Police are investigating after a stranger allegedly attacked a dog and its owner in Burnaby over the weekend.

Dog owner Dean Borosevich was walking eight-year-old Buttons on Sunday when a woman approached them on Rosser Street near Lougheed Highway.

"She actually steps out of her way and gives Buttons a kick right in the ribs," Borosevich told CTV News.

Buttons "freaked out" and may have been injured, he said, so he pulled out his phone to record evidence of the bizarre attack.

"My heart is racing. I'm like, 'What the heck is going on?'" Borosevich recalled of the encounter.

A three-minute video does not show Buttons' attack, but does show the young woman pulling at the dog's retractable leash with both hands.

Borosevich can be heard telling the woman, "You're assaulting me!"

He can't be seen on camera, but the woman punches what appears to be his arm, as he says "now you're hitting me, after you kicked my dog."

She asks multiple times if he's going to hit her, and he says no.

She tells him "I'm going to take your f--king dog away," and he tells her not to. She tells someone off-camera that Borosevich assaulted her, and he says "she's walking around kicking dogs."

He says she kicked the dog again, though the incident was not captured in the video. Two other people approach, and she says he assaulted her.

A witness, also walking a dog, said the woman punched her too. Both the witness and Borosevich said they didn't know the woman.

"I'd be lying if I said there wasn't part of me that didn't want to strike back, but I'm glad I didn't," he said Monday.

The stranger eventually walks away at the end of the video.

It's important to note that those viewing the video didn't see what happened before the cellphone camera was turned on.

RCMP advise anyone in a conflict like this to try to remove themselves from the situation and contact police.

Fortunately Buttons wasn't seriously injured, though she yelped when she was kicked, Borosevich said. He's considering filing a complaint with the BC SPCA.

Borosevich hopes his video serves as a warning to other dog owners in the area.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's David Molko