A to Z Challenge 2024

This year my blog posts for the April 2024 Challenge will be about the recipients of the Dickin Medal, which you can read about here. They are in alphabetical, not chronological order, within the different letters.

E

Exceptional

There are no recipients of the Dickin Medal whose names begin with E, but all the animals trained for war work, for search and rescue, for protection and many other specialities are exceptional.  The Dickin Medal recognises valour and service but there have been a host more who gave of their best and have been honoured in other ways.

The PDSA Gold Medal for Animal Gallantry and Devotion to Duty was created in 2001 and is recognised as the George Cross for animals. From this list I have selected two whose names begin with E (and one with J!)

Endal  1995-2009

                                                        Endal

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Endal was a yellow Labrador who was born with osteochondrosis in his front legs, and it was thought that he would not be suitable as an assistance dog. Nevertheless, he displayed exceptional intelligence and problem-solving capability and undertook training. In the latter part of the 1990s he became the service dog for ex-Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer Allen Parton.

CPO Parton suffered severe head injuries while serving in the Gulf in 1991. His memory was badly affected – he had 50% memory loss and also could not retain new memories for longer than two days. He was confined to a wheelchair and had serious speech difficulties.

When Endal started to work with him, Allen Parton was relying on simple sign language to communicate his needs. He said, ‘When I couldn't talk, he (Endal) learned sign language – if I touched my head I wanted my hat, 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.’

After that, Endal learned more than a hundred verbal commands. He was able to select items from supermarket shelves, load and unload a washing machine, open train doors and operate lifts. He was also the first dog to ride on the London Eye, and the first to be recorded as able to use an ATM, inserting and removing the card, removing the cash and returning the card to a wallet.

In 2001, a passing car knocked Allen Parton out of his wheelchair. Endal pulled him into the recovery position, covered him with a blanket from the wheelchair, retrieved his mobile ‘phone and pushed it into his master’s face and barked for help. When no help arrived, Endal ran to the nearby hotel for assistance, but only after his master had regained consciousness.

Endal received numerous awards, the most prestigious being the PDSA Gold Medal in 2002. In that year he was also the first assistance dog to be awarded the UK Kennel Club ‘Gold Good Citizen’ award. 

He has been described as the most decorated dog in the world. He helped to raise much money for service charities like SSAFA (Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmens’ Families Association), the Royal Naval Benevolent Trust, British Legion and Seafarers UK.

Endal had a sense of mischief, like many of his breed. He would sometimes quietly take paper from the waste paper basket and take it to his owner, hoping for a reward for picking it up.

In 2009, just days after his final appearance at Cruft’s, Endal was put to sleep. Life had become almost intolerable for him, following a stroke and with increasingly painful arthritis. He was thirteen and lies buried at the PDSA Animal Cemetery in Ilford.

EJ, Endal Junior, another yellow Labrador, was being trained at the time, learning from Endal during his last year, as well as his humans. You can learn a little about him here.

In February 2010, Allen Parton founded a new charity in Endal’s memory, Hounds for Heroes, to support members of the UK Armed Forces and Emergency Services who have been injured in the course of their duties.

 

Ellie and Jones 

                                            Ellie, left, and Jones

Image source 

Ellie and Jones’ owners, Jo and Les, both have Type 1 diabetes and are well able to recognise signs of impending hypoglycaemia and act accordingly. They adopted their German Shepherd Ellie as a companion for their rescued German Shepherd/Corgi cross Jones to help him with his lack of confidence.

One night, not long after Ellie had joined the family, she woke Les in the middle of the night. When he was awake, he realised he was hypoglycaemic, but thought it just a coincidence. It happened twice more, but he and Jo still didn’t understand the significance of Ellie’s action, until one night she roused Jo in the small hours, who was about to have a hypo. At that point, they realised that Ellie was sensing the onset of hypoglycaemia and was warning them.

One evening in 2010, Les took the dogs out for a walk and went into hypoglycaemic shock. He remembers little of what happened but recalls both dogs licking and nudging him as he struggled to reach home, eventually collapsing. Ellie stayed with him while Jones, nervous and cautious of unfamiliar people, raced home to the back gate and tried frantically to attract attention. A neighbour knocked at the front door to alert Jo as Jones desperately dashed from the gate and up the lane and then back again.

Eventually, an ambulance crew reached Les, and he was rushed to hospital with hypothermia as well as hypoglycaemic shock. Without Ellie and Jones, the outcome would have been very grim. There is no doubt that they saved his life and for that they were awarded the PDSA Gold Medal for Animal Gallantry and Devotion to Duty in 2012.