horribly wrong with my Jamaican Dog?

Once again, I am driving out to go get some dinner; one dog’s still chained up, the other running briskly behind the car.

We got to the gate and there goes my neighbour’s daughter. She saw the dog, panicked and then immediately started running away screaming at the top of her voice.

Of course the dog gave chase and I behind the steering wheel of a moving car could not get to the situation fast enough.

Less than 30 seconds later, we had a 10 year old child with a badly chewed up left leg.

So out goes my dinner plans and I find myself driving like crazy to the doctor’s office.

Three hours, several stitches and $11,000.00 later; I drive back home feeling sick, upset and defeated.

So what are the lessons learnt here?

From I was practically a baby my mother taught me never to run from a dog. Reasons being:

1. You cannot out run a dog!
2. You cannot out run a dog!! AND
3. YOU CANNOT OUT RUN A DOG!!!

My advice to you is whenever you are confronted by an angry dog; your first reaction should not be to run. Because unless you are extremely close to an open door and the dog is far away; or you are Usain Bolt, you cannot out run that dog!

Moreover you only make a dog angrier when you try to run away from it; a dog’s greatest thrill is in the chase.

So here is what I suggest you do when an angry dog is coming after you:

Bend down quickly and grab the closest object to your hand; throw it powerfully of the dog, your aim should be to distract it long enough so that you can try to get away from it.

Or if there is no immediate object on the ground, improvise. Use whatever you are carrying to defend yourself from the dog. No bag etc., take your shoes off and use them.

All the while that you are doing this, you should be actively backing away, trying to escape the dog. If there is a tree close by, climb it; if there is a bin…well you decide on that one.

You are also buying yourself time and hoping that someone will see the commotion and come to your assistance. Usually the dog owner will be close by to intervene.

You can even try to befriend the dog by taking softly to it (Good boy etc.); that won’t work on my dogs, but it might work on others.

So I say all this to say, I am deeply sorry for that little girl’s ordeal. No child should have to endure such a horrific attack; and while I AM NOT CONDONING what my Jamaican dog did, I also know that he would not have chased after her, had she not started running away and making all that noise to draw attention to herself.

Well, it took me a while to write about this, as I was hurting too. You see my Jamaican dog was poisoned shortly thereafter by someone throwing meat over the top of my gate.

Yes, I know, with all that training, you would think that my dogs would not be eating from the ground or from anyone except me; but I have to say…I can’t quite get them to resist food offerings, just yet.

So here I am starting over with a brand new Jamaican dog. I am doing my best to ensure that such an incident never repeats itself; because I know I wouldn’t want to be the victim of a dog attack and I do not want anyone else to be attacked by my dogs either.

However I must add that at nights I like to sit alone on my porch in the dark and just meditate…should someone try to breech my security code…well let’s just say that I have my security team right there in the dark with me.

Yea my Jamaican dog was special, now tell me what you think?...

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