Diamond State German Shepherd Cl

Diamond State German Shepherd Club

Feature Stories

TENNIS BALLS ARE NOT SAFE FOR BIG DOGS

By DeTroy Kistner

Please Read this if you have a Ball-crazy German Shepherd, Golden Retriever or Labrador.

While I was talking on the phone Sailor my I 0- month- old German Shepherd brought me his ball for a game of indoor catch. It was a hard rubber ball about tennis ball size. It had little raised dots of rubber.

I was quite sure it was too large for there to be any danger of him swallowing it. I would toss it to him and he'd catch it on the fly. We must have done it thirty times when suddenly I looked at Sailor and saw that he was in great distress. I knew instantly that he must have gotten the ball stuck in his throat on the last toss. His head was down and he was trying to get it out but was unable to do so. I dropped the phone not even taking one second to explain to the caller what was happening.

I grabbed my dog and he wriggled free struggling to get air and free himself of the object lodged in his throat. I was wrestling him in his own fight for survival.

Three times I grabbed him and three times he got away from me. Finally I got him and pried open his mouth. Trying to get the ball out with my fingers only seemed to cause it to slide further down in his throat. The poor animal was struggling to be free of me and to get air into his lungs again. The ball was now in his throat beyond reach, like an enormous Adam's apple. He had locked his teeth and was trying to swallow it. And of course he could not. By this time I am as desperate and frantic as he is. I live on the fifteenth floor of a pre-war building in

mid- Manhattan. There is no vet in the building and none of my neighbors are at home. I know that by the time the elevator operator puts down his newspaper and saunters into the elevator and brings the old machine up

15 stories my beloved young dog will be near death. And then to go down again and try to find a cab that would take me and the dog to a vet or the Animal Medical Center... well, no creature on earth could go for that length of time without air and make it. Never have I felt more alone and scared then I did at that moment. I knew that if couldn't figure out how to save him and do it quickly he was going to die. I grabbed onto him again, straddling him. I put my hand below the hall on the outside of his neck and gently worked the ball up his throat the way you would work a ball through a tube or out of the toe of a sock. It came up part way, but then Sailor reeled away again in his panic and struggle. I grabbed him again and threw him on the couch, again half straddling him to try and hold him. His teeth were clamped down, I seemed to need at least four hands and I only had two. I remember telling God I needed his help RIGHT NOW! I knew that time was running out and the thought of my beautiful young dog dying in my arms while I am powerless to help him gave me a feeling of despair I'd never known before. Again I tried to work the ball up his throat from the outside by squeezing it gently from beneath. Slowly but surely it rose up his throat. I pried his teeth open with my fingers and finally, holding his head against me and keeping one hand under the ball, I was able to reach into his mouth and grab the ball from the back of his throat and pull it out.

We sat there for a long time. He kept swallowing and was very quiet.

Young as he was he seemed to know how close to death he had come. There was a fair amount of blood on my fingers and I wasn't sure whether it had come from his throat. I thought that perhaps his throat was torn so I took him to the vet immediately. The vet checked him out and found him to be okay, but gave him some antibiotics just in case. He told me that I had saved my dog's life. Most people, he said, try to get help and the dog dies on the way. They just can't get to help fast enough to save their dog. Usually, he said, when I see them they are already dead. I see a lot of golden retrievers with tennis balls that have died on the way.

Most of the blood had, I found out later, come from my own fingers that had taken a bit of a beating prying open those clamped sharp baby molars. My fingers were sore for days, but who cared I had my dog and he was alive! I started to warn other owners of big ball-happy dogs in Central Park. Some would respond with, "But he's never swallowed it before." Yes, well the first time could be the LAST time. It only takes one time for your dog to die. He may have caught it for years and then one day he catches it on the fly and it gets beyond his tongue and you can lose your dog.

Three weeks later a friend's German shepherd got a tennis ball caught in his throat. The dog is seven years old and has been retrieving tennis balls for years. It happened in Central Park and the NYPD happened to be close by and threw the dog in the patrol car and raced (sometimes literally over the sidewalk) to get it to the Animal Medical Center. The dog was blue and almost gone when they pulled up at the Animal Medical Center. "What did they do?" I asked, expecting to hear about quick major surgery. "Oh, they just worked it up his throat from the outside and it popped right out!" said his owner. So why doesn't anyone tell owners about this? Everyone thinks that a tennis bail is safe. TENNIS BALLS ARE NOT SAFE FOR BIG DOGS.

I have heard that the Heimlich maneuver can be used to expel something lodged in a dog's throat. I don't know whether it was a method that might have worked. It is probably good to know as well. But I do know that a major animal hospital used the same method of working it up from the outside that I described. I think big dog owners should know this.

Obviously one doesn't take animal medicine into one's own hands when there is a vet at one's elbow. But when your dog is for sure going to die if YOU don't DO something then it is good to know something you can

do.- Last week I heard that another Central Park dog died the same way.

His owner tried to get the dog from the park into a cab and to a vet and he didn't make it.

