Sally Dodgson, who is a dog trainer herself, said she was left bleeding badly from the wound
Helen Le Caplain and Howard Lloyd Regional content editor
03:47, 11 Oct 2025
Sally Dodgson with her two English Bulldogs, Clarence and Perry(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
A marathon runner is urging dog owners to ‘take responsibility’ for unruly pooches after her training jog turned to horror when one bit her on the bum. Dog trainer Sally Dodgson was putting her headphones on ahead of doing a 10-mile run in a park on August 30 when she spotted a man walking his dog approaching her.
The 43-year-old automatically moved off the pavement to give them room to pass, but ‘a millisecond later’ she felt an agonising pain as the dog bit her on the right bum cheek and leg. Sally felt blood pour down her leg as she kicked at the dog, believed to be a German Shepherd cross, while the owner dragged it off when it sank its teeth into her a second time.
In excruciating pain, Sally demanded the initially apologetic owner give her his contact details before he continued on his walk, which he did. Shocked, Sally asked a passerby to examine the bite, who warned her it was ‘bleeding badly’ and urged her to go to hospital.
But just minutes later, as she sat in A&E nursing her wounds, she claims the dog owner blocked her number and hung up when she rang off another number. Shocking photos show Sally’s shredded leggings, bleeding bite marks and purple bruising as result of the savage unprovoked attack. Sally, owner of dog training business DogSwot, is now urging owners to take responsibility for unruly pets.
Sally Dodgson’s leggings were shredded and bloodied during the attack(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
Shocking photos show Sally’s shredded leggings, bleeding bite marks, and purple bruising as a result of the savage, unprovoked attack. Sally, owner of dog training business DogSwot, is now urging owners to take responsibility for unruly pets.
Sally, from Morley, West Yorkshire, said: “I’m training for a marathon. I was tying my trainers and putting my headphones in. I was going up the road to do a run in Dartmouth Park at lunchtime. I didn’t have dogs with me, I was of no interest to a dog whatsoever. I saw the dog, a German Shepherd cross, and I didn’t think for a minute it was reactive. I just moved out of the way.
“It went past me and then came back a millisecond later, it shocked the life out of me. The next thing I felt a massive pain in my bum and I knew it had got me, I felt the blood instantly. It grabbed twice because there are four punctures, it was excruciating. I could see my leggings hanging open and feel blood going into my sock.
“I said ‘you need to stop, your dog’s just bitten me badly’. He did stop, but then he was talking in broken English, saying, ‘I know it’s wrong, she doesn’t normally do this. She’s a bit barky and a rescue’.
“He gave me his phone and I rang mine so I had the number. (After he left) I saw an older bloke and I said, ‘I’m sorry to ask, but would you mind looking at the back of me and tell me how bad it is?’
“He said it was bleeding badly and I needed to get it seen, so I went off to A&E.”
At St George’s Centre in Leeds, Sally’s wounds were cleaned and bandaged and she was given a tetanus jab and a course of antibiotics. Sally said: “It was bleeding constantly. It was only when I got to St George’s and saw the photos it dawned on me how bad the bite was. The dog was on me for maybe one-and-a-half seconds, it wasn’t long, it was two bites. It bit my whole right bum cheek. It’s probably lucky it got me there [my bum] than anywhere else.”
Now recovering but still sore, Sally is urging people who have reactive dogs to ‘take responsibility’ to avoid the same thing happening to anyone else.
Sally said: “It’s sore, it hurts at work, it hurts to sit down but I’m more angry because the chap gave me his number and he’s now blocked me. I’m very comfortable around dogs, I have two rescue dogs myself, I work with reactive dogs three and four times a day.
“Most dog bites you’ll see in the street are normally dogs that will have bitten as a last resort. This didn’t feel like a last resort to me If a dog is that reactive with no provocation or that temperamental it shouldn’t be at the busiest park in Morley and it shouldn’t be unmuzzled. You’ve got to take some responsibility and a lot of people just aren’t taking responsibility.
“I want that dog seized and assessed in a kennel and potentially euthanised if it fails assessment. I don’t agree with mindless seizing of dogs but I do agree with dogs being seized when they’ve bitten someone and been a dangerous dog in public.
“My advice to anyone with temperamental pets is to seek help from behaviourists, it’s a non-judgmental field. I don’t care if it’s a rescue, I don’t care whether it’s nervous, we are responsible for re-training our dogs.”
West Yorkshire Police confirmed the log of the incident.
