Saviour Dog Rescues Drowning Baby | Pet Heroes | Pets & Vets

[Music] coming up on pet heroes two great danes come to the rescue when an infant falls into an icy pool and a duck enlists the help of several police officers when our ducklings become trapped in a storm drain hi i'm jason mccoy and welcome to pet heroes animals often develop a special bond with their offspring and sometimes that bond will extend outside their own species but when disaster strikes and that special bond is put to the test what spurs these animals into action we look at two stories of animals responding to babies in danger doug and karen lyle now live in sunny white rock british columbia but before that they had lived in regina beach saskatchewan where doug had taken a position with the government and the young couple found themselves searching for a home and we found this lovely home on the water with the pool and i knew right away that would be the one and we brought our pets with us we had several pets at that point time we had amadeus our great dane and we had a cat schwarze karen and doug try for a number of years to get pregnant with no success in the interim they decide to breed amadeus and soon have eight purebred great dane pups bambi was the pick of the litter she was the biggest dog and she was just gorgeous and she was the first one that went to a new home eventually we just had the rent of the letter bridgette and i said that's it doug i can't part with her we're going to keep her and she's going to be a companion for amadeus about that time amadeus developed bone cancer and so we realized that she would not be around for very long shortly after losing amadeus to illness the prize of the litter bambi is returned to karen and doug bambi's reunion with the family is not the only reason for celebration karen and doug learn they are pregnant and we're very excited because we tried for such a long time and when forrest was born the dogs just adored him right from day one and he was so comfortable with him we brought him home we put him in the cradle and they just stuck by him all the time they were always where the crib or the cradle or the blankets were they would they were just attached to this child he was theirs it was like it was we brought home a puppy for them or something and he he loved them too like he he got very used to them and it was never disturbed by their barks i think he probably got used to it when he was in the womb because they they weren't ferocious barkers and they just alert us to things i thought bridget and bambi were two other parents they taught me how to walk by just holding onto their tail wendy mcclellan a doctor of veterinary medicine offers her unique perspective on animal behavior bridget and bambi are responding to a pheromone or scent the baby forest gives off a pheromone lets them know that that baby needs to be watched closely if a female dog smells that pheromone they will become extremely protective we just had a lovely home a lovely setup and everything was going well by april of 1995 things have taken a downward turn doug has lost his job and expenses are piling up the couple tries to sell their beautiful home and face giving up bambi and bridget as they can no longer afford them it was still very cold in saskatchewan now doug realized that we had to make the house a little bit more marketable because it was april and we needed to sell it pretty quickly and so he opened the pool as was his habit he went daily to the post office which was about three blocks away maybe not even a ten well five minute drive and he would check to see if he had any responses to the resumes we'd submitted and put in the new batch of resumes that we were sending out while doug is at the post office karen sits at the computer working on his resume i was in a hallway that was just outside the family room and i'd sit for a step on a blanket in the middle of the carpets and the dogs were right beside him it wasn't two minutes i looked at him he was playing happily and i maybe typed two sentences when the dog was barking bambi's barking quickly alerts karen that something is terribly wrong i realized the doors were slightly ajar like not even a foot bridget must have even had to struggle to get through that little wedge she was quite a bit smaller than bambi bambi it was impossible she couldn't even she could barely get her head through the door then i realized something was wrong when i saw bridgette in the pool and i initially thought she'd fall in the pool why is she in the pool like it's cold why is she in the pool and then i saw forest sleepers in the water i just stood there and i didn't know what to do floating face down in the near freezing water is karen and doug's 13 month old son forrest after the break bridget and bambi struggle to get forest out of the icy cold pool but will it be too late 13-month old forest has opened the sliding door and fallen into the pool in near freezing temperatures as soon as i got the door open family just pushed past me and jumped straight into the pool bambi quickly joins bridgette who is already in the pool bridgette and bambi act quickly working together to get forest out of the icy water i didn't dive i didn't stop to remove clothes i didn't stop to do anything i just ran into the pool as soon as i got in the water and had them in my arms and the two of them it was almost like they were sheep dogs coming in behind me and pushing me pushing me towards the stairs he was so cold and i turned him over and he wasn't breathing at all he his eyes were shut he wasn't breathing and i got forced out of the water and i ran back into the house and i dialed 911. [Music] acclaimed animal expert and wildlife conservationist brian keating shares his insight most dogs will treat small humans in the pack baby humans in the pack as puppies so remember these dogs have all come genetically speaking from a pack environment and to support the alpha male and alpha female the end result would be to build the pack numbers with with offspring that survive so when an offspring is in trouble of course that pack behavior is going to step in karen panics as she realizes forrest still isn't breathing her cpr training is rendered useless as she begins to go into shock i couldn't remember anything i knew