Heroic Dog

Rex the Wonder Dog saves the day (and the kittens).

They say that dogs are man's best friend, and some dogs go above and beyond simple loyalty and become full-blown heroes. They protect those in need, right wrongs, and become crusaders for justice good enough to stand toe-to-toe with their human counterparts.

These are usually found in relatively realistic settings, and the dogs are not Funny Animals (with a few exceptions, see below). Depending on the medium and capability of the work in question, though, the audience may hear the dogs talk, or have some insight into the dogs' internal monologue. In the absence of any sort of character development for the dog, which is difficult to do in live-action, they will often be surrounded by several human characters.

Judging by the list of Real Life examples, this seems to be Truth in Television. Given humanity's talent for getting into trouble, it's certainly nice to know that at least one other species has got our back.

Many fictional portrayals of Tanuki often fall into this trope, albeit of Guile Hero territory. Given they are in the dog family, this is quite related.

Often needs to rescue Timmy in a Well, and may be an Angry Guard Dog. A cousin to the Evil-Detecting Dog, and something of an inversion of Dogs Are Dumb. May or may not be a Gratuitous Animal Sidekick or Action Pet. A particularly badass way to be an heroic canine is Sled Dogs Through the Snow. For a more subtle dog hero, see Hachikō and for a close cousin of this trope, see Noble Wolf. See also Heroes Love Dogs. This is the Heroic Canine in the contrasting looks of Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines.

Contrast with various villainous dogs such as the Hellhound and the Bully Bulldog. And Cunning Like a Fox, another (usually) villainous canine counterpart. If you have a Post-Apocalyptic Dog with you, it might be heroic or evil.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Parodied in Azumanga Daioh, when Osaka is worried Chiyo will be kidnapped if she goes to America. Chiyo claims Mr. Tadakichi will protect her. Osaka's response: "BANG! Mr. Tadakichi has just been shot."
• Densuke from Den-noh Coil plays a major role in the series, especially when he goes down fighting Nulls to protect Yasako. Can you resist his cuteness anyways?
• In Excel♡Saga Menchi usually acts as the emergency food supply, but in episodes that spotlight her she plays the hero.
• Fortune Dogs follows The Hero's Journey of a French Bulldog named Alex, who must find the courage to become a heroic dog in order to save a Legendary Tree.
• Black Hayate from Fullmetal Alchemist saves Riza from a homunculus in the manga.
• Most of the main characters of the manga/anime Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin are courageous dogs, who band together to fight an evil bear who kills humans and threatens to take over the local mountains.
• Zeke of Highschool of the Dead may not be the biggest dog, but he is fiercely loyal to Alice, even on their first encounter, he tries to protect her. Later, When Alice laments she has no weapons, Hirano points out that Zeke is her weapon. Also, any dog that survives the Zombie apocalypse has badass pumping through his veins.
• Inubaka has Lupin's grandfather, who rescues a four-year-old Suguri from a kidnapping. Lupin himself has a moment where he rescued Kentaro's sister from being abducted by some shady guys.
• Chou Chou from Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette has his moments. He hepled Cosette and Gavroche when they were children, was a helpful figure to Gavroche's "brothers" and, specially, he saved Gavroche in the barricades.
• Akamaru, Kiba Inuzuka's canine partner from Naruto is known for protecting cats and kids all around Konoha from mean dogs, often as Kiba translates: 'Pick on someone your own size!'
• Tobimaru from Sword of the Stranger is played straight, protecting the main protagonist from poisoned knives and very nearly giving his life in the process.
• Doogee from The Tibetan Dog is a Tibetan Mastiff who is tracking a giant beast that killed his owner, to which he succeeds in the end, being mortally wounded in the fight and then using his last powers to save his new owner from an avalanche.

Art

• A recurring theme in the works of Sir Edwin Landseer, such as Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler◊ and Saved◊.

Comic Books

• Asterix: Dogmatix is as heroic as his owners and in at least one story he pretty much saved the day by finding the lost potion.
• Ace the Bat-Hound is Batman's heroic dog, who even wears a little dog-styled costume similar to his master's.
• In Blacksad, all the cops are canines - nearly all of them dogs, with at least one fox on the force.
• Biscuit from Cindy and Biscuit fights side by side with his mistress, and has the odd solo strip.
• Uncle Sam, the Canine Companion to the protagonist of the World War I serial "Golden Eyes" and Her Hero "Bill". Three installments into the serial he sniffs out a German spy - and that's before he and Golden Eyes have enlisted! Once the two of them make it to France and join the Red Cross, Uncle Sam proceeds to knock out an enemy officer, assist with the transport of captured German intelligence papers, lead American troops to the location where Golden Eyes is being held captive, and work to find wounded soldiers after battles.
• In 1948, the Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott got a canine sidekick named Streak the Wonder Dog, who became so popular that he ended up taking over the book from GL. Streak is generally regarded as the prototype for the later Rex the Wonder Dog.
• Guardians of the Galaxy: The second volume has Cosmos, a telepathic Russian dog who under circumstances never explained gained telepathic powers, who operates as the head of security for Knowhere, and is therefore a friend of the Guardians (except Rocket Racoon).
• Lucky Luke: Ratanplan is a complete subversion of this trope in all but intentions, usually causing more harm than good and being The Load even in.., ahem especially in video games. He'll try, bless his heart, but he just isn't very good at it.
• Max in Oz (Caliber), who will leap in fearlessly to attack any monster, no matter how strange. His human masters would be dead many times over if not for Max's bravery.
• Pack: The titular Pack has six dogs in it. There's Chastity, Diligence, Humility, Kindness, Liberty, and Temperance.
• Rex the Wonder Dog is a boat-driving, skydiving, cattle-roping, dinosaur-fighting, skiing, fishing, decorated World War II veteran/investigative reporter of a dog. He probably knows more skills than Batman and Mister Terrific combined. He also gained the ability to talk and joined an association of magical beings ... after doing all of the above.
• Arwyn's dog Kreeg in Sojourn. Not only is he an Evil-Detecting Dog, but he is badass enough to kill a troll on his own.
• Superman:
  • Krypto the Superdog is Superman's pet dog and canine counterpart, helping him and his family fight evil since 1955.
  • In Blackest Night, Krypto saves Ma Kent and blasts the living hell out of a Black Lantern. And he helped Superboy's Batman Gambit to get free from the black ring controlling his body, while preventing Conner from killing Wonder Girl.
  • In The Coming of Atlas, the eponymous villain has defeated Superman, Supergirl, Superboy and Steel in rapid succession and is about to declare victory when Krypto pounces on him. And Atlas is completely unable to shake him off until Superman is fully recovered and ready for the final round.
    Krypto: (thinking) Man— This one hurt man— Krypto loves man— Krypto hurt this one. Man loves place. I protect place for man. Krypto good boy.
  • In Power Girl (2009), Professor Ivo clones Krypto and sics the dog on Power Girl. The cloned dog promptly licks her face and joins her. Angrily, Max Lord reminds Ivo that he gave very strict instructions not to clone him.
    Max Lord: We talked about this! Don't clone the dog! Dogs are weird! The whole loyalty thing just seems to be branded right in on a genetic level, for Pete's sake!
  • In The Killers of Krypton, Krypto joins Supergirl in her quest across the galaxy to discover the truth behind Rogol Zaar and his claims of destroying Krypton. Krypto's help proves to be invaluable, either beating baddies or taking care of Kara.
  • In Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Alan Moore's Grand Finale for the Pre-Crisis Superman, Krypto ends up sacrificing himself to kill the Kryptonite Man and save his master, fatally poisoning himself in the process.
    Kryptonite Man: AAAAEEEEARRGH! STOP IT! GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF! I'm killing you, you stupid animal! Don't you understand? I'M KILLING—YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
    Krypto: SNOPF!
  • In Krypton No More, when Superman will not help to drive an alien invasion back, Supergirl turns to Krypto for assistance.
• Tintin: Snowy is always there for his owner, no matter the threat level, once wishing to die by his grave and he is pretty smart too.

