Читать книгу Man's Best Friends - True Stories of the World's Most Heroic Dogs - John McShane - Страница 9

The dogs featured in this book come in all shapes and sizes, ages and temperaments. Often they have been bred for varying tasks in different climates, yet all show an enduring fondness for the human race. And although it might at first seem invidious to single out certain breeds, there are some who perhaps merit a specific mention without in any way detracting from the qualities of all.

The German Shepherd (also called ‘Alsatian’ at one time when anti-German feelings ran high) is one such breed. A comparatively modern breed, dating back to the end of the nineteenth century, the dog was originally bred to guard and herd sheep, although it eventually became recognised as one of the best breeds for police and military work due to its strength and intelligence linked with its excellence in obedience training. Householders and businesses also discovered the Deutscher Schäferhund (literally ‘German Shepherd Hound’) made an ideal companion and guard.

There can be few better instances than the case of Moti, the five-year-old German Shepherd, who literally ‘took a bullet’ for his owner when he stopped an armed robbery. The drama began when a masked man walked into a liquor store owned by the Patel family on US Route 130 in Burlington County, New Jersey, shortly after 9pm, one Friday evening.

‘I just closed the register and grabbed the panic button and he pointed the gun at me and said, “Give me money,”’ recalls Mital Patel, co-owner of Town Liquor. But the very sound of the intruder’s voice, the harshness and aggression in it, alerted 115lb Moti, out of sight behind the counter. There was something in the gunman’s voice that he didn’t like.

‘Without giving him a command or anything, he just jumped over the counter and started barking at that robber. He had his gun pointing towards my mom, so he moved it from my mom to Moti and just shot him,’ said the Patels’ daughter, Hiral. Moti jumped down and started around the counter, but the robber had already gone. It was then that the Patels noticed the blood on the floor and rushed Moti to a veterinarian.

An X-ray revealed the bullet went through the dog’s neck, narrowly missing his throat, and had lodged in his shoulder. Badly injured as he was, Moto was a survivor. ‘He saved mine and my mom’s life, or we would’ve been the one who got the shot,’ said Hiral. The wound meant the brave dog would have to limp for a time while recovering, but a grateful Mital Patel said: ‘He’s my hero.’

Shelby, a seven-year-old German Shepherd from Ely, Iowa, won a Hero Dog of the Year award after saving the lives of two adults and two children by alerting them to dangerously high carbon monoxide levels in the home where they were sleeping. On the evening of 13 December, after a long day of baking Christmas cookies, John and Janet Walderbach woke to the cries of their friends’ two children (who were overnight guests). Both they and the youngsters experienced terrible headaches and upset stomachs then, as Janet was rocking the younger child to sleep, she passed out.

Shelby revived her owner by nudging her until she regained consciousness. The dog had her ears down and her tail between her legs as she went to wake John. She continued to behave anxiously and would not leave the couple’s sides as they tried to determine what was making everyone feel so sick. Thinking Shelby might need a trip outdoors, John put her outside but that made her more anxious as she began to bark, whine and scratch at the door. Only when John, Janet and the children were safely outside the home did she stop making a fuss.

They made their way to hospital, where all four were successfully treated in hyperbolic chambers, which eliminated the carbon monoxide in their bodies so preventing any severe damage. Doctors remarked they were very lucky to have made it out when they did. The house measured 280ppm (parts per million) of carbon monoxide, a level at which death or severe long-term damage is likely. Shelby had survived the incident as well. And her owner – Joleen Walderbach (John and Janet’s daughter) – couldn’t have been more proud: ‘In my eyes and in the eyes of my family, Shelby is more than a hero – she is a lifesaver, a guardian angel.’

Another dog who was ‘more than a hero’ was Chips, the animal most decorated in World War II, who was not pure German Shepherd (he had Collie and Husky in his background). Despite this, he possessed all the traits of the Germanic breed. Chips was owned by Edward J. Wren from New York and during the period of conflict, many private citizens gave their animals to the forces to help the war effort. In 1942, Chips was trained as a sentry dog at the War Dog Training Centre in Front Royal, Virginia and assigned to the 3rd Military Police Platoon, 3rd Infantry Division. He served in North Africa, Italy, France, Germany and Sicily.

Chips was one of the first dogs to serve overseas with the Military Police in World War II, where he was under the supervision of his handler, Private John P. Rowell. In addition to patrol duty with the infantry, he was posted to sentry duty in Casablanca during the January 1943 conference between the American and British leaders, Roosevelt and Churchill. Through eight campaigns across Europe, he was also a POW guard and tank guard dog.

Just before dawn one morning in July that year, General George Patton’s Seventh Army hit the beach in Sicily. Under a deafening naval bombardment, soldiers scrambled through waves and incoming fire to hug the sand. ‘Operation Husky’ was the largest amphibious invasion of the war at that time when more than 160,000 troops went ashore, Chips was among them.

