| NAME: | Endal |
| SPECIES: | Labrador retriever |
| DATE: | 1998 to 2009 |
| LOCATION: | Clanfield, England |
| SITUATION: | Disabled, wheelchair-bound vet with speech and memory problems |
| WHO WAS SAVED: | Allen Parton, a former Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer |
| LEGACY: | Hall-of-fame-worthy service animal called “the most decorated dog in the world” |
Few service dogs exemplify what it means to go “above and beyond the call of duty” as much as Endal. For twelve years Endal partnered with British war veteran Allen Parton to become one of the most skilled, intelligent, and honored service dogs in modern history.
Allen Parton’s life changed when he was in a near-fatal car accident during the Gulf War in 1991. A Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer, Parton awoke from a coma unable to recognize his wife and teenage children. He had severe memory loss and trouble making new memories; he lost his ability to speak; he had visual perception problems; and his debilitating physical paralysis would confine him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
“The fear and shock of what had happened to me made me furious,” Allen said. “I refused to accept I was disabled, and I’m ashamed to say that I was horrible and rude to everyone.”
If anything, as the years passed at home in Clanfield, England, Allen’s life only grew worse. “I was like a blob in a wheelchair,” Allen said. “I didn’t have any emotions. I had no contact with people.” Feeling isolated and useless, Allen twice attempted suicide.
Then one day in 1998, a missed bus forced Allen to accompany his wife, Sharon, to her work at a dog-training center, the Canine Partners for Independence. As Allen later told the story, it was the tawny, one-year-old labrador retriever who chose him, not the other way around.
“Endal was on one side of the room, and I was on the other,” Parton said. “He decided he liked me and he managed to get a reaction out of me.”
What did Endal do? He climbed onto Allen’s lap, licked his face, and wouldn’t go away. “It was a cathartic experience,” Allen said. “Until I met him, I was in the depths of despair. But when he refused to leave my side at the training center, I suddenly saw a chink of light.”
HEY MISTER, WHAT ELSE CAN YOUR DOG DO?
When Endal started, Allen couldn’t talk, so one of the first things Endal had to master was Allen’s own personal sign language. He did, and as with many of Endal’s skills, it was self-taught.
“If I touched my head, I wanted my hat,” Allen said. “If I touched my face, it was for the razor. He learned hundreds of commands in signing. Eventually one day, in this very silent world we lived in, I grunted. That was like an electric shock going through him, he was so excited. They said I’d never speak again, but Endal just dragged the speech out of me.”
Just like in the movies, Endal readily fetched the newspaper and the mail, but there seemed no end to the chores he could handle. Endal did the laundry: opening the washer door, putting in the dirty clothes, then taking out the wet clothes. He did the shopping: grabbing items from the shelves, putting them in the cart, and handling the cash and change when it was time to pay.
If there was a button, switch, lever, or knob, Endal used his nose or paw to work it. Endal punched the sidewalk crossing buttons and made sure Allen didn’t roll into the street. He bought bus tickets, opened train doors, and helped pull Allen onto public transport.
Maybe Endal’s favorite chore was getting his own food and bowl at meal time.
“I don’t think there’s any period in a 24-hour day that I don’t put my hand down somewhere and he isn’t there,” said Allen. “I didn’t make him do these things. He just decided that alongside my chair was where he wanted to be.”
Endal never did only what he was taught. He actively looked for other ways to help.
One day, Allen was struggling at an ATM machine, so Endal jumped up and grabbed the cash, card, and receipt for him. Afterward, Endal learned to insert the card and even once punched in the PIN number using a stylus.
“It was amazing,” Allen said. As far as anyone knew, Endal was the first dog ever to use an ATM, and “he had never been taught.”
Ultimately, Endal learned over two hundred commands, among which were a number of “firsts” like the ATM.
SAVING A LIFE AND A FAMILY
Endal’s true worth wasn’t measured in tricks and chores, however. One day, Allen fell asleep in the bathtub, and Endal pulled the plug to save his companion from drowning.
