How a dog attack changed my life

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Our dog was attacked by another dog a couple years ago and it completely changed my life. Unfortunately, this video is sensitive and I want to warn you of that. Hi, welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, my name is Hang and we have a dog named Chapa and three cats named Bele, Nami, and Ping.

[00:00:16]Some of you already know this, but a couple years ago, Choa was attacked while we were on our regular day routine walk. I won't get into the specifics of the story because there's already a video on this, but long story short, we were on our walk and there was another dog up ahead of us on the street. He turned around, saw us, and came running after. Unfortunately, the owner wasn't able to control her dog and she had like a retractable leash. So, um she just didn't have a good grip on it and it it ended up flying out of her hand. So, this was just a big loose dog that came after us and it got a hold of Chopper when he was just a puppy. Oh my gosh.

[00:00:50]And I'm I'm tearing up because this I remember it just like yesterday. Um the long story short, it was the scariest experience of my life. I thought it was my last day with Chopper. Truly a life ordeath experience and I still get some questions from people today. So I wanted to update you and talk about it. First question is Chopper. Okay?

[00:01:11]Yes. Let me show you my sweet pee.

[00:01:14]Chubby gentle.

[00:01:17][laughter] The first thing you might notice is Chubby has all his hair back.

[00:01:23][screaming] >> When it happened, he was shaved down in two spots. Right here and in his back right here for a while because he was shaved in those two areas. He looked like he had a really bad haircut and he looked like a shrub. You're very handsome. He doesn't actually have a lot of hair in this area. You can't really tell because he has a lot of hair in general. So, when you fluff it up like this, it blends in. But the fact that he has a head full of hair now is such an amazing thing. And you've done an amazing job. You're such a brave [music] boy. Brave, handsome, resilient. High five.

[00:01:59]Oh, we're too close for high five. Yes.

[00:02:01]Yes. You did an incredible job. Good boy. But this is what his fur looked like before. It was so thick. I think it saved him, but it hasn't grown out the [music] same since. While we're physically fine, it has affected us mentally, particularly me, in many other ways.

[00:02:17]It sounds naive, but we were training Chopper so hard as a puppy, going to school, training him since the very first day that we got him, socializing him that I thought everybody was doing the same thing with their dog. I've never had a dog before, but it felt like, wow, this was extensive training and everybody goes through this. That situation completely woke me up. Every dog is so different and the people who care for them are very different and it sucks that there are irresponsible people out there. For a long time, I was like, why did I even go outside that day? Why did I take that route? But I've had to remind myself that this was literally a regular day, a a regular route. The same places that we've already gone, the same places that we've walked, it was just a normal day for us.

[00:02:59]It literally could have been anyone. We were [music] just the unlucky ones that day. That's just life, I guess.

[00:03:05]Before the incident, I've never been scared of dogs my whole entire life.

[00:03:10]I've never been afraid of any kind of dog. When I was young, I remember there was this huge giant like black dog on our neighborhood and a lot of people were scared of him, but I like brought my book and I sat on my porch and the dog just sat down nearby my lap and I just stayed out there with him. I wasn't scared at all. But now the other month we were out on a walk and there was this loose tiny dog on someone's driveway and I saw it and my heart immediately started panicking. I looked at it. It looked at me and all of a sudden it started like running down the driveway and I completely froze. Felt like a piranha was coming from my ankles. And it's a very very little tiny little thing. A really strange feeling going from this brave and fearless person into being scared of even the smallest little dog. And I'm not saying I'm scared of all dogs, but I'm scared of the loose ones, the reactive ones, the ones where the owners look like they don't have control over their dog. And I feel bad because I know there are a lot of good owners out there, but when you're just out there on the street, it's hard to differentiate the ones that are good and bad.

[00:04:12]When it happened, my number one fear was like, how will this change my dog? Is he going to be afraid of things or how is he going to react? And so far in these two years, he hasn't really shown anything different. He's still a sweet, happy, loving boy that wants to be involved in everything. I'm really proud of him, but I also keep in mind of things that has happened to him and always try to like monitor and look at if he's uncomfortable with something because you never know. That's this is a really really traumatizing experience and so we're always extra careful.

[00:04:44]I've also been working on my trust again by exposing myself to dogs. I mostly meet my friends, dogs who I know and trust, and they're the absolute sweetest. They've helped me a lot.

[00:04:53]>> CAN YOU GET UP?

[00:04:57]>> [laughter] >> GO. YOU'RE THE SWEETEST.

[00:05:00]>> You're such a big baby. Go.

[00:05:01]>> He's a lap dog.

[00:05:03]>> Oh, yeah.

[00:05:04]>> He's a lap dog.

[00:05:05]>> The biggest lap dog.

[00:05:07]>> I still love dogs. All dogs. But I don't come up to any dogs that I don't know.