At 04.20 on 10 July, with the sky softening over Sicily’s southern coast, Chips and his handler pushed inland from the beach. As man and dog approached a hut, it erupted with machine-gun fire. All the soldiers hit the ground but Chips broke free and, trailing his leash, sprinted towards the hut. Moments later, an Italian soldier staggered out, with Chips tearing at his arms and throat. Behind him were several other soldiers, their arms up. Chips’ handler called him off and seized the prisoners. But Chips had not come through unscathed: he had a small scalp wound. Powder burns on his coat suggested the enemy had fired at him point-blank, but he had taken the machine-gun nest. Later that day he helped his handler capture ten more prisoners. Soon he was hailed across America. Unlike other military heroes, however, Chips showed no respect for rank. When Dwight D. Eisenhower tried to pet him, he nipped the General’s hand!

For his actions during the war, Chips was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star for bravery and a Purple Heart for wounds received in action. On 19 November 1943, he was presented with the medals in a churchyard ceremony in Pietravairano, Italy. An excerpt from the citation reads:

For a special brand of courage arising from love of master and duty. Chips’ courageous act, single-handedly eliminating a dangerous machine-gun nest, reflects the highest credit on himself and the military service.

The awards were later taken away due to an army policy that prevents official commendation of animals and Chips had also broken the rules when he left his handler’s side. But his unit took matters into their own hands and unofficially awarded him a Theatre Ribbon with an Arrowhead for an assault landing and Battlestars for each of his eight campaigns.

In December 1945, Chips was discharged from the military and returned home to the Wren family. Sadly, he died just seven months later at the relatively young age of six due to complications from injuries sustained during the war. He was buried in the Peaceable Kingdom Pet Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. So remarkable were his exploits, though, that in 1990 Disney even based a TV movie around his life and deeds.

Decades passed after the ending of World War II, but the role of dogs in the military remained consistently important. The case of Fluffy in Iraq is a perfect example of this.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Russell Joyce and his unit needed a guard dog and a thin German Shepherd without a home fitted the bill perfectly. Joyce’s unit – 3rd Group, Special Forces, Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion – had used a dog to ward off intruders when stationed in Afghanistan and wanted another in Iraq, so they asked Kurdish soldiers in the area to search the streets for a suitable stray.

The Kurds came back bearing a gaunt German Shepherd with scars on his head and legs; he was also missing several teeth. He weighed 31lb and was about two years old. The obvious scars on his head and legs indicated he had previously been beaten. Visibly shaken, he spent his first night with the soldiers cowering in the corner.

‘What makes this dog so great is, look at the irony,’ said Joyce. ‘We took this dog from Iraq, we trained it and we used it for our own security. When we got him, he was pretty thin, he didn’t have much pep in his step and he was pretty scared – he literally didn’t move for a day.’

Since Joyce didn’t have any dog food, he fed the animal mutton, chicken and rice from his hand. He taught him basic commands such as heel and sit; also how to walk as a sentry dog – stay on the left side and near the handler. Within a couple of weeks, Joyce and his fellow soldiers noticed the dog was becoming aggressive to outsiders and on one occasion Fluffy chased a Kurdish soldier over a fence, tearing off his trousers. ‘It definitely looked after us,’ said Joyce. ‘If any American went to walk guard (meaning walk patrol), he would go right to their left side and he would stand right by them.’

He and Fluffy worked together until Joyce returned home from Iraq in 2003, but Fluffy was not allowed to travel to the States – he had not come from America in the first place. Now there was an even greater problem in store: unless a good Iraqi home could be found for the dog, he would have to be put down but Joyce was determined this would not happen. The dog stayed with the 506th Security Forces Squadron while the soldier began his campaign to be reunited with him.

Joyce started with emails and calls to the State Department, U.S. War Dogs Association President Ron Aiello and Monty Moore, a former Vietnam dog handler who runs a Web page dedicated to war dogs. ‘What I heard in his voice was something I had heard hundreds of times from former military handlers from the Vietnam era, who talk about their canines to this day and the love and devotion we have for them,’ Aiello said. ‘Russell had that same emotion about Fluffy.’ Inspired, Aiello wrote to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and at the same time devoted a whole page of his website to Fluffy.

Soon Joyce had received more than 1,500 emails inquiring about the situation and more than 30 US senators also contacted him to offer help. By the time Joyce called soldiers in Iraq to say the move to get Fluffy Stateside was well underway, the Pentagon had already contacted the squadron to ask about the dog. The military even found a way to gently bend its own guidelines to allow for Fluffy’s transfer when it designated him an honorary working military dog with honorary war dog status. Don Stump, an Army deputy division chief in Washington, D.C., helped in the process needing almost 30 different signatures to sign off on the transfer and bring a successful end to what supporters called ‘Operation Free Fluffy’.