Comic Strips

• Parodied in The Far Side - The picture shows a poodle with a serious face piloting a plane on fire.
  Suddenly, amidst of all the confusion, little Misty seized the control and saved the day.
• For Better or for Worse: Farley suffers a fatal heart attack while saving April from drowning in a creek. Edgar the puppy gets an honorable mention for dashing back to the house and alerting the family to the fact that the two are in trouble.

Fairy Tales

• In Schippeitaro, the cat spirits fear the title dog. The young man triumphs over them by borrowing it.

Fan Works

• Huan from The Silmarillion fanfic A Boy, a Girl and a Dog: The Leithian Script. Really a demi-god reborn in the body of a horse-sized wolfhound, Huan rescued Luthien from her captors and joined her quest, killed Sauron's entire wolf pack, mauled Sauron, came up with a plan to sneak into Morgoth's stronghold and dueled the biggest wolf ever to death. And after his death he still stuck by Beren and Luthien, even though he could leave the Halls of Mandos and being reembodied at any time.
• In the backstory of Kara of Rokyn, Krypto joined Superboy in his adventures and saved the life of the Teen of Steel dozens of times.
• The Lorelei Chronicles: Lorelei's dog Baxter sometimes accompanies her and helps out, especially when splitting up is involved.
• In The Many Dates of Danny Fenton, Buttons saves Mindy when she falls off a tree. Mindy's parents freak out when they find out that their daughter could have died if not for her dog saving her, all while they were too busy with an important phone call to notice, and finally reward Buttons for his heroism.
• In Numberjacks Advanced, one of the Numberjacks' allies is a stray dog named Mitzy, who helps them out by distracting the meanies.

Film — Animated

• Pongo & Perdita, in 101 Dalmatians journey across the English countryside in order to rescue their puppies, as well as adopting eighty-four other puppies, in the process! There are also the united forces of Canines, in the "Twilight Bark" and those who help the Dalmatians, on their journey back to London.
  • An In-Universe Example would also be; Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt himself becomes the mask, in "Patch's London Adventure"?
• All Dogs Go to Heaven: Charlie is a mix of this and Jerkass when rescuing Anne Marie, intending to use her gift of talking to animals to get easy cash. Over the course of the movie, he becomes more protective of her and (after accidentally causing her to run away) saves her during a fire on the riverboat. Considering that he's got a watch that represents his heartbeat and he sees it fall into the water, Charlie chooses Anne Marie first and gets her to safety, causing him to die but regaining a place in Heaven.
• Balto, both the animated version and the real dog he was based on.
• Double-subverted with Bolt, who plays a superhero in the in-universe Show Within a Show and thinks it's all real. Even after learning the truth, he saves his owner's life by barking into an air vent from inside a burning building such that firefighters can hear them.
• Cinderella has Bruno, a hound dog who is long in the tooth, but is the only one able to stop the wicked Lucifer when he's easily able to beat back the mice and birds trying to get Cinderella out of her room.
• Lady and the Tramp: Tramp may be a stray dog who's proud to not be owned by a human, but he does help Lady protecting the baby in the house from a rat (she helps him get into the house, and he fights and kills the rat).
• The Rugrats Movie: Spike tracks down the babies, that had been lost in the woods for a whole day and night, and when finding them, helps Tommy rescue Chuckie from a group of monkeys and later fearlessly battles a huge vicious wolf to protect the babies, nearly sacrificing his life in the process.
  • No wonder why in Rugrats Go Wild! , when he finally gets to talk thanks to Eliza Thornberry's powers, he got voiced by Bruce Willis.
• 2018 saw the release of Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero, an animated version of the military career of "the most decorated war dog of World War I". The film does take a few liberties, but is largely unvarnished truth. The credits include multiple photos of the real-life Stubby.

