The Select Board voted unanimously to dismiss a dangerous dog complaint filed after a person was bitten when intervening in a fight between two dogs on a walk at Wareham Crossing.

Eva Golden, of the Wareham Department of Natural Resources, read the board her report of the incident during an Aug. 24 public hearing about the complaint. Golden’s report indicated that the incident occurred during an evening group dog walk with the Wareham Pack Walkers on July 28. Golden said Linda Gauthier’s 1-year-old German Shepherd, Ruby, got into a fight with Emily Lunetta’s 1-year-old shepherd/lab mix, Bishop.

Golden’s report indicated that an eyewitness said Ruby had growled at Bishop before the fight broke out. Bishop “broke free” from his metal collar, Golden said, and “attacked Ruby, biting her neck and leg,” which left a laceration on Ruby’s leg. Gauthier attempted to separate the fighting dogs, and “in doing so, was bitten in her left hand and right thumb by Bishop.”

Earle Gauthier, Linda’s husband, was bitten by his own dog, Ruby, when attempting to break up the fight.

Once the dogs were separated, Golden said Lunetta regained control of Bishop and there were no further incidents, Golden said.

At the hearing, Lunetta said Ruby had “lunged at” Bishop three times before Bishop responded. An eyewitness to the event who spoke at the hearing said Ruby had initiated the altercation. Lunetta said she tried to correct Bishop as he lunged in response, at which time his quick-release collar “had a malfunction” and broke.

She said she had walked Bishop hundreds of times with that collar before without incident. The collars, which allowed two other dogs to get loose during the July 28 pack walk, are no longer welcome at the walks.

Jennifer Cipriani, Bishop’s trainer and a certified dog trainer who organizes the pack walks, said the Gauthiers got their German Shepherd recently and “have no idea how to control it” or train it. She also said they were bitten because they “reached in” to intervene in the fight. 

“As a dog owner or a trainer — you don’t reach into a dog’s open mouth,” she said.

Board member Peter Teitelbaum said the incident seemed to be “a garden variety dog fight,” not a case of a dangerous dog. 

“That’s some of the issues you can have when you’re going to a walk with dogs,” said Select Board member Jim Munise. “I don’t see either dog as being fully aggressive — they’re just dogs.”

Teitelbaum noted that, typically, breaking up a dog fight is “not going to end well.”

The board voted 5-0-0 to dismiss the dangerous dog complaint.