‘It stirred me up when I thought about the selfless action and courage of Fluffy,’ said Stump. Meanwhile, Sgt. Joyce said he was relieved that the dog was able to join him. ‘I think that it’s a pretty great thing,’ he said. ‘A lot of people worked on this and it’s good that we’re finally getting some closure.’ He added that the support for Fluffy had been phenomenal, not only from civilians but also the military: ‘I went into a store today and somebody came up and shook my hand and said: “Thanks for what you’ve done – you’re doing the right thing.” It’s a lot of support not just for me but for our troops.’

Eventually, the US Army paid the $274 to fly Fluffy to North Carolina, where Joyce was reunited with his dog. ‘He’s doing great here,’ said Joyce. ‘He plays with my kids and he’s not shown any aggressive behaviour – we’re working to deprogram him.’

Caroline Joyce thought her husband must be joking when he first broached the subject of bringing the dog home. Although she and Fluffy have since become friends, it’s clear who he cares for the most. ‘The dog is fine with me but if my husband is around, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with me,’ said Caroline. ‘He just walks beside my husband and gazes at him all the time.’

Fluffy also won over the couple’s children: Sam, 12, and Elise, 6. ‘I don’t label him as a pet,’ said Sam. ‘I label him as a buddy.’

The three years that followed saw Fluffy raise money for the U.S. War Dog Association, a non-profit making outfit of former Vietnam War dog handlers and others who are establishing a memorial to the thousands of canines who have served – and died – alongside GIs in more than 80 years of US wars: ‘Russell and Fluffy have been a real boost to our organisation,’ said Ron Aiello.

Fluffy was also awarded honorary U.S. Military Working Dog status by the military, had dog treats named after him by a manufacturer, secured a spot in the Fort Benning National Infantry Museum and featured on an ‘America’s Top Dog’ TV programme. The family even wrote and illustrated a book about his life to help raise funds for the War Dog Association, animal shelters, rescue groups and others.

Sadly, Fluffy passed away on 16 October 2008, but not before he became a living memorial for Vietnam K9 Handlers and Vietnam War Dogs, enjoying a dignified life with his new family. As Joyce said: ‘Bringing Fluffy to the States isn’t about me – it’s about the men who weep on the phone while they talk about the relationship they had with the dogs who served with them in war.’

Another military German Shepherd saved his owner’s life in a remarkable manner while on a routine mission near Najaf, Iraq. Specialist Joaquin Mello of the 98th Military Police Company, K-9 handler, from Santa Cruz, California, will never forget the day when his working dog – Sgt. Bodo, a six-year-old explosives detection German Shepherd – came to his aid. Recalling his brush with death, he admitted: ‘It scared the crap out of me! I started thinking about it and I was like, “Wow, my dog just saved my life!” It was a scary moment for me, like the war actually hit me – the war became real in that moment.’

Mello and an Air Force K-9 handler went on a route-clearing mission near the town of Najaf and following this, he and the airman were asked to clear some suspicious piles of rubble around the convoy. He and the other handler split the area into two sections: Mello cleared in front of the convoy, while the airman cleared behind. After exiting their mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle, they began clearing the piles. As they searched, Bodo began acting peculiarly.

‘I had Bodo on the retractable leash and while we were searching, he started to get a little bit behind me so I tried to coach him ahead of me but he wouldn’t go and I ended up getting in front of him,’ said Mello. ‘He was showing great change in his behaviour.’ Mello bent over with his head close to the ground and ordered Bodo to seek, but Bodo refused to listen and Mello soon learned why.

‘All of a sudden he jerked sharply behind me and him jerking the leash jerked my head up,’ said Mello. ‘I heard a whiz and a loud ping, like metal hitting rock. Sand started kicking up in my face and I’m waving my hands because I can’t see, because I have dust in my eyes. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: someone just shot at me.’

When the gunners realised what had happened, they yelled at Mello to get in their vehicle. Dazed, and with sand in his eyes, Mello received help to get inside from a fellow soldier. Once inside, he was asked where he thought the round had come from, but he told them he didn’t know, that he hadn’t heard the shot.

‘That was a scary day for me – the bullet was only a foot or so in front of my head,’ he recalled. ‘If Bodo hadn’t pulled me back, it would have hit me right in the head.’ And he attributed Bodo’s prompt actions that day to the dog’s keen sense of hearing. ‘He can hear things we can’t. He will hear things before I hear them, too – he lifts his head up, his ears perk up,’ said Mello. ‘It’s possible he did hear the round and thought, “Dad’s in trouble” and pulled me back. It’s not important to me how he did it – all I know is Bodo, without a doubt, saved my life that day.’

When Mello returned to his unit, the leadership asked if he wanted to be nominated for a Combat Action Badge but he said no. ‘I’m not wounded or anything,’ he said. ‘I didn’t do anything spectacular, I just did my job – Bodo is the one who did something amazing.’