Film — Live-Action

• Airplane II: The Sequel: A boy and his family bring their dog, Scraps, along on the Lunar Shuttle. Naturally, when everything goes to hell and it's revealed that one of the passengers is carrying a bomb, the dog is the one who catches it before it can hit the floor.
• Alpha (2018) has the chronologically earliest example, making this more Heroic Wolf. Alpha saves Keda after he patches up her wounds by helping him get out of a frozen lake and protecting him from a cave lion.
• In The Artist, George Valentin's dog alerts a police officer when he sets his house on fire and is unable—or unwilling—to escape. The officer outright states that George owes his life to the dog. Later, as George prepares to kill himself, the dog apparently senses his intent and barks ferociously to dissuade him.
• Thor, the German shepherd hero of the movie Bad Moon (and the book it was based on, Thor by Wayne Smith), fights a werewolf to protect his family.
• Benji, one of the smaller examples of this trope, regularly brought help and comfort to people and animals in trouble. Also something of a Real Life savior for fellow-canines, as his film appearances helped improve the image of mixed-breed dogs: their adoption rates at animal shelters shot upwards after his character became popular in the 1970s.
• Dog, from the John Wayne western Big Jake, somehow able to figure out what Jacob McCandles wants him to do just from hearing his name called.
• The titular dog from Bingo displays both human level intelligence and intense bravery as he manages to rescue a boy from a bear, rescue hostages AND call the police (seriously, the dog dials the phone), and saves the first boy's family from a suitcase bomb, barely managing to survive the blast himself. As he lays in an emergency room after the bomb, everyone he helped throughout the movie comes to visit him, filling up the entire room.
• Clash of the Wolves: Starring Rin Tin Tin, a German Shepherd. He (and his descendants) portrayed a number of different heroic characters in several films for Warner Bros in the 1920s and '30s, two television series, and multiple radio series, where he provided his own sound effects. Quite a career for a dog. The original Rin Tin Tin died in 1932 at 14, and the role has been kept alive by multiple generations of descendants, with the twelfth generation working as spokesdog for the American Human Association Red Star Emergency Services Program since 2011.
• In The Deserter, Kaleb is accompanied by a nameless dog who is capable of taking down an Apache warrior on his own. The dog takes a particular liking to Crawford and selects him for the team.
• Several of Bailey's incarnations in A Dog's Purpose. As Bailey himself, he saves his owner Ethan and his mother during a house fire. For added benefit, he catches the punk who caused it. Then, as Ellie, a police dog, he rescues a drowning girl and saves his handler's life—at the cost of his own.
• Firehouse Dog: Dewey is able to run into a burning building to help Connor Fahey rescue Jesse Presley, who had been buried in debris from the fire.
• The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and The Hills Have Eyes (2006): The surviving dog, Beast, not only manages to be more useful in the survival situation than any of the normal humans, but actually manages to rack up a higher body count than any other single living creature in the entire movie. German Shepherds are pretty renowned for being great guard dogs, and in a situation where his human family is unable to defend themselves, he's going to revert to Papa Wolf mode and kill some bastards. He also had his mate, Beauty, to avenge. Dogs do hold grudges over things like that.
  • The original movie, at least, deconstructs this somewhat with an offhand reference to Beast having killed a poodle at some point in the past, suggesting that his violent tendencies are not always heroic.
• In Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, when Shadow (Golden Retriever) and Chance (Bulldog) take care of a lost little girl in the woods and help her family/search party locate her; not to mention fighting and outsmarting a goddamn mountain lion.
• The wolfdog in The Journey of Natty Gann, who sticks with Natty for most of the movie and keeps her safe. Notably, he's portrayed by the exact same animal actor who played White Fang.
• Lassie the heroic collie, star of multiple films and three television series. She's even in a famous 1943 group photograph of nearly all of MGM's contracted actors, sitting left front center right next to Louis B. Meyer himself. Lassie would come to most people's minds as the Ur-Example of heroic dogs on film, except that's actually...
• Zip in Last of the Dogmen leads horses by a rope in order to pull two humans to safety.
• Late Phases: Ambrose's German Shepherd Shadow. It starts growling at Ambrose to keep him away from the room where the werewolf is, and then attacks again and again the beast, which has just proved to be so strong to be almost able to punch through walls, to protect his master.
• The Lost Boys: When the Frog brothers were cornered by a vampire, it was Nanook the Alaskan malamute (also an Evil-Detecting Dog) who jumped up at it and pushed it into the bathtub where the brothers' holy water supply was stored. (All the more impressive, in that Nanook may well have figured out that this would work, having just seen the brothers splash the vampire with water from the tub and burn its face!) Nanook also bravely guarded Sam from Michael when the latter became a half-vampire and was nearly overcome by Horror Hunger.
  • Thorn, Max's dog, can count from the villain's perspective. He drives away intruding mortals as his master is vulnerable and sleeping.
• While his precise amount of heroism is open to question, Milo in The Mask does help his master out of some tight spots.
• Rex, the bomb-sniffing dog from the film Megan Leavey. In one scene, he actually jumps up to pull a soldier down to the ground, taking him out of the line of fire. Plus all the other dogs like him, even if their role isn't as prominent.
• Ace (the Wonder Dog) comes to Maxine's rescue when she is attacked by a Killer Gorilla in The Monster Maker; apparently driving it back into its cage on his own.
• Ace (the Wonder Dog) features in The Phantom (1943) as the Phantom's animal sidekick Devil.
• Played for Laughs in Strange Brew, when Hosehead is tasked with getting to Oktoberfest and warning the revelers there not to drink the villain's mind-controlling beer. He quite literally takes to the skies like a superhero, complete with a little cape that spontaneously appears.
• Underdog!
  "when criminals in this world appear
  and break the laws that they should fear
  and frighten all who see or hear
  the cry goes up both far and near/
  for Underdog! Underdog! Underdog! Underdog!"

