A golden dachshund puppy tragically died on her first day at a California obedience school, after she was left unsupervised with a much larger dog.
Olive was just a four pound 9-week-old puppy when she started her first day at Prime Paw in San Francisco.
Owner Chloe Skelly said she had chosen the school in the Mission District due to ‘rave reviews’, and employees reassuring her beloved pet was in good hands.
After dropping the pup off at the school on May, she was called less than three hours later and told to immediately go to a pet hospital.
Speaking to KRON4, Skelly said: ‘They wouldn’t tell me what happened. When I arrived at the SPCA, an employee told me Olive had been playing with a nearly 25 pound bernedoodle puppy, unsupervised.’
Olive was just a four pound 9-week-old puppy when she started her first day at Prime Paw in San Francisco
After dropping the pup off at the school on May, Skelly was called less than three hours later and told to immediately go to a pet hospital
Skelly said the employee told her that staff didn’t know what had happened, and that nobody had seen it.
It wasn’t until Olive yelped out in pain and crawled into a corner did they notice her ‘immediate lethargy’.
She added: ‘When they went over to check on Olive they said she was not breathing and had no heartbeat or pulse.
‘Following that, the employee immediately rushed Olive to a veterinarian, but she had already passed away.’
An autopsy confirmed that Olive died from pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung resulting from blunt force trauma.
Skelly said this was ‘presumably direct correlation to being hit by this other, much larger dog’. She said the vet also found signs of internal bleeding.
Owner Chloe Skelly (pictured) said she had chosen the school in the Mission District due to ‘rave reviews’, and employees reassuring her beloved pet was in good hands.
According to Skelly, the school shared a video on their social media of Olive with a cut on her back, which she claims wasn’t there when she left her.
The bereft owner fully blames Prime Paw for Olive’s death, and has consulted lawyers about legal action. However, because she signed a waiver, she cannot sue them.
‘She was my first puppy who should have had more years with me,’ said Skelly. ‘I only had 10 days. We were both robbed of our life together way too soon.’
‘I am heartbroken her little life was cut so short, and so negligently. It’s unfair.’
In a statement to KRON4, James Baybayan, owner of Prime Paw, expressed his condolences for Olive’s sudden passing.
Baybayan said: ‘We are heartbroken by the tragic death of a puppy named Olive. Veterinarians found that Olive had a pneumothorax — a collapsed lung — but that there were no signs of any trauma.
The bereft owner fully blames Prime Paw for Olive’s death and shared a lengthy statement about her experience on Instagram
‘Based on the determination by the veterinarians who received Olive, there is no identifiable reason for her death.’
The company website describes them as a San Francisco dog training center with a positive, science-based approach.
According to Prime Paw, they’ve cared for thousands of dogs safely over their nine years of operation. This is the first reported fatality at their facility.