War-torn Iraq was also the setting for the remarkable story of a dog named Nubs. In October 2007, Major Brian Dennis and his team of 11 men were in Iraq patrolling the Syrian border. One day, as his team arrived at a border fort, they encountered a pack of stray dogs – not uncommon in the barren, rocky desert that was home to wolves and wild dogs.

‘We all got out of the Humvee and I started working when this dog came running up,’ recalled Dennis. ‘I said, “Hey, buddy” and bent down to pet him.’ At this point he noticed the dog’s ears had been cut. ‘I said, “You got little nubs for ears.”’ The name stuck and the dog, whose ears had been shorn off as a puppy by an Iraqi soldier (to make him ‘look tougher’), became known as Nubs.

Dennis fed him scraps from his field rations, including bits of ham and frosted strawberry Pop Tarts. ‘I didn’t think he’d eat the Pop Tart, but he did,’ he admitted. Nubs accompanied the men on night patrols. ‘I’d get up in the middle of the night to walk the perimeter with my weapon and Nubs would get up and walk next to me, like he was doing guard duty,’ said Dennis. Eventually he had to say goodbye to Nubs but he never forgot the dog. He began mentioning Nubs in emails written to friends and family back home. ‘I found a dog in the desert,’ Dennis wrote in an email in October 2007. ‘I call him Nubs. We clicked right away. He flips on his back and makes me rub his stomach.’

‘Every couple of weeks, we’d go back to the border fort and I’d see Nubs every time,’ said Dennis, who penned his story for the Paw Nation website. ‘Each time he followed us around a little more.’ And every time the men rumbled away in their Humvees, Nubs would run after them. ‘We’re going 40 miles an hour and he’d be right next to the Humvee,’ said Dennis. ‘He’s a crazy fast dog. Eventually, he’d wear out, fall behind and disappear in the dust.’

On one trip to the border fort in December 2007, Dennis found Nubs was badly wounded in his left side, where he’d been stabbed with a screwdriver. ‘The wound was infected and full of pus,’ he recalls. ‘We pulled out our battle kits and poured antiseptic on his wound, and force-fed him some antibiotics wrapped in peanut butter.’ Nubs was in so much pain that he refused food and water and slept standing up all night because he couldn’t lie down. The next morning he seemed better. Dennis and his team left again, but he thought about Nubs the entire time, hoping the dog was still alive.

A fortnight later, he found Nubs alive and well. ‘I had patched him up and that seemed to be a turning point in how he viewed me,’ says Dennis. This time, when Dennis and his team left the fort, Nubs followed. Though the dog lost sight of the Humvees, he never gave up. For two days, he endured freezing temperatures and packs of wild dogs and wolves, eventually finding his way to Dennis at a camp, an incredible 70 miles south near the Jordanian border.

‘There he was, all beaten and chewed up,’ says Dennis. ‘I knew immediately that Nubs had crossed through several dog territories and fought and ran, and fought and ran.’ The dog jumped on him, licking his face.

Most of the 80 men at the camp welcomed Nubs, even building him a doghouse but a couple of soldiers complained, leading Dennis’s superiors to order him to get rid of the dog. His hand forced, Dennis decided the only thing to do was to bring Nubs to America. He began coordinating Nubs’ rescue effort. Friends and family in the States helped, raising the $5,000 that it would cost to transport the dog overseas. Finally, it was all arranged. Nubs was handed over to volunteers in Jordan, who looked after him and sent him onto Chicago, then San Diego, where Dennis’s friends waited to pick him up. Nubs lived with them and began training with a local dog trainer, who told Paw Nation: ‘I focused on basic obedience and socialising him with dogs, people and the environment.’

A month later, Dennis finished his deployment in Iraq and returned home to San Diego, California, where he immediately boarded a bus for Camp Pendleton to be reunited with his dog. ‘I was worried he wouldn’t remember me,’ says Dennis. But he needn’t have been concerned. ‘Nubs went crazy,’ recalls Dennis. ‘He was jumping up on me, licking my head.’

Dennis wrote a book about his experiences and appeared on several TV shows to publicise it. He even got to meet Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. ‘It’s been a strange phenomenon,’ he said, then in the middle of publicising his book. ‘It’s been a blessing. I get drawings mailed to me that children have drawn of Nubs with his ears cut off – it makes me laugh. I keep telling him he’s going to get a big head! He’s handling it like a pro; he’s definitely on board for the adventure.

‘I think people are intrigued because there are so many powerful lessons to be learned here, starting with doing a simple act of kindness and see how it is repaid and also how to overcome adversity in the worst of situations.’

And surely ‘the worst of situations’ is war? The Dickin Medal was introduced to the UK in 1943 by Maria Dickin – founder of the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) – to honour the work of animals in war and is often described as the animals’ Victoria Cross. A bronze medal, it carries the words ‘For Gallantry’ and ‘We Also Serve’ inscribed inside a laurel wreath. Between 1943 and 1949, the medal was awarded to 32 pigeons, 18 dogs, three horses and one cat for events that occurred during the Second World War.