Literature

• The children's book Bad Dog Marley! (based off the Marley from Marley & Me) has the previously troublesome Marley saving the baby from danger—he's crawled on top of a cabinet and could have fallen were it not for Marley's catching him and alerting the family with his incessant barking.
• Mundo Cani of The Book of the Dun Cow is easily the most heroic character in the book, especially when he unhesitatingly takes on a planet-sized demonic snake that is his world's equivalent of Satan and wins, although at the cost of his own life.
• In Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40,000 Brothers of the Snake, the Space Marine Priad calms some Angry Guard Dogs and takes one with him to fight Dark Eldar. Years later, he dreams of it when the fight is showing its great significiance, and another Space Marine sends it to him as a psychopomp so he talk with him while they sleep. Even more oddly, when he arrives back on the planet, he is told the dog died years ago, but a dog exactly like it appears to help against the Dark Eldar again.
• To an extent, Buck, from Jack London's The Call of the Wild, and the half-wolf protagonist of White Fang. They do certain heroic things, and we are given insight into their thoughts, but they don't fit the trope exactly.
• Chet, the narrator of the Chet and Bernie detective series. His owner, Bernie, is a private detective who talks to his dog, using him as a sounding board, as he works out his cases. Chet is moral support, attacks on command, and, though he may not be much on deduction, sure can follow a scent trail.
• Gaspode the Wonder Dog in Discworld, especially Moving Pictures. He's a bit of a subversion, a scruffy mongrel who hates his doggy instincts and seriously resents having to save the day. He can talk, but hardly anyone believes him. Moving Pictures also has Laddie, who looks like a Heroic Dog, but is very, very, stupid. He does however, rescue Gaspode from his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Wuffles, Lord Vetinari's old terrier, actually manages some heroism in The Truth. He bites Pin and Tulip, gets away, and tells the story of what happened to William de Worde so that he knows Lord Vetinari is innocent. Plucky Dog Puts Bite On Villains.
  • The ghosts of Granny Aching's two sheepdogs, Thunder and Lightning, are sometimes summoned by Tiffany to deal with threats to the Chalk. Their appearance is always a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• In The Divine Comedy, Jesus is described as a fierce greyhound who will chase off the lions and wolves (who represent sin) that stalk Dante Alighieri and prevent him from finding true happiness.
• The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden's dog Mouse, who over the course of the series repeatedly saves Harry's (and others) life, is a proximity detector for evil beings and powers, has the ability to wake an entire building all at once and get them to leave in an orderly manner when the building is set on fire, and mercilessly tears apart any evil being he gets ahold of. It is strongly implied that Mouse is far more intelligent than he usually acts. His presence also greatly intimidated a millenia old sorcerer powered by a Fallen Angel (the first time the usually inflappable Nicodemus seemed afraid of anything). Did we mention that he made Leanansidhe flinch by calling her bluff? He is also extremely loyal and friendly. It helps that Mouse is descended from a guardian dog spirit.
• Fluke: The titular stray dog, against a particularly large and vicious rat, critically aids older dog Rumbo.
• Hank of the Hank the Cowdog series, having sworn an oath "to protect and defend all innocent children against all manner of monsters and evil things." Even though he's quite often Lord Error-Prone, he's always on call when someone's in real trouble.
• Pepper from The House on the Borderland. He helps his master fight off vicious monsters and later saves said master from falling into a chasm; later, however, he gets killed when the titular house ages his body billions of years in a single instant.
• In How to Fly with Broken Wings, Finn is beaten so badly in gang riots that he can hardly stand. His Staffie, Buster, pulls on his lead, all but dragging Finn until they arrive safely at Archie's apartment.
• Journey to Chaos: One of the Dragon's Lair mercenaries is Jet, a black lap. He helps Eric find allies during a Rescue Arc.
• The Last Dogs: Max, Rocky, and Gizmo qualify as this since they travel through half of the USA to find Max's owners. Nothing stops Max from being reunited from them, not even wolves or hurricanes.
• Isaac Asimov's Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter: When Bigman falls into the ammonia river on Io, Mutt leaps in to rescue him.
• Genevieve from Madeline first appeared in Madeline's Rescue, after seeing Madeline fall into the river. She jumps in and saves the smallest girl from a watery grave. This was also put into the Live action movie and animated series.
• The Moonshae Trilogy has Canthus, Tristan's pet moorhound, who manages to take down a zombie knight and a werewolf before leading a pack of wolves into battle against the northmen.
• Old Yeller: Arguably the most tragic, but still one of the most notable and heroic dogs out there. Old Yeller defends his family from all sorts of dangers; from fighting off a Mama Bear when little Arliss messes with a bear cub, fending off a herd of wild hogs and staring down a cow daring to harm Travis, nothing will stop Old Yeller from protecting his family without a fight. Then he fights a rabid wolf when it tries to attack the family. Since he’s bitten and doomed to succumb to rabies, Old Yeller gets the Mercy Kill by Travis himself, albeit reluctantly.
• In the Rainbow Magic series, Rachel's dog Buttons has helped the girls at times.
• Toby, the ghost-sensitive dog from Rivers of London, steps out of his usual comic-relief role to defend a semiconscious Peter from Molly's Horror Hunger in the first novel. Even Peter is amazed by the little dog's nerve.
• Sergeant Chip, from the Bradley Denton short story of the same name. The term 'heroic' definitely fits a military dog who is a better soldier then some of the human ones in the story and is doing a very good job of obeying his handler's last orders to protect a group of civilians.
• Huan from The Silmarillion is (most likely) a very minor deity in canine form, but he acts like an unusually intelligent dog for the bulk of the story. He is a brave and loyal companion to Beren and Lúthien, and occasionally The Mentor (he is fated to speak only three times before he dies). Oh, and there's one other thing... he defeated Sauron in single combat. (Yes, that Sauron.) He is prophesied to only die after fighting the greatest wolf to have ever lived. He ends up performing a Mutual Kill on Carcharoth, a huge werewolf raised specially to kill him.
• "Silver Chief, Dog of the North" was the star of a series of books by Jack O'Brien. Born into the wild, Silver Chief was tamed by Sergeant Jim Thorne of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and became Thorne's constant companion through many adventures in the Canadian Northwest Territories.
• The Tale Of Gelert Thedog, a Welsh fable, describes how Gelert saves the life of his master's son when a wolf enters their home. Sadly, when his master returns from a hunting trip he sees Gelert covered in the wolf's blood, assumes Gelert has mauled his son, and kills him, only to realise his mistake when he discovers the wolf's carcass. The Welsh town Beddgelert, Gelert's Grave, is named in his honor.
• Dog, the dog in Two Caravans, spends much of the novel acting as a simple tracking device, which is less heroic and more practical. However, when the dramatic finale comes around, he leaps in front of a gun to save one of the protagonists
• Universal Monsters: Gayle Braddock's husky, Snow, in book 2. She comes to Gayle's rescue when the Wolf Man breaks into her bedroom, despite the danger to herself, and gives her life protecting her owner. Fortunately, she revives when the werewolves are all defeated.
• Waggit Trilogy: In Waggit Forever, Waggit sees a little girl struggling to swim in the park's lake and jumps in to rescue her. He even gets his picture on the newspaper, which proclaims that he's a hero. Unfortunately, since the Tazarians can't read, they think that Waggit's now marked to be taken to the pound.
• Old Dan and Little Ann, the protagonist's two hunting dogs in Where the Red Fern Grows die fighting off a mountain lion that was attacking their master.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who: During "School Reunion", K-9, a Robot Dog, sacrificed himself to hold back the villains of the episode and give the other characters time to regroup and free the students from mind control.
• Game of Thrones: The Stark children's direwolves (particularly Jon's dog, Ghost, and Bran's dog, Summer) often save them.
• Homicide: Life on the Street defied this trope when Pembleton and Bayliss investigate the death of a police dog. The dog's owner notes that the dog wasn't really exceptional in any way and was in fact pretty dopey, but he was a good dog in the ways it counted most: by being a loyal, stalwart, and unconditionally loving companion.
• Lassie: The titular character had a regular human sidekick in the form of Timmy.
• The Littlest Hobo: The dog, London, is the titular character and perpetually Walking the Earth rather than being tied down to one owner.
• Rex, in Inspector Rex, is a police dog who often does as much hard policing as the rest of his team put together.
• Parodied in The Late Show (1992) with the Charlie the Wonderdog sketches, whose main joke is that the dog (while harmless) is so badly trained he has to be pulled everywhere by his lead to make it appear as if he's doing anything.
• The episode "Pattern Seventeen" of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit had a young girl just barely avoid being kidnapped, because when the perp tried to shove her into his car, her dog bit onto his arm and refused to let go. The dog's growling and the girl's screaming were causing enough commotion that the perp decided it wasn't worth it, enabling the girl to escape with only superficial wounds.
• Married... with Children: The Bundy men and Steve take the neighborhood kids camping. Of course things go south, so Al gives their dog, Buck, a note to take to Peggy. As Al predicted, Buck braved the journey and made it home...but refused to give Peggy the note.
• In M*A*S*H, the doctors treat a dog named Corporal Cupcake, who deliberately tripped a land mine to save his human partner.
• Dex, the bomb-sniffing dog in the NCIS episode "Seek". So much so that at the episode's conclusion—by which point Dex has simultaneously avenged his handler (who was murdered in the opening sequence) by Taking the Bullet for Gibbs, Gibbs declares with 100℅ respect and sincerity:
  "That's not a dog. That's a Marine."
• Bear, the Team Pet of Team Machine in Person of Interest, who believes himself to be this. (It's more like he acts as a distraction and mops up for Reese, but his heart's in the right place, and he's quite capable when surprising bad guys.
• Przygody Psa Cywila has the title character, Cywil, a police dog Too Clever by Half.
• As if Trigger were not enough, Roy Rogers also had a heroic German Shepherd named Bullet.
• Parodied in the SCTV sketch "Alice", which featured a "heroic" dog that just ... basically sat there. Everyone around Alice credited her with saving their lives, fending off burglars, etc., but ... she just sat there.
• Wishbone episode "Barking at Buddha": When Wishbone sees a news story about a heroic dog who saves a child from being hit by a car, he begins to fantasize about being heroic himself, which prompts the episode's adaptation of Journey to the West.

