Man jumps into frigid Charles River to save dog chasing geese on Marathon Monday

While Boston watched runners take on Marathon Monday, Hans Nagrath was sprinting toward a different scene — to rescue his dog in the Charles River.

Nagrath said he was out for a run Monday with Benny, his 2-year-old goldendoodle, along a route they take often near the river.

At one point, he let Benny off leash near an open stretch by the water, something he said they do regularly. That’s when Benny spotted a group of geese, took off after them, and jumped into the Charles.

The moment, captured in a video taken by a bystander on the pier, has since made its rounds online. But Nagrath said what looks funny in hindsight felt like a matter of life or death in real time.

“I can’t even rewatch that video,” he said. “As funny as it looks now, that could have been a very different situation.”

As Benny followed the geese deeper into the river, Nagrath called for him to come back, but soon realized the dog was not responding and was starting to lose steam.

“He doesn’t hear me, he doesn’t see anything, he’s just locked into the geese,” Nagrath said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, this is getting serious.’”

By then, Nagrath said, Benny was near the middle of the river. The water was under 40 degrees, it was windy, and there were currents. Nagrath said a couple nearby warned him not to jump in because of the cold, but he felt he had no choice.

“I can’t let my dog drown,” he said.

That’s when Nagrath jumped in, swimming through the ice cold, choppy water toward Benny in the middle of the Charles.

“The realization of what I just did didn’t hit me until I was about 10 feet from Benny,” he said. “That’s when I realized I don’t know if I can actually make it back.”

He said the water quickly drained his strength.

“All the energy in my body just completely ceased,” Nagrath said. “I could see Benny starting to go under.”

“I knew that if he goes under, I was going to die trying to save him,” he said.

By the time he reached Benny, Nagrath said, he could barely keep himself afloat.

“I felt frozen. I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “So I just pushed Benny in front of me, and I would doggy paddle behind him. When he would start to go under, I would push him by his hind legs to give him a boost and get some weight off his body.”

By the time they neared the dock, Nagrath said he was desperate for help.

“Can someone help? Can someone help, please?” he recalled yelling.

A few people grabbed Benny and pulled him onto the dock. Someone then pulled Nagrath out after him.

Looking back, Nagrath said he was left mostly feeling guilty.

“I feel like an idiot for taking him off leash,” he said. “That was so stupid. We do off leash everywhere, but the Charles is just not the place.”

Both Nagrath and Benny have since fully recovered. Nagrath said Benny is usually calm, well behaved, and therapy trained, making Monday’s goose chase especially out of character.

“I’ve never seen him like that,” Nagrath said. “He was ready to die to catch that goose.”

After the rescue, though, Nagrath said Benny seemed to act like he knew something had gone wrong. Usually, he sleeps on Nagrath’s wife’s side of the bed. That night, he kept coming over to Nagrath’s side instead.

“It was almost like he was saying sorry.”