In 2002, the Dickin Medal was revived and since then recipients have included dogs working in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America of 2001 and dogs serving in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Afghanistan and Iraq. A German Shepherd called Antis was the first foreign (non-British) dog to receive the Dickin Medal for services rendered during World War II, though.

The phrase ‘one man and his dog’ might have been coined for Czech airman Robert Bozdech and his dog, Antis – the two were devoted to each other. After crash landing following an air raid in Germany, Bozdech stumbled across a small puppy in a bombed-out farmhouse and rescued him. Little did he know the dog would save his life.

The Czechs joined the French Air Force during World War II and after numerous escapades, during which he and Antis were shot down and rescued, Bozdech and his dog arrived safely in England, where Jan was accepted for training by the RAF. During their time in the UK, they helped find survivors of air raids in the bombed-out city of Liverpool. After the war, Bozdech and Antis returned to Czechoslovakia but eventually made an attempt to escape to the West.

At one point the Czech and two friends had to cross a river under cover of darkness. In the strong current his master lost his footing and hit his head on a boulder but Antis grabbed hold of his jacket and dragged him to the bank. Bozdech knew without his friends to guide him, he would be lost and so he sent Antis to seek them out. The dog returned after locating both men and all three continued their journey. Their troubles were far from over, though. One night, as mist descended, the dog was placed on lookout. Although Bozdech and his friends heard nothing, Antis pounced on a border guard who was about to discover them. Eventually they were able to complete their journey safely.

Back in England Antis was quarantined for six months, during which he pined for his master and became seriously ill. Bozdech had been unable to visit due to a slipped cartilage but arranged to be transferred nearer to the kennels. Immediately the dog heard Jan say the familiar words, ‘Looking for someone?’ Antis’ spirits rose and he went on to make a rapid recovery.

Sadly, Antis died at the age of 13 and is buried at the Animal Cemetery in Ilford. The words on his grave read: ‘There is an old belief that on some solemn shore beyond the sphere of grief, dear friends shall meet once more’.

Another German Shepherd – Brian, sometimes called Bing – was a fully qualified paratrooper, completing the required number of jumps and even taking part in the historic Normandy landings. He too was awarded the Dickin Medal, in 1947. Rescued when his parachute became caught in a tree and heavily wounded by shellfire, he was still able to warn Allied troops of German military. He survived to spend three months sniffing ammunition dumps and gun guards as his military masters – the 13th Battalion, Airborne Division – helped liberate France.

Born in Nottingham and volunteered for action by his young owner, Betty French, the dog took six practice jumps in a specially adapted parachute before being dropped into Ranville for the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944. So impressed with his work rate and instant obedience were the military hierarchy that they tried to persuade Betty to let them keep him but she refused and the dog, still nursing his war injuries, was returned to her in Loughborough in October 1946. He lived on until 1955.

Sometimes the war had to be fought at home, too. The Blitz caused devastation in the cities of Britain, nowhere more so than in London. Dogs, with German Shepherds to the forefront, played their part yet again.

Irma assisted in the rescue of 191 people trapped under bombed buildings while serving with London’s Civil Defence Services during the Second World War. Noted for her ability to tell if buried victims were alive or dead, she was awarded the Dickin Medal in 1945. The German Shepherd was initially used as a messenger dog to relay messages when phone lines were down. She was teamed with Psyche, another dog from the same kennel, and both were retrained to become search-and-rescue dogs. The pair were handled by their owner, Mrs Margaret Griffin (who received the British Empire Medal for her work). Together, they found 233 people, of whom 21 were discovered alive.

In one incident, Irma refused to give up on the scent of two girls trapped under a fallen building for two days. She specialised in being able to bark differently, depending on whether the buried victim was alive or dead. This included one occasion when Irma signalled with an ‘alive’ bark and rescuers dug out an apparently dead victim. Thankfully Irma was proved correct as the man eventually stirred.

There were a number of dogs combing the wreckage for survivors and among those who perished in the bombing, many of them German Shepherds. Jet was another German Shepherd and he, remarkably, assisted in the rescue of 150 people trapped under destroyed buildings. Born in Liverpool, in the Iada kennel of Mrs Babcock Cleaver in July 1942, Jet was black and initially called Jett, his full pedigree name being Jet of Iada. From nine months he was loaned to be trained at the War Dogs School at Gloucester, where he was specialised in anti-sabotage work. After 18 months performing anti-sabotage duties on airfields, he was returned to the school for further training in search-and-rescue duties, where he was partnered with a Corporal Wardle. They were then sent to London, where Jet became famous for being called out every night until the end of the air attacks and together with Corporal Wardle, became the first handler and dog to be used in an official capacity in Civil Defence rescue duties.

