Oakdale woman goes weeks without service dog after neighbor’s husky repeatedly attacks him

OAKDALE, La. (KPLC) - An Oakdale woman has reached out to law enforcement for assistance after a neighbor’s dog repeatedly attacked her service dog. Now, the woman will have to go weeks without her companion.

“I’m falling a lot more. I don’t have him to get up if I’m going anywhere,” Christal Willis said.

Willis is having to make adjustments to her daily life. She says her five-year-old lab mix, Blackie, was attacked by a neighbor’s husky multiple times, impacting his behavior.

“This happening has got my service dog so shut down and scared. He started becoming aggressive towards other dogs, including the dogs he pretty much grown up with,” Willis said.

Willis says living without her service dog has created complications moving around her home. She suffers fainting episodes, and Blackie is usually there to protect her.

“He jumps, and he pushes. If I start falling backwards, he grabs my arms ‘cause my arms are almost always crossed. It’s very rare for me not to have them crossed, but he’ll jump, and he’ll grab my arms to pull me forward,” Willis said.

The husky last attacked Blackie on May 27.

Willis was filming the next time the husky attempted to attack Blackie. Luckily, her husband intervened.

“He came running up from that side, and he had a little yellow lab and started coming up here. And my husband had just come home from dropping some stuff in my parents’ house, and he chased him away,” Willis said.

She says she has called local law enforcement multiple times.

Paul Leblanc with LA K9 is currently retraining Blackie as a service dog, but he says Blackie could be out of action for weeks.

“I don’t know how bad the attack was, but to me it had to be very bad because this dog is completely in its shell, slowly coming out of it,” Leblanc said.

Willis says she is ready for Blackie to be back to normal.

“Anytime he’s out is not good for us, but it’s he’s not doing well with it. I’m not doing well with it,” Willis said.

Willis and the Oakdale Police Department both say the Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office cited the owner of the husky.