That's why I wanted to share this, because many people are so panicked that they don't think to even try to work the ball up from the outside.

I thought perhaps this might save a dog's life. Now all Sailor's balls are rope balls. They are tennis ball sized but there is a rope attached.

One mail order company even sells ones that float. And the rope enables me to throw them further and Sailor gets a longer run.

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This is one article that is about life and can always be reprinted "without the permission of the author"!! Reprints should include the author's name and that "reprinting is courtesy of the DSGSDC" at http://www.DSGSDC.org I hope this alerts many to the hazards smalls objects can cause. Other such things as rawhide chewies and hooves have caused similar problems.

I'm glad my friend DeTroy & Sailor survived this ordeal but my friend Jo lost her dog Taco in her arms.

Georgia

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K9 Officer chokes on a ball

Ludington Daily News

Posted: 4-16-2007

Farewell to a best friend: Ceremony honors memory of Lake County sheriffs K-9 officer, Diesel

JOE BOOMGAARD - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

BALDWIN " The Lake County Sheriffs Office on Saturday laid to rest a well-liked officer who died in the line of duty during a tragic training accident.

Deputies and police officers with black-banded badges came from as far away as Detroit to honor Diesel, Lake County's K-9 officer who died March 28.

Other K-9 officers from around the state stood at attention for an officer's funeral for their fellow four-legged deputy, a funeral complete with a 21-gun salute from the Lake County Honor Guard. Diesel died when he choked on a ball that was given to him as a reward for performing a training maneuver. Deputies attempted CPR, but were unable to revive him.

The sheriff's office was able to purchase Diesel in 2005 after the community helped raise money.

"You have all kinds of thoughts going through your mind when it happens, and all I can do now is remember the good times we had and move on", said Chief Deputy Dennis Robinson, Diesel's handler. "You can't bring him back. He was one of a kind. He was special. Guys go through a lot of dogs and every once in a while you get one that was special, and he was truly special. He loved to work and he'd work 24/7 if you let him".

Robinson was presented with an encased U.S. flag in honor of Diesel by the Lake County VFW post during the ceremony. Diesel had served as a building-sweeping dog in Iraq before coming to Lake County. Lake County Sheriff Bob Hilts said "having a canine officer, which police write as K-9, on his department is needed given the nature of law enforcement in the small, rural community". "Dogs are essential to help find people to protect the officers", Hilts said. "They're invaluable to us up here. We have 10 people on the road; Diesel made 11". Robinson said "Diesel had a special personality and a desire to learn".

"He was exceptional. He picked up on everything we taught him, and he loved to work so much that he'd do anything to please, Robinson said.

"To find a dog like that is like one in a thousand. And he was social, too. I couldn't go anywhere in town, you know, the hardware store or gas station without somebody coming up saying, Open the door. I want to see Diesel.

People want to get him out and play with him. And he could do that. He could be nice and social and play with kids and the next minute go bite somebody". "The support he's received since the accident and the loss of his partner has been overwhelming", Robinson said.

"Our community is just awesome. You couldn't ask for more support from my sheriff and my community", Robinson said. "It's a small town, but I tell you, when you need something, there are people always there for you". Hilts, who had tears in his eyes as he memorialized Diesel at the funeral service, fondly remembered how seeing the dog brightened his day at work.

"I will never forget him", Hilts said. "While his time with us was short, he will always be remembered.

He had such a personality".

Quoting Will Rogers, Hilts said,"If there are no dogs in heaven, when I die, I want to go where they are."

About 100 community members and law enforcement officers filed into the Baldwin elementary school gym to pay their respects to Diesel. Dave Hojnacki and his daughter, Natalie, traveled from Luther for the service.

Hojnacki, a former police officer from downstate, said "a K-9 saved his life when he and his fellow police officers were surrounded by a mob of hundreds of people near Monroe". Neither he or his daughter had ever met Diesel, but he said "he wanted to show his appreciation for Diesel" and by extension, the K-9 who helped him years ago. "That dog saved my life", said a visibly emotional Hojnacki. I'll never forget that. I don't know what would have happened if it hadn't have been for that dog.

I'll never forget the site of that boy". Hojnacki told Robinson that a dog was the best partner you could ever have.

Deputy Mark Ketz from the Benzie County Sheriff's Office traveled with his partner, K-9 officer Ena, for Diesel's officer funeral. Ketz and Ena had trained with Robinson and Diesel in the past. "I've been to two police officer funerals, but never one for a dog", said Ketz.

Ketz was joined by dog handlers from the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Department of Public Safety; Kalamazoo, Lapeer, Wyoming and Sterling Heights police departments; and the Mason and Montcalm County sheriff's offices. Other officers were from the Department of Natural Resources and the Detroit Police Department. The Lake County Sheriff's Office has started looking for another K-9 officer and is currently testing a dog, according to Robinson. "We picked up one a week ago that we're doing some testing on now. He looks like he's going to work out, but we'll know in another week", he said.

Date published: 4-16-2007