He was awarded the Dickin Medal on 12 January 1945 for saving the lives of over 50 people trapped in bombed buildings and the dedication read: ‘For being responsible for the rescue of persons trapped under blitzed buildings while serving with the Civil Defence Services of London’.

After the war he returned to Liverpool, but on 15 August 1947 an explosion occurred in the William Pit at Whitehaven in Cumbria. Jet’s heroic efforts helped save some of the rescuers and he was subsequently awarded the RSPCA’s Medallion of Valour. A memorial was eventually placed in the flower garden at Calderstones Park in Liverpool, near where the valiant dog is buried.

A more contemporary example of a German Shepherd’s courage in conflict came in 2002, with the posthumous Dickin Medal awarded to Sam for his actions in Bosnia when he floored a gunman and also kept a missile-throwing mob at bay. In 1998, Sam was on duty in Drvar with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps Dog Unit – with his handler Sergeant Iain Carnegie (from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire) – when a gunman opened fire and although the man fled, the dog gave chase through winding backstreets and passages. Sgt. Carnegie said in the medal’s citation: ‘Sam performed brilliantly. He upheld the very best traditions of British Army dogs. He was a wonderful and loyal servant to his handler, who was very fond of him’. Six days later, a mob armed with crowbars, clubs and stones surrounded a group of about 50 Serbs, but Sam held them off until backup arrived.

Some rioters even attempted to torch the compound but Sam chased them away. ‘Sam displayed outstanding courage in the face of the rioters, never did he shy away – I could never have attempted to carry out my duties without Sam,’ said Sgt. Carnegie. Sadly, Sam (who retired in 2000) died the next year, aged 10. His citation read: ‘His true valour undoubtedly saved the lives of many servicemen and civilians’.

Perhaps the most common sighting of German Shepherds being used professionally comes when they are seen with police dog handlers. Obi was one such dog but he had the misfortune to be on the receiving end of an attack by those who believed themselves beyond the law.

Obi, a three-year-old German Shepherd, and his handler, PC Phil Wells, were bombarded with bottles, bricks and petrol bombs while on the frontline in Tottenham, North London, during the street-riots that hit London in August 2011. Although struck by a missile (thought to be a brick), he showed no immediate signs of injury and carried on working for several hours before blood was spotted trickling from his left nostril.

He was relieved from duty and taken to a vet for an assessment, where a scan revealed a fracture to his skull above the left eye socket. Following this, he underwent emergency treatment at Mandeville Veterinary Hospital, but was then referred to Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital in Cambridge for a CT scan. Under the direction of veterinary surgeon Graham Hayes, he received specialist diagnostic investigation of his injuries and under light anaesthetic, the CT scanner was used to take several detailed pictures of Obi’s skull: these were then re-constructed to create a three-dimensional image of his head injury.

The image clearly shows the impact site of the brick and surrounding bone damage. Fortunately, there was no evidence of gross haemorrhage around the brain or fractures to the brain case. Obi, based at West Drayton police station in West London, was given time off to recover. He returned to work to complete light duties but it was two months before he was given the all clear to resume full service.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) gave Obi a special Animal Bravery Award during their Animal Action Awards ceremony at the House of Lords in October that year. Robbie Marsland, UK Director of IFAW, said: ‘We are delighted to be able to highlight the amazing service given by police dogs such as Obi. He is a truly rewarding winner of our special Animal Bravery Award.’

Off-duty, Obi lived with PC Wells and his family. ‘It was quite humbling to hear that Obi was to receive this award, in the same way that the public responded in the aftermath of the disorder and came out to thank us,’ he said. ‘It’s really nice to have the work recognised and while Obi received a lot of attention, we are just one of many dog teams who go out on the streets every day. Obi has been keen to get back to work – he didn’t like being left at home when I set off on my own as he loves it.’

Eight police dogs working in Obi’s unit also received injuries on the same night in Tottenham, including cut paw pads and broken teeth.

Shortly after the London riots, in nearby Essex tributes were paid to another German Shepherd, whose devotion to duty had been outstanding throughout his life. Brennan, who died in September that year, was the first Essex Police dog to be twice awarded for bravery. He was based in Chigwell for part of his life, with handler PC Mick Finch, who said one of his most memorable tasks while based there was to find a missing three-year-old girl in Matching Green, near North Weald.

‘The girl had been left unattended in a vehicle and wandered off on an industrial estate,’ he said. ‘It was bitterly cold and we were very concerned about her. Brennan searched along a fence line not too far from where she had wandered off and started to act oddly near the bushes next to some bins. He didn’t bark, but nuzzled the fence and appeared distressed. When a colleague the other side of the fence checked, he found the girl had curled up near the bins and gone to sleep.’

