Members of Lisa Lloyd’s family are struggling to comprehend what prompted Jackson, the family’s six-year-old boxer cross, to attack Lloyd’s granddaughter before fatally mauling Lloyd.
Cody Lloyd is one of Lisa’s two sons and it was his daughter, two-year-old Cali, who was attacked by the dog. Cody says he will never forget his mother’s sacrifice to protect his daughter.
“Cali’s Mimi is a warrior who gave her everything and fought to get my daughter over a gate into safety,” said Cody Lloyd in a message to CTV. “She should be remembered as nothing less than an amazing, beautiful hero.”
The family says Lisa was married to her childhood sweetheart and she is mourned by her two sons and three grandchildren.
Lisa’s son Jake says Jackson, the boxer cross, was ‘a devoted part of the family who slept nose to nose with everyone and only protected the family property by barking if there was anyone around’. Jake says his family will be left with unanswered questions regarding Saturday’s attack. “No one will ever know what happened that horrific, fateful night.”
While the events leading up to the attack inside the rural home, located north of Langdon, remain unclear, professional dog trainer J.C. St. Louis says the animal’s aggressive behaviour towards Lloyd may have been in response to her intervention.
“From the little bit of info I have, it’s probably a redirect aggression,” explained St. Louis. “The little girl did something and that got the dog’s attention. It might not have been for a full attack but if the kid falls down or squeals, that gets the dog going. Then when somebody tries to intervene, you get redirect aggression (especially) if the dog is already highly aroused because kids make noise like squeaky toys, like a dying rabbit, a dying target.”
“You can have a dog that can just turn around and snap and miss and go ‘leave me alone’ and do a little bump bite but in this case the dog tipped over.”
St. Louis says it can be easy for owners to be lulled into a sense of comfort following years of positive interactions between their dog and children but it’s important to watch for potential warning signs.
“The dog may one day have enough and decide I’ve had enough of this jumping on me and then snaps,” said St. Louis. “You can look at the history of the dog and see for several years the dog is okay but I suspect in this case there were probably some signs that people were just missing. That’s usually the case. Usually there’s some precursors that are missed.”
While the family awaits the results of the police investigation, Cali continues to recover from the bits she suffered from her arms and legs.
With files from CTV’s Jaclyn Brown
