How to Stop a Dog Fight

In view of the unfortunate incident at the Hartford dog park in which an off-duty police officer shot and killed a pit bull that had his husky by its throat, I’d like to pass on some advice on how to stop a dog that’s attacking another dog or a person, or any other animal. Grab the dog’s hind legs and lift the legs in the air. It worked for me.

I found this tip online after my 30-pound terrier mix was attacked by a pit bull in a parking lot one night in Woodstock. The unleashed pit bull grabbed my dog by his throat, lifted him off all four legs and started snapping him back and forth in the air. Not a pretty sight. I was kicking the pit bull as hard as I could, but I may as well have been a mosquito. The owner eventually pulled his dog off. My dog was saved by the fact that the pit bull fortunately had him only by the thick scruff of hair on his neck.

Because of that attack, I did some online research and learned about the technique of lifting an attacking dog by its hind legs. A year later I was walking my leashed dog on a dirt road when a driver stopped to ask me if I recognized a stray dog he’d picked up and lodged in his back seat. The dog — a large golden doodle — jumped over the seat and then over the driver (injuring his hand) and out the open window, landed on my dog, flipped him over and began biting his chest and throat. I grabbed the golden doodle’s hind legs and lifted them up — and it immediately stopped attacking. It also was unable to reach me to bite me. The result was a $600 vet bill, which the dog’s owner paid, but it could have been a much worse ending had I not stopped the attack so quickly.

If you’re alone, various websites advise you to drag the dog in an arc and then hurl it away.

The tactic takes a bit of courage, but as I said, it worked for me.

Andrea Sand

Woodstock

Open Enrollment at TSA

I appreciated your June 29 story “TSA to Offer Open Enrollment” and applaud The Sharon Academy, especially if its “open enrollment” ensures that it will comply with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Your story notes that TSA has for 20 years “formally screened students” while at the same time tuitioning them in from other towns. This meant that public tax money has been used to support an institution that hasn’t had to observe the same legal requirements that apply to all public schools.

We all have civil rights and for students with special needs, this means that educational institutions that take public tax dollars must ensure that they are provided with free, appropriate public education that is tailored to their individual needs.

In spite of the view of the world that might dismiss these requirements as mere “mandates,” we have laws requiring schools to provide equal access to educational programs and activities despite, for example, gender (Title IX) or physical disability (Americans with Disabilities Act). Think of these requirements next time you enjoy a great woman’s sports program, or when you see someone in a wheelchair at Town Meeting. Actually opening enrollment at TSA could be a big step, and result in it providing an appropriate public education to Vermont children like all our other schools supported by tax dollars. 

David Farnsworth

South Royalton

Some Writers Age Very Well

Regarding W. D. Wetherell’s July 1 column, “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis,” your list of prose-fiction writers who lost it by middle age, or even sooner, is devastating, to be sure, but there is still some hope out there for us old folks.

Oddly, the Germans produce the most counterexamples. Theodor Fontane (1819-1898), the dean of German 19th-century Realism, did not even start writing novels until age 59. His most famous novel, Effi Briest, was published at age 75; his best novel, Der Stechlin, at age 78. Theodor Storm (1817-1888) completed what is by common consent the greatest German (long) novella, Der Schimmelreiter (The Rider on the White Horse), at age 71, right before his death. Thomas Mann (1875-1955) published Doktor Faustus, considered by many to be the greatest German novel ever, at age 72; at age 80, he published Felix Krull, as good as anything else he ever wrote. And Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) completed the second part of his Faust, the single greatest work of German literature (although admittedly in verse, not prose), at age 82. If you include playwrights (and allow verse), there is Sophocles (497-405 B.C.), who wrote Oedipus at Colonus at age 91. And Voltaire (1694-1778), the dominant French playwright (and philosopher and prose-writer) of his era, remained productive right up until his death at age 84, although, to be sure, his plays are no longer widely admired. Closer to home, Thomas Pynchon is still going strong at age 79, as controversial as ever. Nobel Prize- winner Alice Munro published the short-story collection Dear Life, arguably her best yet, at age 80; and she may not be done yet. Robertson Davies (1913-1995) remained in top form right up until his death at age 82. And our very own Howard Frank Mosher is, at age 74, as good as he ever was, which is very good indeed. Hoping that this will cheer you up.

Eric Miller

Norwich