Brennan also managed to track down three men suspected of stealing from a lorry on the A12 during a storm when police helicopter operators failed to spot them. PC Finch told his local newspaper: ‘Despite the heavy rain, Brennan tracked them to a large tree in some woods and I found one of the suspects hiding up it.’ Brennan’s first bravery award had come in January 2008 – for pinning down two car thieves in Basildon, despite being repeatedly punched and kicked. Then, in April 2010, he was awarded for his bravery while overpowering a suspected motorbike thief in Grays, Essex, despite being badly hurt in the ordeal.

PC Finch said: ‘Police dogs are often the unsung heroes – it is fantastic that his efforts have been recognised. He is one in a million to me: he is my colleague and best mate, and I am extremely proud of him. He is very good at tracking and searching. He never gives up the chase.’

Brennan’s commendation related to a case where he and PC Finch were called to an incident in Basildon, where five occupants fled from a stolen car during the early hours of Friday, 15 June 2007. The officer said: ‘On arriving at the scene I put Brennan, a German Shepherd, to work on his tracking harness and he immediately picked up the scent, leading through the grounds of St Luke’s Hospice into the playing fields behind it. Brennan began growling, which means that suspects are close. In the distance I saw two figures hiding; as I approached them, they ran away. I identified myself as a police officer with a dog but they continued to run so I released Brennan, who took up the chase.’

The men climbed a five-foot fence into a field. When PC Finch reached Brennan, he had to lift the dog over it. PC Finch said: ‘He took up the trail again and led me to a dark wooded area, where he found two men hiding in the undergrowth. Brennan is trained to bark and contain when he locates a suspect but if he is shown aggression or resistance, he can bite to detain. Some people think that if you push the dog away or cause them pain, it will distract them. With Brennan, this is not the case. One of the men attacked Brennan by grabbing his ears, but Brennan took a hold of the man’s arm and a struggle ensued, with Brennan being pulled about aggressively by his ears while the man was threatening to hurt the dog further. This was a test of his courage and he proved his worth and dedication in apprehending a criminal.’ Backup arrived and the men were promptly arrested.

PC Finch added: ‘Brennan is, and always has been very keen to work. He has done extremely well in all aspects of general police duties and has for me been responsible for more than 100 arrests in the past two years, which were purely down to Brennan alone. He has a great individual personality and is larger than life.

‘Police dogs are very loyal to their handlers and will protect them to the extreme. It is a bond only a dog handler can truly understand, as shown more recently when myself and a colleague were violently attacked in a different incident, causing serious injury to us both. Brennan was also attacked and suffered a vicious beating, but held on and even when thrown off and kicked, he did not back down.’

Brennan retired in September 2010 and lived with PC Finch until the dog died, aged nine. PC Finch said: ‘I will miss Brennan greatly. He had a great individual personality and was always there, watching my back while we were at work. His passing is the end of an era for me and I will never forget him.’

Such is the bravery of the German Shepherd often their courage is almost taken for granted. Take the case of Odin, who seemed unafraid even of bullets. It was nearly midnight in early March of 2004 when Constable Bill Dodd and Odin got the call that Calgary Police Service in Canada had spotted a car parking at the rear of a suspected drug dealer’s house. When Dodd and his police dog investigated, two suspects fled from the car.

One man was caught, but in the struggle that followed the other man fired a handgun, narrowly missing one of the officers. The suspected drug dealer then fled on foot into the darkness of the neighbourhood. There was no snow on the ground, no easy footprint trail to follow, so officers called for canine and tactical squad backup.

Constable Dodd and his police dog Odin were alerted to an infrared hot spot detected on the ground by the police helicopter. Now it was a matter of finding the suspect in the dark before further shots were fired: already the man had shown he was willing to use deadly force. Odin began to track the scent as Constable Dodd held him on a 30-foot line. The 90lb police dog went through an opening in a fence then suddenly started pulling hard on the leash. Constable Dodd knew his dog had located the suspect so he called other officers to the site.

The tactical team shined flashlight beams over the yard but it was difficult to pick out the suspect. Odin strained at the leash, eager to finish the job. Constable Dodd knew his companion couldn’t be left exposed as a potential target, so he released the line. At that moment, the man jumped up and raised his handgun. Before he could fire, however, the brave police dog had jumped on him, knocking the gun from his hand. In an instant, he had the suspect on the ground. Police swarmed the scene and handcuffed him. Both Constable Dodd and Odin, his partner of six years, received commendations for their actions that night.

Such are the qualities of the German Shepherd even an appalling start in life doesn’t seem to hold them back. Jake, who became an award-winning police dog, illustrates this perfectly.

Jake was found tied to a lamppost when he was just seven weeks old – he had been teased mercilessly by youngsters, playing with fireworks and frightening the puppy. But brave Jake recovered after being cared for by Northumbria Police and qualified as a police dog just before his first birthday.

After finding a woman who had collapsed in bushes in South Shields less than an hour after she was reported missing, Jake was praised by senior officers. He had discovered the unconscious 39-year-old under deep shrubbery near Harton Cemetery in South Shields.

