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Heroic Dog Stories.
We will post a new heroic dog story every week.
If you have your own heroic dog story please e-mail us and your story could be included on our site.
Brave Dog of William of Orange
In 1572, the Pug was chosen as the official dog of the House of Orange in Holland when a
silver Pug named Pompey saved the life of his master, William, Prince of Orange.
On the night of September 12, l572 a body of Alva's Spanish troops surprised Dutch William's camp. Upon hearing enemy soldiers, Pompey licked William's face and barked noisily until the prince awoke. William then grabbed Pompey, and ran to safety.
To his dying day the Prince ever afterwards kept his dog in his bedchamber.
To mark the whole event and the importance of Pompey, an effigy of Willliam and his pug is carved over William's tomb in Delft Cathedral.
Chips The War Dog
During World War II, a shepherd mix dog named Chips was donated
by Edward J. Wren of Pleasantville, NY to the war effort. Many citizens donated their dogs for duty. Chips was
soon on the front lines acting as a tank guard dog in Africa, Italy, France, and Germany. At
one point, he dragged a phone cable across a raging battlefield, so that his platoon could call
for backup. The one event Chips is most known for though happened on a beach in Sicily.
When he and his handler came under fire from a hidden pillbox, Chips sprang from his
handler and dove straight into the enemy emplacement. The soldiers inside came out
moments later and surrendered, with Chips behind them. That would be impressive enough,
but later that night he also alerted his squad to some approaching Italians, who were
promptly captured as well. Chips received a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for his
adventures, but had them stripped away when dogs were reclassified in the military as "equipment," making him the last canine to be officially decorated.
Sefton Hero and Rufford Ormonde, two prize collies of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, of
New York, saved a young woman from drowning in July, 1897. Robert K. Armstrong,
the Superintendent of Mr. Morgan's kennels, with his wife, baby, and friend were upset in
their boat on the Hudson, and thrown into the river. The friend could not swim, and the
noble dogs plunged to her rescue. Rufford Ormonde took hold of one arm with his teeth,
and Sefton Hero placed himself so that the woman rested squarely on his back. Working
together they dragged her safely to shore. Mr. Armstrong writes me:
"I still have them both in the kennels, and there were never two more
faithful dogs."
From "Our Devoted Friend The Dog" By Sarah Bolton
The Loyal Akita Hachiko
In 1924, a professor Hidesaburo Ueno from the University of Tokyo brought his dog, Hachiko,
to live with him. The two developed a routine, where the dog would see the professor off at
his home and then meet him at the train station later. Then one day, the professor
didn't show up at the train station. He'd had a stroke at the university and died. Hachiko
was given away to another owner, but he would often escape and turn up at his old home.
The dog must have eventually realized that Ueno wasn't coming home, and so he went to look for him at the train station. For ten years, Hachiko would arrive at the train station exactly
when the evening train showed up and would wait for his former owner. Other commuters noticed the loyal pooch and began to bring him food and snacks. He even gained national attention when a former student of Ueno's published several articles about him. One artist
even built and erected a bronze statue of the dog while he was still alive.
Hachiko died in 1935, but his legend continues to live on in Japan.
In April 1934, a bronze statue in his likeness was erected at Shibuya Station, and Hachikō
himself was present at its unveiling. The statue was recycled for the war effort during
World War II. In 1948 The Society for Recreating the Hachikō Statue commissioned Takeshi Ando, son of the original artist who had since died, to make a second statue. The new statue, which was erected in August 1948, still stands and is an extremely popular meeting spot.
Rob The Para Pup
In the spring of 1942, the British started using, what they called para pups, with their first airborne army and SAS units. They were trained to lead soldiers behind enemy lines, sniff
them out, and give silent warning and direction to the patrol.
One in particular was Rob, a mongrel black and white dog with a patch over one eye. He
worked with the SAS. Rob would be parachuted in and would have to wait for his owner
to find him and remove the parachute. Rob while working never failed to alert the SAS party
for the many months while they were behind enemy lines in both North Africa and later in Italy. Rob made a total of 12 jumps into enemy territory.
Judy was a pure bred English Pointer born in Shanghai in 1936 and adopted as a mascot by
the Royal Navy, serving in several gunboats. The boat she was on was torpedoed and the survivors were captured by the Japanese. They spent two years as their prisoner of war under
the most horrifying conditions in Sumatra where prisoners were used as slave labour to
lay 3,000 miles of railway track.
During that time she distinguished herself by her devotion to Leading Air craftsman Frank Williams to whom she attached herself. The Japanese guards who several times tried to
shoot her because she would be threatening and distracting to them on many occasions when
they began to beat their prisoners.
She was finally liberated, together with her fellow prisoners, in 1945. A book was later written about her magnificent life called "Judy VC" by E. Varley.
Sport The Shepherd Dog
Sport, a shepherd dog, saved the life of a little child of Martin Fitzgerald in Monroe, Indiana,
in the summer of 1898. The child had gone into the pen where there were hogs. The hogs
were known to tear into pieces anything that would wonder into their pen. Sport kept the
hogs at bay by his frantic barking until his master appeared. The dog had really annoyed
the farmer before with is barking and he considered getting rid of old Sport.
