{"id":863882,"date":"2026-08-19T15:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T15:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863882\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T15:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T15:26:14","slug":"shes-our-hero-dog-honoured-after-protecting-nipigon-ont-family-from-black-bear-last-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863882\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;She&#8217;s our hero&#8217;: dog honoured after protecting Nipigon, Ont., family from black bear last fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>A dog from Nipigon, Ont., is being recognized for her efforts to protect her family from a black bear last fall.<\/p>\n<p>Chloe, a mixed-breed, medium-sized dog, has been inducted into the Purina Animal Hall of Fame, which recognizes pets &#8220;for their remarkable bravery and unwavering devotion in protecting their owners during life-threatening emergencies,&#8221; a media release states.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s a rescue dog,&#8221; said Colette Shwetz, who owns Chloe along with her husband, Joe. &#8220;We rescued her in May 2019. She was about six months old when she came to us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She doesn&#8217;t like a lot of attention. She&#8217;s just one of those old soul dogs,&#8221; Colette Shwetz said, adding &#8220;she&#8217;s just full of love.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That was certainly on full display the night of Sept. 16, 2025. Chloe was let out into the yard, and when she came back in, the bear followed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Here we are in my kitchen, the three of us, me, the dog and the bear,&#8221; Colette Shwetz said.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Shwetz was already asleep, but was woken up by Chloe&#8217;s barking.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I got up, run out, went into the kitchen,&#8221; Joe Shwetz said. &#8220;Chloe had a hind leg, which was the bear, in her mouth, trying to pull it towards the door.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>All three managed to get the bear out of the kitchen and into an adjoining hallway, and it then made its way into the basement.<\/p>\n<p>Held off the bear until police arrived<\/p>\n<p>Chloe &#8220;stood guard,&#8221; Colette Shwetz said, barking and holding the bear off until the police arrived and dispatched it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We all ended up with a lot of staples and stitches and a lot of wound care,&#8221; Colette Shwetz said. &#8220;Chloe, we almost lost her through the bite that she got, but she did really well. We got her through it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And Chloe also got a steak dinner as a reward, Colette Shwetz said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s our hero,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I know that without her, I would not be here. That is a 100 per cent certainty.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a media release, Purina said the hall of fame was established in 1968, and has so far recognized 198 animals \u2014 170 dogs, 27 cats, and one horse \u2014 &#8220;for extraordinary acts of courage and devotion that have helped save lives across Canada.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chloe isn&#8217;t the only dog from northwestern Ontario in the hall of fame.<\/p>\n<p>Murph, an Australian Blue Merle Sheepdog from Kenora, was inducted in 1984 after she alerted her owners to a fire in the apartment building they were living in.<\/p>\n<p>Her owners then rushed to notify all the other residents, and all escaped the fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-863882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}