On pp. 6-7 of Jan Harold Brunvand’s The Choking Doberman and Other “New” Urban Legends (1984, W.W. Norton & Company), he writes that “the earliest reliably dated complete American version” of the story he has found comes from the 24 June 1981 issue of Phoenix’s New Times (by Dewey Webb, though Brunvand doesn’t mention the byline):
GAGGING DOG STORY BAFFLES POLICE
It happened in Las Vegas. A woman returned from work and found her large dog, a Doberman, lying on the floor gasping for air. Concerned over the animal’s welfare, she immediately loaded the pet into her car and drove him to a veterinarian.
The vet examined the dog but finding no reason for his breathing difficulties, announced that he’d have toperform a tracheotomy and insert tubes down the animal’s throat so he could breathe. He explained that itwasn’t anything she’d want to watch and urged the woman to go home and leave the Doberman there overnight.
When the woman returned home, the phone was ringing off the hook. She answered it, and was surprised to discover it was the vet. Even more surprising was his message — “Get out of the house immediately! Go to the neighbor’s and call the police!”
It seems that when the vet performed the operation, he found a very grisly reason for the dog’s breathing difficulty — three human fingers were lodged in its throat. Concerned that the person belonging to the dismembered fingers might still be in the house, he phoned to warn the woman.
According to the story, police arrived at her house and found an unconscious intruder, sans fingers, lying in a closet.
New Times learned of the story from an employee of a large industrial plant in the Valley. He said he had gotten the story third hand from another employee who in turn had heard it from a woman whose relatives in Las Vegas knew the dog’s owner. As of Friday, New Times was not able to nail down the identity of the Doberman’s mistress.
According to a spokesman at the Las Vegas Sun, that paper, too, was very interested in breaking the story. Unfortunately, even though the story was all over Vegas last Thursday, the paper — and police — weren’t able to dig up one shred of evidence to prove the incident ever occurred. “The police are baffled,” the Sun spokesman said.
Author Dewey Webb attempted to track the story further, but came to the conclusion that it was a “friend of a friend” story (or “foaftale”) that never could be traced to concrete details. In a followup piece (likely March 2, 1983) he wrote that “It was becoming painfully obvious that there simply was no such animal as the gagging dog, at least in this neck of the U.S.”
This statement was clipped from New Times and inserted on the first inside page of the first issue of Gagging Dog to start an “EDITORIAL (sort of)” which immediately rebutted: “Not so, Mr. Webb. This quote (NTW Mar. 2) is what a lot of people must have been thinking after a 3 month incubation period to get this mag off the ground. Finally, the baby is born.”
Thus opened a punk fanzine that documented the 1983-1984 heyday of the Phoenix punk scene.
I don’t include copies of the issues here even though they are most likely in the public domain–the copyright rules in effect in the U.S. from January 1, 1978 until March 1, 1989 said that works published without copyright notices went into the public domain, though there was a five-year cure period during which a work could be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office and add the notice to copies distributed after noticing the omission. While I doubt that happened, being punk zines these include the use of copyrighted materials in their construction, some of which may go beyond the bounds of fair use. But the first and sixth issues are available below.
I’ve dated the issues as specifically as I could based on the contents. The first issue had to be printed after February 12, 1983 and I got mine in March 1983. The second issue post-dates the March 30, 1983 Minor Threat show. The third issue comes after the May 21-22, 1983 Dead Kennedys shows at Mad Gardens and references a June 4, 1983 Club Mayhem “Final Days” party. The fourth issue came after the September 3, 1983 Circle Jerks, America’s Hardcore, and White Flag show. The sixth issue comes after March 9, 1984 and contains the brief history of the venue The Temple and its end, and speaks of a future May 11, 1984 event. (I do not have issues #5, #7, or #8, the images above are from Robin G. posts (August 16, 2019) on the “Punk in Phoenix” Facebook group; I haven’t determined the most likely dates for them.)
The Ian Mackaye digital collection of punk fanzines (0415-SCPA-MACKAYE) at the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library at the University of Maryland has digitized versions of the first and sixth issues of The Gagging Dog. I only have issues #1-#4. Not sure if there are issues beyond #8.