[00:05:11]And I always talk to the owners first before petting any dog. It's just out of respect for them as well.

[00:05:17]Another thing that we do not do is dog parks when there are other dogs in there.

[00:05:23]Oh. Um, Choppy, come on. Let's go. It's just so many horror stories that I've heard and see on social media every day that being at a dog park isn't just is is it just isn't worth it for me. We rather be safe than sorry. Sometimes when the dog park is completely empty, we'll go in there and we'll let him run, but other than that, we'll we'll take him and we'll go to our friend's house who we already know and trust. But this is the biggest change. I don't go out alone anymore. And this one hurts me the most because it feels like I got my freedom taken away from me. Before any of this happened, I used to walk with Chopper every single morning. Never missed one morning. It was like our thing. Outside walk.

[00:06:00]Outside walk.

[00:06:03]Outside walk. Yeah. Come on. Outside walk.

[00:06:11][laughter] But since then, our routine is different now. I you guys are going to think I'm so dumb for tearing up, but like I don't get to see him jump and be excited every morning to see me like the way he used to. That's like something changing with your best friend. I don't get that excitement from him anymore and sometimes it makes me feel like what if he loves me a little bit less. I genuinely believe that like walks are his love language and now we do it together as a unit, as a family and I'm fine with that. But just me and him bonding together outside in nature, we don't get to do that type of stuff anymore. And the part that sucks is like on days that my husband is really busy or he has to be out of town or something like that and it's just me and Choppy, I'm unable to give him the walk that he deserves because I don't feel safe enough or comfortable enough to be outside and that just really sucks.

[00:07:09]Chopper is my first dog ever and all of our pets are my first really. My husband has more experience and knowledge about dogs more than I do. Since then, I've made it a mission to study more and learn more about them. It's given me a different respect for dogs. Chopper by nature is not a very cuddly dog. And so nowadays, if I try to cuddle with him and he doesn't want that, I immediately just respect it and be like, "Okay, I'm not forcing him. I'm walking away and going to go do my own thing." I also never thought about looking up how to break up a dog fight or attack because you never think that these things can happen to you until they actually happen to you. So, these things are actually good to know. I've also become a huge advocate for Choppy because he doesn't speak English and because I speak English, I let people know the things that he likes and he doesn't like. He's kind of like an introvert. An introvert probably would be like, "Don't hug me. I don't know you yet." He's kind of like that. Takes a little bit of time for him to warm up and to like someone, right?

[00:08:08]Yes.

[00:08:11]You might be wondering, what does that have to do with a dog attack? Well, when it happened, it was basically just me and this lady who couldn't control her dog. And there were spectators and like men around. And not to blame anyone or like say anyone had to do anything because I know it's our dogs. No one cares about our dogs more than we do.

[00:08:31]And because this other dog was bigger than me, I realized that I want to get stronger in cases of emergencies.

[00:08:39]>> Come on. You got Wait, wait, wait. That counts.

[00:08:43]Let's go.

[00:08:44]>> If you've seen some of my calisthenic stuff, part of it, yes, it is for my fur babies, and I'm training to be their superhero. Now, the thing that you might be wondering the most, what about the other people? This is the most frustrating part because it's not the dog's fault, it's the owners. from the way she couldn't handle him, his leash not giving us shot records, lying, and so many other things. But this is what happened. We went to court with them and the judge ruled in our favor. They were supposed to pay back for the vet and hospital bills, but they pretty much ghosted us. In the past 2 years, we have not received a single penny from them.

[00:09:20]It's a really disheartening and frustrating situation to be in, and that's all I can really say about that.

[00:09:26]After sharing our story, I saw that a lot of people have encountered the same thing like all around the world. And it really really sucks that this type of thing is happening. So I guess I'm just sharing again because I want to bring awareness to this so that people can take precautions so that I can encourage people to train their dog. You know, just do the right thing for their dog.

[00:09:48]Chopper and our cats mean so much to me.

[00:09:51]And I know that some people say that's just a dog. That's just a cat. To me, no. They're my family, my babies, and I love them so so much. If I didn't try to save him that day, I don't even think I would be the same person right now. So, and I know that a lot of people feel the same way. And so, everybody has their own opinions and they're entitled to it.

[00:10:09]But I just genuinely want everybody to be safe and I don't want anyone to have to go through what I gone through. And we didn't go through the worst of of it.

[00:10:18]I like read people's stories and it's ended worse and it just it's really really sad to me. If you've also gone through something like this, just know that you're not alone. I'm healing and I'm okay. I think my goal is to be able to feel confident and safe to walk Chopper again someday. Maybe not in this neighborhood, but it's my goal to feel safe and confident with him out there.

[00:10:41]We're moving forward. We're going to be okay. My little sugar sweet pea says thank you. Thank you for watching. I'll see you in the next video. Bye.