Music

• The GWAR film Skulhedface features a commercial spot for Turtles The Wonder Dog, a pitbull that heroically rescues little Timmy. Or rather what's left of him.
• The video for ''Save The World'' by Swedish House Mafia features dogs dealing with a mugger, a carjacker and an armed robber. It also appears that they've got organized about their heroics.

Tabletop Games

• Iron Kingdoms brings us a Khadoran War Dog a good boy so phenominally good he'll protect your army's Wizard-in-command from guns, spells, and multitonne steampowered deathrobots. Both by using his Counter-charge rule to charge anything that comes close to "His Human" and by making said human harder to hit and better able to run from problems.
• One Rocket Age adventure features Timmy, a border collie belonging to Agatha Christie and Enyd Brighton, who can help the heroes get out of some serious scrapes. Characters can also have dogs as sidekicks.
• Skippy the Wonder Dog from Grave Robbers from Outer Space, a version of him appearing as a Running Gag in every different genre the game covers. He's evil in a few.

Video Games

• Balthazar's Dream has the Player Character Balthazar, who is traversing through a Dream Land in hopes of saving his owner from some dark force that seeks to take him away.
• In Boogeyman 2, a dog can appear in the little girl's room. It will start barking if the boogeyman is close.
• Radium Dog from Defenders of Dynatron City.
• The Mabari hound party member of Dragon Age: Origins, popularly called Rabbit, Barkspawn or Dog.
• Zig-zagged in the Dusty duology. The first game, Dusty Revenge, has a basset hound who's the game only canine character, and also Friendly Sniper who helps Dusty take down multiple bosses. The prequel Dusty Raging Fist on the other hand have several hostile dogs as mooks.
• Fable II: When Lucien has you trapped, a pistol aimed at you, and is about to pull the trigger, you dog leaps in front of you and takes the shot. The dog that has been with you since the beginning of the game. Of course, he shoots you right afterward, but it was pretty awesome and gives you extra motivation to kill the bastard.
  • Fable III continues the tradition - though his successor is thankfully never forced to make a Heroic Sacrifice, he'll follow your hero through seven hells and back again, loyally defending you (and available for snuggles) all the way.
• Dogmeat from Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout 3 if the player recruits him. He is almost always the only party member who will never leave you under any circumstances save death.
  • His incarnation in Fallout 4 plays it even straighter: he's implied to have belonged to the (currently besieged) settlers in Concord and will attempt to lead the player back to them for a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • Rex in Fallout: New Vegas; a cybernetic dog with a... colorful history. He is also very old, practically a Time Abyss by dog standards, as he's a pre-War K9 police unit.
    • In Old World Blues you'll find a cybernetic splicing lab where you can create Roxie to accompany you for a while. The DLC's epilogue states that the now fully-operational lab will begin to cultivate armies of cyberdogs to roam the wastes and protect frontier towns.
• Missile from Ghost Trick. Follows his mistress into danger and dies, but when he's offered a chance to come back to life he refuses, because he's inherited ghost powers that allow him to protect his mistress better.
• Hewie from Haunting Ground is the embodiment of this trope. Without him, Fiona would not have a chance in hell of escaping as one bad ending demonstrates.
• North from Ian's Eyes is the seeing-eye dog of Ian, who's blind. He's also the Player Character. It's up to him to guide Ian through the zombie-infested school to find a way out.
• Boney of Mother 3. He's also Flint Norris's dog, and can phase through a speeding train.
• Koromaru, from Persona 3, who fights interdimensional hellbeasts with the best of 'em with the help of his Persona, Cerberus.
• Pokémon: While Growlithe is the most prominent example, every Pokemon based on a dog is this to some degree. Even Dark-Type ones like Houndour and Poochyena. Stoutland, the final evolution of Lilipup, is described in the 'dex as being highly skilled at rescuing people in snowstorms or lost at sea.
  • The Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 trailer has a Team Plasma grunt order her Seviper to attack the trainers who are interrupting them, skipping the whole 'Pokemon battle' business and going straight to taking out the actual witnesses to their operation. Cue big badass fire-dog Arcanine to the rescue◊, who intercepts the snake and launches it into low orbit with a physics-defying aerial throw.
• In Resident Evil 4, a dog comes and helps Leon fight a monster - if Leon frees him from a trap earlier in the game, that is. The dog is heavily hinted at to be Hewie from Haunting Ground.
• The hero's dog from Secret of Evermore.
• Blanca from Shadow Hearts: Covenant is actually a wolf, but makes up for it by being a party member and extra smart. At some point, you start to wonder if Yuri is the hero or the dog's sidekick.
• Spark the Battle Dog stars the titular Spark, an anthropomorphic dog who needs to protect a kid in a cabin from hordes of zombies and mutants.
• The Sun at Night stars Laika, a dog from space who can talk, wears a high-tech suit with a laser weapon on its back, and is helping a resistance movement take down an evil regime.
• Repede from Tales of Vesperia. He's able to handle a short sword and items extremely well for a dog, and goes up against foes both human and monster alike on a regular basis for the good of the world.
• Valiant Hearts has Walt, the Doberman Pinscher who is invaluable to the human characters, helping them with puzzles, fetching medicine, and distracting enemy troops.
• War Dogs: Red's Return: Red is a genetically modified dog person battling the Slaughter Club to free his home from its grasp.

Web Comics

• Pixie and Brutus: Brutus. He used to serve in the military, losing the use of one of his eyes for his trouble, and now he's the personal bodyguard to an adorable kitten.
• Widdershins has Greenwich, Harriet "Harry" Barber's evil detecting right-hand dog, who we later find out was bred by Harry's younger brother Edward, who has made a career out of breeding and training evil-detecting dogs.

