Dog Saves Owner

[Nanaea]

Found this article about another canine hero today. Owner says dog saved her with 'Heimlich'

[StoryJunkie]

Nice!

[redsliver]

But he didn't shove the ejected material into the throat of a criminal! Half assed work if you ask me.

[Mourningstar]

I'm going to have to take the non-believer road with this one, since I think nikolatesla1 was pretty much right. Certainly he might've understood that there indeed was something wrong with his owner, but how on earth could he understand exactly what is wrong, or even further, draw the conclusions as to how pounding the chest might help?

Perhaps we should have a friendly competition as to how many medical procedures our dogs can perform? I'm afraid my little lughead is only about a training nurse's level, but she can misplace papers and mishear important things with a great efficiency.

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

Apparently the dog noticed her pounding on her own chest, which, depending on how the dog was trained to everything else, makes sense that he could make that connection. Especially with golden retrievers, who a renowned for being smart and good dogs for people with physical disabilities or who are in need of aid.

At the same time, you've got to ask, what the hell made the dog push her down? That's a bit much...

[Mourningstar]

I think they would've mentioned it if Toby was similarly trained. I don't know much about how those kinds of aid dogs are trained, since my only experience is about police/security training processes (the kennel where I got my german shepherd have two of their dogs in such work), but if I remember correctly, aid dogs are trained to seek help in case of such dire emergencies, to attract attention to their 'ward'.

[Oishiichan]

I have owned aid dogs, they can do any number of tasks as long as they are trained to do so. I have also owned a normal golden retriever who wasn't trained in such a manner and was able to use deductive logic to perform tasks most other animals or humans would not. Opening doors, as an example. Dialing emergency numbers is something that not just dogs but birds and cats have been known to do if trained properly. Do not assume because it is animal it is stupid, animals are only as dim witted as those who educate them.

[Mourningstar]

I've yet to know a dog who didn't know how to open a door, provided that a lock and key weren't involved. But I think the key question here is the training. Actually intended training, deduction through observation and mimicking, or indeed, surprising knowledge and understanding of the human anatomy.

Whichever the case, the lucky woman is still alive and Toby gets spoiled rotten.

OT: This rather reminds me of a case that was huge news, headlined "Man Dies of Dog Bite". In the end it turned out that the man was playing with his dog (accidentally, also a goldie), nicked the side of his thumb on the dog's tooth and got an infection, which caused his death. Goes to show you how portrayal means quite a bit...