Jake’s handler, PC Alistair Cairnie-Coates, said he was delighted with his dog’s success after such a poor start in life. PC Cairnie-Coates, based at South Shields with Jake, said: ‘I’m very proud of him and glad he’s getting the recognition he deserves. It’s amazing how well he’s doing after having such a bad start in life – he just gets on with it and I’m sure he will be an asset to the force in the years to come.’

Jake was given an award by the German Shepherd Dog Rescue and Rehoming Centre in Newcastle. The rescue centre’s re-homing co-ordinator Alyson Lockwood, who presented it, said: ‘We are delighted that Jake has found a job that he enjoys. Considering the ordeal he went through as a puppy, he is such a confident and boisterous dog. We heard that he did so well to find the missing woman and we felt it would be appropriate for him to receive the trophy this year.’

At the age of four, ill health forced Jake into early retirement, much to the disappointment of PC Cairnie-Coates: ‘I’ve been a dog handler for 11 years and I have never had a dog like Jake – he was an excellent street dog. You just knew, when you were out on shift, he was going to look after you.’

Jake made his last arrest in December 2008 after tackling a burglar wielding a bottle at his handler. PC Cairnie-Coates said: ‘The offender had run off and we were searching for him. When I spotted him, he came at me brandishing a bottle, then Jake came out of nowhere and detained him.’

Sometimes police dogs are injured (or worse) in the line of duty. Zoltan was one such casualty. The four-year-old German Shepherd needed emergency surgery after suffering a wound to the chest during an attack in the Northeast of England. He was injured as he helped police arrest a man involved in a late-night domestic dispute in Stockton in 2005 and suffered an 8in-deep wound that went through his front right leg and into his body, narrowly missing his lungs and causing him to lose 20 per cent of his blood. Soon afterwards, plucky Zoltan was back on duty with his handler, PC Andy Lawton.

There are countless stories of the nerve and tenacity of German Shepherds but perhaps the tale of Aryn who took two bullets in the line of duty sums up the characteristics of this marvellous breed. When laid to rest in Oak Rest Pet Gardens, near Bethlehem in Georgia, it was in a ceremony befitting a fallen hero. Aryn had retired as a decorated K-9, surviving to live out the rest of his days with his handler, Cpl. Mike Waddell and his family. K-9 units from all over the area came to pay their respects.

A police honour guard passed an estimated 150 officers carrying a flag-draped coffin of the German Shepherd, who had faithfully served the Gwinnett County, Georgia, police department for seven years. The 11-year-old retired dog (who died in 2007) was credited with saving the lives of his handler and other officers in gun battle with a double-homicide suspect, three years earlier.

‘It’s good to see how everyone came together for something like this,’ said Police Sgt. Henry Schotter. ‘Any day a dog could be called to a situation, like Aryn was – we depend on them to protect us and the community.’

Aryn earned his hero designation on 13 January 2004 during a shootout with a double-murder suspect when he took bullets meant for his handler and other officers. They were in dense woods chasing a suspect, who police said had murdered two men. As Waddell dropped the leash to unholster his gun, Aryn rushed the suspect and was shot in the chest and leg. He survived but was forced to retire and remained the Waddell family pet until his death.

For his role in the shootout, Aryn received a host of departmental commendations, including two Medals of Valour and a Purple Heart. He was also named a Gwinnett County Officer of the Year and given lifetime membership to the Fraternal Order of Police.

Waddell didn’t speak during the funeral service but remained seated with his wife, daughter and other family members in a gazebo next to the bier that held Aryn’s small white coffin. A fellow Gwinnett officer read his words: ‘Thank you, buddy, for saving my life. I and all of my family and many, many others will truly miss you’.

In his written farewell, Waddell wrote of how heart-broken he felt each time he would dress for work and Aryn did his ‘happy dance’, thinking he was going to work, too: ‘Even though his body told him he physically couldn’t do it anymore, his mind and heart never told him no’.

While a bagpiper played ‘Amazing Grace’, two members of the honour guard folded the American flag covering Aryn’s coffin and presented it to Waddell. Gwinnett police K-9 Cpl. Bots Finnegan eulogised Aryn with a poem that in part read:

A man with a gun, the dispatcher did say

I jumped from my car when it pointed your way.

Before leaving home, I was told by your wife,

I knew at that moment I’d give you my life.

Perhaps this short poem by an unknown author sums up the qualities of all German Shepherds:

The stately German Shepherd

Protective, bold and smart,

Looked into my eyes one day

And quickly stole my heart.

Courageous and endearing,

A favourite of its breed,

So proud and yet so loving,

A steadfast friend indeed.

Caring disposition,

Faithful to the core.

If you have a Shepherd’s love,

You cannot want for more.

Devotees of the dog will no doubt echo those sentiments.