In May 2001, a car accidentally backed into Allen, toppling his wheelchair and knocking him unconscious, and then drove away. Putting together both instincts and training, Endal pulled Allen into a recovery position, placed a blanket over him, pushed his cell phone near his face, hit the emergency button on the phone, and ran to a nearby hotel, urgently barking until people emerged to help.
Further, Allen said, “He fills in my memory problems—he has saved me physically and psychologically.”
Perhaps most important, Endal’s relentlessly optimistic personality seeped into Allen and changed his attitude about life.
Endal’s tail never stopped wagging. “Endal was very gentle, nurturing me every day, and encouraging me to do things,” said Allen. “He was a good therapist.”
This, in turn, helped save Allen’s marriage and his relationship with his family.
Before Endal, Allen’s depression and his dependency on Sandra was causing serious strain. In any marriage, Allen said, “You need space, and Endal gave us that—in real terms, saved our marriage.”
Though Sandra once joked that she was “second best” next to Endal, the couple renewed their vows in 2002. It was as if life for Allen Parton could start all over again.
THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS SERVICE DOG
“I got Endal as a one-year-old who had been taught social skills,” Allen said. The eager Lab hadn’t had any formal advanced training before he donned his red service vest, so how did he come to resemble a canine superhero?
Some of his skills reflected training Endal received after he started working with Allen, but that doesn’t account for Endal’s relentless motivation. Allen said, “Endal just looks at me, sees my weakness, and becomes my strength.”
Over the years, accolades and awards have been showered on Endal, almost beyond count. Endal won numerous “Dog of the Year” awards, several “Lifetime Achievement” awards, was named “Dog of the Millennium,” and had a street in his hometown named for him. Perhaps his most prestigious award was the 2002 Gold Medal from the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), which is the animal equivalent of England’s George Cross for exceptional bravery and devotion to duty during peacetime.
Endal has been the subject of a book and a British TV documentary, and a Hollywood version of his life is in development. By Allen’s count, Endal made over four thousand public appearances and patiently played along with 342 film crews.
In 2008, anticipating Endal’s impending retirement, Allen adopted another service dog he named EJ, for Endal Junior. Proving his worth one last time, Endal not only accepted EJ at Allen’s side, but also actively taught him up to 90 percent of the tasks that he had learned.
Then, in March 2009, Endal’s declining health and old age caught up to him. Numerous issues, such as arthritis and seizures, had severely deteriorated his quality of life, and Endal was put down, Allen said, while lying “peacefully in my lap surrounded by those that loved him most.”
Afterward, Allen wrote: “I still can’t pick a point in my life when I can say that I did something in life that deserved Endal’s unconditional love and devotion. . . . I have been truly blessed, but now I realize that Endal was never only my dog, he was everyone’s, and the world truly is a sadder place today for his passing.”
One of the more unusual tasks that service dogs are trained for today is dialing 911 in an emergency. You might think operating a phone would require fingers, if not an opposable thumb, but you’d be wrong.
Dogs have no problem learning how to knock a phone off the hook—many do that already!—and then stabbing with a paw or biting down on a single button. You just need to program 911 into your speed-dial first.
Of course, dogs also need to be trained to recognize a true emergency, such as seizures or diabetic shock.
Plus, it doesn’t hurt to let the police know that a 911 call from your house might be the dog. It would explain the barking and save time.
Sound far-fetched? Here are a few incidents that have made the news:
Lyric, an Irish setter, dialed 911 twice in 1996 to save Judy Bayly when she stopped breathing from severe asthma attacks.
Belle, a beagle, dialed 911 in 2006 when Kevin Weaver passed out from a diabetic seizure.
Buddy, a German shepherd, saved Joe Stalnaker three times by dialing 911, most recently in 2008, when Joe passed out from head-injury-related seizures.
And if you’re thinking, Great, another dog trick, consider that in 2006 a cat dialed 911, too. In 2003, Gary Rosheisen tried to teach Tommy, his orange-and-tan tabby, to dial 911 if he ever fell out of his wheelchair from a ministroke. As anyone might, Gary finally gave up. After all, who can train a cat to do anything?
But three years later, the anticipated emergency happened. The police received a silent 911 call, decided to check it out, and found Tommy sitting by the unhooked living room phone.