A SHOCKED woman is lucky to have full use of her arm after being bitten by a savage dog in a Poole park.

Jan Bryant was hospitalised for four days and needed two operations following the attack.

Surgeons told the 51-year-old mum she’d been lucky the tendon in her right arm was not severed, as it would have left her with “little use” of the limb.

Miss Bryant, of Parkstone, was attacked as she walked an acquaintance’s elderly alsatian dog in Alexandra Park, Parkstone.

“It was a frightening experience,” she told the Daily Echo.

“Basically, I walked into the park around 7am as I’ve done many times and this dog just came out of nowhere.”

The black lab cross pinned down the alsatian – called Sable – and started to maul it.

Miss Bryant, who has been left with a nasty scar and 19 stitches, explained: “This dog was so ferocious I was sure it would have killed Sable if I did nothing.

“I thought that isn’t going to happen to a dog I’m taking care of, so I managed to kick the black dog off and that is when it attacked me.

“It was just one bite but the surgeons told me I’d been very lucky. If the tendon had been severed doctors could have repaired it, but they said it didn’t repair very easily and I’d have been left without full use of my arm.

“The attack finished quickly, but it was frightening.

“There was no owner with the dog and it just came out of nowhere. It could have attacked anyone – it could have been my 13-year-old daughter.”

The incident was reported to the authorities but the owner of the rogue dog has not been traced.

Vet Henry Fielden, of Poole Road Veterinary Surgery, treated Sable for a wound under its right ear.

Mr Fielden said: “The worrying thing is that this dog appeared to be out of control and it needs to be found.”