Western Animation

• Jake the Dog from Adventure Time is an interesting case. He has magical shape-shifting abilities but does not go actively helping people like his brother Finn does and can sometimes be a Jerkass. However, he still is a good dog at heart and loyal to his friends and family.
• Poor, beleaguered Buttons from Animaniacs. He's undeniably heroic, charging into danger time and time again to rescue his charge, Mindy, (and getting comically beat up in the process.) He always delivers her home safely, but is usually admonished by his owner for some small infraction (like tracking mud in the house) instead of recognized for his efforts. (Although he does finally get acknowledged in Wakko's Wish.) At least Mindy still likes him. Silly puppy!
• In Batman Beyond, Ace (not the Bat-Hound, just a normal dog) does his fair share of rescuing, and does it in the way you'd expect an ex-dog fight contender to do it.
  Terry: (after Ace chases off a hyena Half-Human Hybrid) Good bad dog.
• When Courage the Cowardly Dog sees danger, he always cowers in fear. Then he always rescues his family, in spite of being scared.
• Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, although it's a wonder he can do anything right. But come the end of the episode he'll come through.
• In Garfield's Halloween Adventure, as Garfield and Odie jump into the lake to escape the evil ghosts chasing them, Garfield quickly sinks under and is swept away by the current (he can't swim). A frantic, whimpering Odie immediately dives underwater to find him and pulls him to safety. As they reach the shore, Garfield tells him with complete sincerity "I owe you one, old buddy". It's especially touching considering that Garfield is always ridiculing and tormenting Odie — he only even brought him along for trick-or-treating in order to get more candy for himself — yet Odie didn't hesitate to save him.
• Played to the extreme in Gargoyles, where the Gargoyle Bound Bronx, and later another hound from Avalon, who shows up at least twice, help their 'masters'. Bronx exhibits above-average intelligence for a dog - he's no astrophysicist, but can understand basic commands in human speech, and often helps pull his friends to safety. In one episode, Lexington and Brooklyn are trapped in electrified cages, as is Bronx. Out of boredom, Brooklyn pokes repeatedly at the bars, following each spark with a monotone "Ow". Lexington notices the lights flicker, and tells Bronx to escape; he and Brooklyn grab the bars, diverting enough power that Bronx can bend the bars of his cage and run off for help.
  • Gargoyle Hounds in general are much smarter than canines, actually being about as smart as a chimpanzee.
• Super Goof, Goofy as The Cape.
• Subverted to hell and back by indie animator Bill Plympton (now what did you expect). His dog from "Guard Dog", "Guide Dog", "Hot Dog" and "Horn Dog" is a loyal hero to the bone...only that a combination of incompetence, overzeal and sheer bad luck makes him a walking disaster area.
• Hong Kong Phooey, a karate-chopping "number one super guy", with an equally humble secret identity, ordinary janitor Penrod Pooch.
• Naga from The Legend of Korra definitely counts...since she's a Heroic Polar Bear Dog.
• Subverted in the Looney Tunes "Fresh Airedale" by Chuck Jones - a conniving dog (he lets in house burglars who pay him off with meat) sets himself up to look heroic, while the family cat, who is heroic, gets nothing but scorn.
• PAW Patrol: It's basically the whole point of the show.
• Reddy from The Ruff & Reddy Show is a bit of a moron and prefers to shy away from confrontations, but if his pal Ruff or anyone smaller than its antagonist is in a spot, he'll step up and fight.
• Spike from Rugrats, in the series' first episode, rescues Tommy and Chuckie from the vicious neighbor dog, showing from the very beginning how tough and heroic he could be when protecting 'his babies'. The best example is explained in the Animated Films section above.
• This trope is mentioned in "My Hero Zero" in Schoolhouse Rock!'s Multiplication Rock series.
• Scooby-Doo. For over 50 years he's helped capture and unmask criminals using faux supernatural dressings to cover their activities and many times has stepped up to rescue his teenage companions from life-threatening perils.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Homer's Enemy", has Mr. Burns make a dog his executive vice president, due to the dog pushing a baby from in front of a moving vehicle and pushing a criminal in front of it.
  • Subverted with Santa's Little Helper, in "Homer the Heretic", the house is on fire, Homer is asleep on the couch, Santa's Little Helper takes a candy bar from his pocket and escapes.
  • In "Old Yeller Belly", when Homer is stuck in Bart's burning tree-house, he's saved by the Heroic Cat Snowball II instead when Santa's Little Helper runs away from the scene. For the most of the episode Homer starts spoiling Snowball and scolds the dog for being a coward.
• Also subverted in Tom Terrific. Tom's sidekick Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog was a rather lazy dog with a big appetite who had no skills to speak of other than the ability to talk.
• Underdog, who was The Cape when not in his civilian identity of Shoe Shine Boy.
• Inverted with Dick Dastardly's sidekick Muttley. On Wacky Races, Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines and Yogi's Treasure Hunt, he's a villainous yet opportunistic chronic backstabber. In his own segment, Magnificent Muttley, he's a hero. At least in his own daydreams.

