"Bachelor" alum Sean Lowe is opening up about an incident with his rescue dog that left him injured.
In a video he shared on Monday with his wife Catherine Giudici, the TV personality said he was "fighting for [his] life" after his dog, Moose, a boxer, attacked him last week.
"It was so bizarre," Lowe said. "Like why is my dog, who I know loves me, attacking me so aggressively?"
'Bachelor' star Sean Lowe hosts 'The Barkelor'; surprises dog owners with treats, a rose and moreLowe said the incident happened last Thursday after smoke from a barbecue he was hosting with friends triggered the fire alarm inside his home. He said he grabbed a dish rag and was wafting the smoke away from the fire alarm to turn the siren off when Moose bit the dish rag and "nip[ped] my finger really aggressively, which is something that he does not do."
"I kind of gave him a, 'No Moose,' and again, the siren's just blaring," he continued. "And then he goes and starts to bite my feet. And, like, he's kind of done this before. If you have a herding dog, you're probably familiar with this, where they kind of nip the heels, but he never really bites. Well, he was biting my feet so hard, he actually put holes in my shoes, and it was hurting my feet. So at this point again, there's so much chaos going on with the alarm going off, I give him like a very stern like, 'Moose, no, no.'"
Once that happened, Lowe said Moose attacked his arm and tried to get him out of the house. When he finally got Moose into the backyard, Lowe said Moose attacked him a second time.
Lowe was then rushed to the hospital where he said doctors gave him stitches in "five or six different places" on his arm.
The next day, Lowe said he reflected on what happened and realized he couldn't keep Moose in his home because of his kids.
"I've got young kids, and I've got to be concerned about my own safety," he said, adding that he called animal control, the animal adoption agency where he got Moose, and no kill shelters.
"I was just trying to figure out the best plan of action," he added.
When his parents showed up later that day to pick his kids up, Lowe said Moose attacked him again after escaping through the front door of their home.
"This dog is so strong, he's so explosive, but I'm able to wrestle him to the ground. I've got a hold of his collar, but I know that he's ripped my arm open," he said. "And I just know, like, I'm fighting for my life here -- like, I feel like if this dog gets up, he is going to kill me, and I -- again, it's so bizarre, because it's my dog who I was literally kissing on the head just a day prior."
Lowe said he then went back to the emergency room for more stitches.
Despite what happened, Lowe said the incident has left him missing his dog and that the new reality has been "really hard" for him and his wife to reconcile.
Boy with nut allergy gets life-saving service dog after going into 5-day coma"It wasn't Moose's fault," Lowe said. "I think it's clear, he experienced a lot of trauma before we got him and had something neurologically wrong with him where, just, a switch flipped, and he turned into an absolute killer, which was so weird, but ... he really didn't show any signs, and he was great around my kids. He was great in the house. He was just an affectionate, lovable boxer. We love boxers."
He continued, "I called the rescue group and told them what happened, and you know, they're doing great work over there. I don't blame them a bit either, like there's a lot of great dogs who need to be adopted, and I'm certainly an advocate for that, but even they admitted like there was a past there that they were not privy to."
Giudici and Lowe welcomed Moose into their family in December.
The couple shared a video of them on Christmas Day telling their kids that they were getting a dog and also shared a video of their kids with Moose on their laps in the backseat at the time.
Lowe ended his video on Monday by saying, "We're torn up about it. We really are ... he was a really, really good dog, and we miss him."
