Sir – Wendy Alesbrook told your reporter (January 6) that she “would go in to save her rottweiler again”.
I am curious to know what thinks she would achieve by doing this, since it is clear that she is not physically able to rescue her dog by jumping into the river when the water is so cold. When I arrived on the scene of the drama, Ms Alesbrook had only been in the water for three to four minutes, but she was already chilled and incoherent.
By the time the fire brigade came, five minutes later, she was doing a rather alarming impersonation of a drowning woman. Her dogs, being descendants of Arctic wolves, were coping with the cold far better than she.
Would it not have been better to call the fire service to rescue the dog? If we were in the same situation again, would she rather I left her in peace to save the animal herself, rather than calling the emergency services and doing all that shouting on her behalf to alert the firemen to her whereabouts?
I find the simplest solution to this kind of problem is to train my dogs to come when they are called, so they get themselves out of cold water.
Rosie Head, Temple Cowley
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