Real Life

• A dog charged into traffic to rescue another dog that had been hit by a car.
• Cracked.com gives us 7 Dogs That Accomplished More Than We Ever Will. Particularly notable is number six on the list, who was reduced to a footnote in the story of Balto despite technically being the bigger badass (comparatively speaking). On a happier note, he and his team got huskies recognized as an official breed, and are now ancestors of most of the huskies in the US. Balto, on the other hand, had been neutered at a young age, and so contributed nothing to the bloodline.
• Twenty Five Heroic Dogs. Highlights include a bulldog that rescued a sack of kittens from a lake, a chihuahua who saved a toddler from a rattlesnake, a mutt who fought off pirates, and a blue heeler who fought an alligator. Caution: reading this page is likely to induce an urge to find the nearest dog and hug it.
  • And the dog who found the last survivor of the 9/11 attacks... who is going to be cloned for police use! No way this can go wrong.
    • Well they have already cloned sniffer dogs so it's not exactly unknown territory. Incidentally, the first lot of cloned dogs are very cute and very good at their job.
• A Golden Retriever saved a boy from a cougar.
• A Jack Russell in New Zealand was killed protecting five children from a pair of aggressive pit bulls.
• An untrained German Shepherd saved his owner's house from being burnt down. The guy said that he needed help and the dog ran off and got it.
• Two wonderful books, "Dog Miracles" and "Puppy Miracles" depict the heroic exploits of numerous dogs. They will both bring you to tears.
• Go to a bookstore, a newspaper stand or a public library and pick up an issue of National Geographic Kids. In almost every trio of Amazing Animals stories, which is a section that is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, there's a story about a dog saving a person from something.
• Ace The Wonder Dog, who was not only a movie star but just as brave and heroic as the parts he played.
• Another real life example, this time a Rottweiler who chased off a scumbag who was attacking a woman. Good dog.
  • And another who spent the entire night in a city park guarding a baby who had been accidentally abandoned by his irresponsible mother when she decided to go out drinking with some friends.
• Laika, the first animal in space.
• Just about any police dog or military dog would count as an example, but here are some standouts:
  • There was Target, a female shepherd mix who saved the lives of dozens of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan by alerting them to the presence of a suicide bomber. According to one of the soldiers, "She got her name because the Afghans we lived with were constantly trying to off her. She's been shot in the leg...The Afghans actually ran her over....There's no killing this dog for sure. She's pretty much been through it all." One of the soldiers adopted Target and brought her back home to Arizona with her. Unfortunately, Target subsequently disappeared from her new home, was picked up by Animal Control...and in a cruelly ironic twist, was accidentally euthanized by a shelter employee.
  • Sir Peers Legh brought his English Mastiff along with him during the battle of Agincourt. He was wounded, and the dog protected him for hours until the battle was finally won. Legh never recovered from his injuries, but the dog returned to England and became one of the prime contributors to the modern breed. In Legh's home, a stained glass window depicting the knight and his dog can be found to this day. Oh yeah, it was a girl, too. One tough lady.
  • Dogs that earned the Dickin Medal , the animal version of the Victoria Cross. Includes a German Shepherd who saved his handler from drowning while under heavy shell fire (it's not mentioned on the site, but the dog had made it to shore, realized his human was missing, and dived back in to find him), another German Shepherd who found Air Raid casualties in a burning building, a Pointer who's the only known canine POW, and two Boxers who attacked an armed man, saving the lives of two British officers and being both wounded in the process. Good dogs.
  • In 1918, Jack, an Airedale terrier, ran through enemy gunfire for half a mile to deliver a message that would save a trapped British battalion.
  • Gander, a Newfoundland dog who was an army mascot in WWII, died after basically Jumping on a Grenade (specifically, he picked it up and ran off with it) to save his friends.
  • Sergeant Stubby, the most decorated dog in WWI. A stray that befriended soldiers training at Yale, he was smuggled overseas and charmed commanding officers by learning to salute. Stubby saved numerous lives by warning about incoming artillery fire or mustard gas, giving the soldiers time to take cover or equip their gas masks. He also demonstrated a talent for locating wounded comrades, staying with them until help arrived and providing much-needed comfort to the wounded. When the little dog captured a German spy, he was given the rank of Sergeant for his valor.
  • Kuno, a British Special Boat Service dog.
  • Nemo A534, a German Shepherd who served in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War and saved the life of his wounded handler despite sustaining gunshot wounds to his eye and nose.
  • Another historical example; One of the first documented recordings of the Hovawart, a breed from Germany, comes from the year 1210 when the German castle Ordensritterburg was besieged by Slavic invaders. The castle fell and its inhabitants including the Lord were slaughtered, however the Lord's infant son was saved by one of the castle's Hovawarts. In spite of being wounded itself, the dog dragged the tiny child to a neighbouring castle and thus saved the boy's life.
    • That boy, Eike von Repkow, grew up to be an extremely important administrator in medieval Germany and one of their most important early lawgivers. One of his laws required that the owner of a Hovawart had to be compensated whenever one was stolen or killed.
  • A Badass Adorable called Smoky (aka "Yorkie Doodle Dandy"), a four pound, 7 inch high Yorkshire Terrier found in New Guinea who participated in twelve WW2 combat missions, was awarded eight battle stars, saved her human from being hit by incoming anti-aircraft shells, ran a communication line underground (saving the Army engineers three days of dangerous digging work), and became the first therapy dog in the US. Steve Rogers would be proud.
  • Throughout 2014, there were a slew of embarrassing screw-ups by the Secret Service. In one incident, two Secret Service dogs named Jordan and Hurricane rushed a White House fence jumper and despite sustaining minor injuries, ultimately prevented him from getting into the residence. An article about the incident not only commended the dogs for their bravery, but snarked that the dogs were doing a better job than their human counterparts.
  • A 7 year old Belgian Malinois named Diesel was killed during an anti-terrorism raid in Saint-Denis, outside of Paris, in the wake of the attacks that took place in November 2015.
  • Marine bomb-sniffing dog Cena, who served in Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010 and was adopted by his handler, who went into a Heroic BSoD upon being told that he had terminal bone cancer and only a few weeks to live.
  • US Customs drug-sniffing dogs Rocky and Barco were so efficient in discovering drugs that people were attempting to smuggle that a drug cartel put out a $300,000 bounty on them. (Never carried out, thankfully.)
  • Frida, a Mexican Navy dog who diligently rescued victims in the aftermath of a very strong earthquake that struck Mexico City in 2017. Known in Japan as "Marina-chan", from her Mexican Navy jumpsuit with a prominent inscription saying "MARINA".
  • A Belgian Malinois dog named Cairo was among the group of elite Navy Seals that conducted the fateful raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. Considering that a police dog was among the many officers killed on 9/11, this practically doubles as either Laser-Guided Karma or a And This Is for... moment.
    • Speaking of whom, Sirius was a 4-year old golden labrador, a bomb-detecting canine for the Port Authority Police Department. His partner, Officer David Lim, left him in his kennel in the basement of the South Tower when he dashed off to aid in evacuating the buildings, but promised to come back for him. He was unable to rescue him before the collapse (because he himself was trapped in the rubble of the North Tower), but he still kept his promise by returning to the site to search for victims. When Sirius' remains were found on January 22, 2002, he was given all the respect that had been bestowed to his human counterparts—the machines were silenced, his remains were draped with a flag, a priest said a prayer over him, and all those present saluted as he was carried to a police truck . A memorial service in April of 2002 was attended by 400 people, including 100 K-9 teams, two dog parks (one in Battery Park City, the other in New Jersey) were named after him, he was awarded the Victoria Cross by the British Embassy, and a marker for his heroism was added to the War Dog Memorial at Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester, New York. David Lim calls him "the best partner I ever had."
