Dog saved from jaws of coyote by quick-thinking owner, whistle
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

SAVED BY THE BELL- Jaclyn Kornreich, 17, of Oak Park and her French bulldog/Pekinese mix pup Roxy will continue to go on hikes but from now on Roxy's going to be on a leash- always.

An inexpensive dog whistle saved the life of Roxy, a 2yearold French bulldog/Pekinese mix snatched by a coyote in the presence of her owner, Jaclyn Kornreich.

Jaclyn, 17, a recent Oak Park High School graduate, took her pooch for her usual walk at the Palo Comado trail in the Jordan Ranch area of Oak Park on June 8. Although the dog is generally kept on a leash on hikes, Jaclyn set Roxy free to take a dip in the small spring of water.

"The dog loves to go swimming in this pool- she gets hot walking," said Jaclyn's father, Dale Kornreich.

Apparently the sight of an 18pound dog wading in the pool caught the attention of a coyote who was lying in wait in the thick bushes adjacent to the pond. In just seconds the coyote lunged at Roxy and trotted off, carrying the dog by its head.

"I looked up and my dog was in the mouth of a coyote," Jaclyn said.

Jaclyn chased the coyote while blowing a whistle PetSmart dog trainer Linda Voller had recommended. The whistle was loud, Jaclyn said, but according to Voller it's the whistle's high pitch that annoys dogs- and coyotes- enough to stop them in their tracks. The whistle's high frequency pitch is inaudible to the human ear, but dogs respond to the sound during training sessions and in the wild, Voller said.

"The coyote freaked out and looked at me and looked back, and just stopped with the dog in its mouth," Jaclyn said. "The whistle made it seem really disoriented."

By that time Jaclyn was within five feet of the coyote, and it dropped Roxy from its mouth, Jaclyn said. "I've never been so close to a coyote," she said.

Voller uses the whistle to train dogs at the Westlake Village PetSmart. Jaclyn said Voller recommended using the whistle when she found out about her nature hikes with Roxy.

Roxy apparently has had previous near-death experiences. "The dog is either blessed or cursed," Jaclyn said about her dog's knack for getting into scrapes with cars and coyotes. Four months earlier, Roxy was hit by a car, but suffered only puncture wounds to her tongue.

"She should have been dead," Jaclyn said of the accident.

As for Roxy surviving the vice-like grip of a coyote, Jaclyn said she's "more than okay now." Roxy's brush with the coyote resulted in a punctured ear and a scraped head, Jaclyn said, but Roxy is already on the mend and enjoying walks again.

Jaclyn is pleased the whistle worked so well, but she won't be taking any more chances with Roxy on hikes. "I will keep the dog on leash, 100 percent of the time," Jaclyn promised. "My mom would kill me (if I didn't)."

"We feel that Roxy is like a cat with nine lives, although we do not look forward to the other seven adventures," Dale Kornreich said. "We do not blame the coyote; it was only doing what is natural. . . . We are just glad that our dog was not its meal for the day."

The whistle comes in two sizes and ranges in price from $5 to $10.