No, I was the first to do it in 1976, the patents on this first appeared two years after I did it.
Of course I didn't come up with the name "watch dog" I called it an auto reset circuit.
I (G8HBR) was working on a 70cm ham radio repeater for Manchester north the time with a friend G4BVE who was also working on the Manchester South project. I told him about this circuit but he insisted that he would not need it because his code was robust.
Anyway, after four drives down a three mile unmade track in the first month, just to press the button, he soon adopted my circuit design.