• Other 9/11 examples:
  • Omar Eduardo Rivera (who is blind) was on the 71st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Fearing that he would never make it down the stairs in time, he released his guide dog Salty from his harness so that the animal might have a chance to escape. The dog CAME BACK, nudged and pawed at him until it was finally obvious he was not leaving without his master, and led him down 70 flights of stairs to safety.
  • A nearly identical story played out with Micheal Hingson and his guide dog Roselle, detailed in the book Thunder Dog. When the pair appeared on Larry King Live a few weeks later to relate their story, King summed it up in four words: "She's a GOOD dog". For her bravery, she was given the "Service Dog of the Year" award and posthumously named American Hero Dog of the Year in 2011 by the American Humane Society.
    • Both dogs were awarded a joint Dickin Medal by the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals on March 5, 2002, recognized by the British Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, and awarded a 'Partners in Courage' award by the Guiding Eyes for the Blind association.
  • To say nothing of the 300 dogs who participated in the rescue and recovery efforts, one of whom, as mentioned above, found the last survivor, and the last of whom, a golden retriever named Bretagne, passed away on June 6, 2016. Read the book Dog Heroes of September 11 or do a Google search for more details.
• Chief, a pit bull in the Philippines, performed a Heroic Sacrifice to save two women in his master's household from a cobra while his master was at work. He stood between the women and the snake and killed it, sustaining a fatal bite. He clung to life long enough for his master to come home, just for a last glimpse and a wag of the tail.
  • Another dog named Chief, tried but failed to protect his owners from violent intruders and soon died as well. However his blood was on the killers clothes and when forensics matched it, Chief posthumously ensured his and his owners killers would go to prison.
• An absolutely wrenching example from Kazakhstan. When a drunken and possibly suicidal man passed out on railroad tracks, his dog was able to drag him to safety—but unable to avoid being hit himself.
• Kabang, a dog in the Philipines that saved 2 children from getting hit by a motorcycle at the cost of her upper jaw and nose.
• According to his collar, Delta saved his owner's life three times, the first time by dragging him from the water when he was drowning, the second when he fought off four attackers that had tried to rob him, and the third when he fought off a wolf attack. His final sacrifice was a tragically failed attempt to protect a small child from the Mount Vesuvius eruption that destroyed Pompeii and he was forever immortalized in his heroic endeavor in ash.
• Most of the stories on these Reddit pages, "Redittors whose lives were saved by an animal, what happened?" and "My bird saved my life. Reddit what has your pet done that changed your life completely?" are this.
• When a driver opened fired on another car in a road rage incident, an innocent woman and her three children were in the line of fire. The family dog, a German Shepherd named Noah, proceeded to perform a Heroic Sacrifice by placing himself in front of the kids, Taking the Bullet for them. Then, despite being riddled with gunshot wounds, he managed to leap from the car and tried to chase after the gunman before finally succumbing to his injuries.
• A rescued handicapped dog rescued a family from a house fire. Despite suffering from arthritis, the dog managed to climb up the stairs and wake up its owners before the fire fully engulfed their home.
• This Bernese Mountain dog who saved two people from drowning, despite absolutely no form of rescue training, clearly acting on nothing but instinct.
• Figo, a golden retriever service dog, threw himself in front of a school bus to protect his blind owner. Indeed, she suffered only a broken ankle while he took the brunt of the impact. Despite his own injuries, his primary concern was still her safety—witnesses report that both dog and human were very upset upon being separated to be taken to their respective hospitals.
• From medieval times up until the 1930s, an apocryphal faith in Saint Guinefort persisted in the vicinity of Lyon, France. Guinefort was alleged to be a greyhound which was killed by his noble master over a misunderstanding: the dog had been left alone with the man's infant son, and killed a snake that would have bitten the child. The knight, finding the empty cot overturned and the dog's jaws bloodied, thought the dog had eaten the baby and ran Guinefort through on the spot. Upon finding the dead snake and unharmed child moments later, he buried the dog in an old well and covered it over with a shrine; local peasants started reporting saintly miracles on the site of the dog's grave, soon after.
  • There's an almost identical story from Wales, but it was a wolf instead of a snake. The dog's name in that version was Gelert, the master Prince Llywelyn of Gwynedd, and to this day there's a village in Gwynedd called Beddgelert (Gelert's Grave, probably actually named after a now-forgotten local saint) with a monument on the grave site recounting the legend.
• This beautiful golden labrador named Dayko, who rescued 7 people from earthquake wreckage before succumbing to heat stroke.
• In Serbia a dog named Leo saved a 10 year old girl from being attacked by a larger dog. When Leo saw the bigger dog push the girl to the ground he jumped in and started biting the bigger dog and allowed the girl to escape. Sadly Leo was killed by the other dog. There is a now a statue in a Serbian park of him that watches over the children playing. The plaque says "To all small heroes with big hearts." Good boy.
• A golden retriever named Storm lept into Long Island Sound to rescue a drowning fawn. Upon pulling it to safety, he nudged and pawed at it until it opened it's eyes and got up.
• Two family dogs saved the children from two poisonous snakes that invaded the backyard. Even better, they were the often-maligned pitbulls.
• Service Dogs are dogs specifically trained to help disabled owners (like Seeing-Eye Dogs helping blind people get around).
• The iconic Firehouse Dalmatian is now more of a mascot than anything, but it once served an active role in firefighting. In the days of horse-drawn fire wagons without sirens, the Dalmatian was an escort who ran in front to clear the road so the horses could get to the fire quickly. It was also good at keeping the horses calm and focused and at guarding the firefighters' equipment.
• This brave canine, who tackled a gunman who opened fire at a birthday party, only to be fatally shot himself.
• A bulldog led police to his owner's home after the man was hit by a car, allowing his family to be notified.
• This chocolate lab in Medellin, Columbia.
• In December 2006, Danelle Ballengee went out for a run with her dog Taz when she fell into a ravine. He cuddled up to her to keep her warm, then ran 5 miles back to where she had left her car, which had by now been found by rescue workers, and led them back to her.
• Major the pitbull-labrador mix saved his owner when he had a seizure. A trained service dog, he retrieved his owner's phone from his pocket, called 911 and kept dialing the number, redialing whenever the dispatchers hung up thinking it was a prank call ^note This is actually policy for suspected prank calls until they were able to trace the signal and dispatch first aid. When the medics arrived, they found Major waiting for them in front of the house. He led them through the house and to his owner, who was located in the backyard.
• This loyal fellow, who guarded a lost four year old and kept him warm until rescuers could find him. ^note  There are many similar stories.
• Wilson, a Columbian military dog responsible for finding four missing children who survived a plane crash. . . and who sadly has gone missing himself.
• After nearly 2 weeks on the run after escaping from prison, convicted killer Danilo Cavalcante was finally captured when a police dog named Yoda was able to successfully subdue him. In particular, the man was about to grab a gun and would have undoubtedly killed or injured others if not for the dog's quick action.
• Caspar the sheep dogs took on a large pack of coyotes to protect his sheep flock. He got severely injured, but he killed several of the coyotes. [1]
• Reecey the dachshund charged at a full-grown moose to protect her owner. The moose was successfully scared off and neither Reecey nor her owner were injured. [2]

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