Now that his barking saved his child, Sport was gratefully cared for, and appreciated for
his devotion.
I usually post heroic dogs stories, but this week I thought I would share this sad dog story.
It shows how dogs can really bond with people, especially children, even when they are
at a young age.
A friend of our family recently lost their five year old Labrador, Clifford. The dog was playing with the family and he just fell over dead. The family has a three year old daughter, who was raised up with the Labrador from birth. The little girl was very upset about what had happened. The parents explained to her that Clifford now is up in the sky in heaven. The next day the little girl asked her parents, "Can we go and buy air plane tickets to go see Clifford?"
She wanted to go see him. Since then they got another dog, but she still talks about Clifford.
Dogs add so much to our lives, especially for young children.
The story of Barry, the St. Bernard.
Barry was a dog who lived with the monks in the Convent of St. Bernard. He served the
hospital in the Alps for twelve years, and saved no less than forty persons. Barry would go
out alone in the deep snow in search of lost travelers, barking at the top of his lungs as he went, sometimes falling from exhaustion. When he could not drag back a traveler alone, he
hastened to the hospital for aid. One day he found a child apparently dead from the cold, but Barry licked the boy till he warmed him into consciousness, when he induced him to tie
himself to his warm, shaggy body and he carried him to the hospital.
On November 15, 1899 the family of William O'Donnell in New York City, were saved from a burning house by their large watch dog. At three o'clock in the morning the dog saw the two story frame house on fire. He bounded up the porch, dashed through the window where the man and his wife were sleeping and awakened them by his barking and running in great agitation. Mr. O'Donnell carried his sick wife and new one month old baby out into the rain to the nearest house, shouting to his five other children as he went, and then rushed back to try and save them. The firemen had reached the house meantime and together they rescued the children just before the flames reached them. Had it not been for the alert, faithful dog, probably eight persons would have perished.
The True Story Of Stubby The War Dog.
Stubby was the most decorated war dog of WW1. Stubby was found on the Yale campus by John Conroy. He was part Pit Bull and Boston Terrier. Stubby was smuggled aboard the transport SS Minnesota. As many dogs smuggled in war their simple duty was as devoted friend, providing comfort under stress in a horrid war. Stubby served with the 102nd Infantry,
in France for 18 months and participated in four offensives and 17 battles. He was in many battles and was under constant fire, day and night for over a month. After being gassed
himself, Stubby learned to warn his unit of poison gas attacks, located wounded soldiers, and since he could hear the whine of incoming artillery shells before humans could, he would let
his unit know when to duck for cover. He was solely responsible for capturing a German spy in the Argonne. He also saved a young girl from being hit by a car. At the end of the war,
Conroy smuggled Stubby back home.
In 1926, Stubby died in Conroy's arms. His remains are featured in The Price of Freedom:
Americans at War exhibit at the Smithsonian. Stubby was honored with a brick in the Walk
of Honor at the United States World War I monument, Liberty Memorial, at Kansas City at
a ceremony held on Armistice Day, November 11, 2006.
In October, 1898, Engineer Dorsay saw a dog on the railroad track near Edwardsport, on the Indianapolis and Vincennes Road, acting in a strange manner. He shut off the steam engine, and soon noticed that the dog was jumping up and down as if the dog was frightened. They soon saw an object and stopped the train. The object was a baby from a neighboring house. The baby had made her way to the track and then fell asleep. When the engineer picked the baby up, the dog jumped upon him and barked as though he was wild with joy.
A Great Dane dog saved Swen Olson of Chicago from death by fire in December 1898.
Swen lived alone with his dog in a frame house and was asleep on the second floor, when
the dog awakened him by barking and pulling on his bed clothes. The smoke had half suffocated the man, sixty years old, so he was unable to escape. The faithful dog stayed by his master until he saw the walls around him burning. So the dog ran into the street whining and barking to attract the attention of the fireman, who were trying to extinguish the flames of the adjacent building as well as he one where Olson was living. They ran to the second story,
guided by the Great Dane, and found the man unconscious, and carried him out of the house. The dog had saved his life.
Nick wrote our website and stated,
"Elizabeth was a faithful dog that served in Iraq and was wounded from a falling piece of shrapnel from an artillery shell. I was unconscious and she dragged me to the base in Fallijha."
Greyfriars Bobby
There was a little dog in Edinburgh named Bobby. Bobby was a Skye Terrier, and he so
loved his master, John Gray. The two were inseparable for several years. On 15 February
1858, Gray died and was buried in Greyfriars churchyard in the town of Edinburgh.
Bobby, who survived Gray by fourteen years, is said to have spent the rest of his life sitting
on his master's grave. Bobby died in 1872 and could not be buried within the cemetery itself, since it was regarded as "consecrated" ground. Bobby was buried just inside the gate of Greyfriars Kirkyard, not far from John Gray's grave. Today stands a statue and a granite stone which is inscribed,
"
Greyfriars Bobby
died 14th January 1872
aged 16 years
Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all "
Gertrude wrote our website and stated,
"My dog died in a horrific accident when he was running to save me from a crashing building
in Haiti."
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