cpr i couldn't remember i just wanted him to fix everything right then and there i wanted it to be fixed but the operator is unable to help in karen's panic state i'm screaming he's falling in the pool he's not breathing and he's trying to tell me how to do cpr and i i couldn't stop and focus long enough to listen to him and he's telling me he he's being so blunt with me i can't help you unless you stop and listen to me and the dogs were right next to me they wouldn't they were like right up beside me bridgette and bambi stay close by baby forest they will not leave his side great danes were originally bred for guard dogs but over time they've been bred to be more mild-mannered and easy-going but that protective guardian instinct still exists karen has no way to reach doug while he's away at the post office but when he returns home chaos has erupted i didn't hear anything until after the garage door closed behind me then i heard karen scream patio doors leading to the pool were wide open and forest was lying in a big puddle of water on the carpet his lips were blue seeing his son on the floor unconscious doug quickly puts his canadian forces training to use i went and began giving him month-to-month resuscitation and after a little bit he seemed to cough and spit up some water and then he'd stop breathing again forrest had stopped breathing again and i remember the responders saying just keep doing the resuscitation after almost three minutes forest finally shows signs of life by this time paramedics have been dispatched from regina but it's 60 kilometers away [Music] the 911 stops breathing again and he said are you covering the baby's nostrils and mouth at the same time and i said no just a mouth and he said well okay cover the nostrils and mouth and when we did that the results were quite a bit better [Music] paramedics arrive and waste little time in treating forest as they try to stabilize him they came right in got right to work on him you know with some kind of advice that got oxygen right to him forest is breathing on his own the paramedics load him up and set out for the hospital in regina i went in the ambulance with forrest and i just was praying the whole time while the emergency room doctors work on forest karen and doug try to stay positive [Music] and then the doctor came out and he just had this best smile i could see on anybody's faces your son is going to be okay they took me to see him and he was awake and kind of groggy but he was alert and he said mommy and i i just i couldn't believe it the doctors believe that the shock of the extremely cold water caused forest vital functions to shut down very rapidly effectively allowing him to survive long enough for bridget and bambi to alert karen karen had resigned herself to staying with him throughout so i went back probably late afternoon i went back into the house and i could not find the dogs and i went up [Music] short room and the two of them were jammed under his crib i have no idea how long they were there for with force not being in the crib obviously the dog knows that especially after the afternoon's occurrences that that something is a miss so certainly the dog would recognize that there's a missing individual and uh and would want to display to the alpha male and female that it's concerned i think the dog would be showing loyalty to the pack or devotion to the the missing individual of the pack being little forest after keeping forest under observation for three days doctors finally allow him to return home the dogs were beyond excited i mean they were like we'd been away for six months and they stuck to him like lou there was nowhere we could go with him that they weren't immediately beside us our house was still for sale and things were no better financially people were saying to us it's time to get rid of the animals you can't afford the animals and doug and i just couldn't bear to part with the dogs the house is finally sold and the family starts fresh in white rock british columbia doug and my father drove out with the dogs and i flew out with the children shortly after their move karen and doug receive a call from a company wanting to honor bridget and bambi for their part in rescuing forest the award includes a lifetime supply of dog food i truly believe they were like angels in our lives for that were there for a reason that we they came back into our lives for a reason that we kept bridget the runt of the litter that nobody wanted for a reason and that bambi returned to us after four years with another family for a reason and and that's what it was meant to be forrest now grown up divides his time between running swimming and playing football he hopes one day to become a pilot in the canadian air force when i first heard this story i was actually really shocked like i never knew about this and [Music] i it was just felt like a blessing for me to be still here bambi and bridget pass on within a year of each other living almost 12 years a healthy lifespan for great danes i think almost every day but how fortunate we were to have had them there yeah we were extraordinarily lucky to have these dogs in our lives they were amazing i miss them every day up next a duck desperately tries to get the attention of a police officer when her ducklings are in danger [Music] we just saw how bridget and bambi were quick to react when baby forest was in danger in our next story we look at how a mother duck responds when her little ducklings become trapped nicholas reed is a professor of journalism at langara college here in vancouver before that he had been a reporter i was working as a reporter at the vancouver sun it was my job to write about animals at the time if you look into it you can find any number of horror stories involving people and animals so this was a nice change this was a story about an animal rescuing her own but also human beings coming to the aid of that animal it happened in july 2001 not far from where we are this is granville street bridge heading into downtown and there was a community police officer named ray peterson he was on duty at the time now retired ray peterson thinks back to his days as a community police officer the community police office is an office that the city they set up in a commercial area where people can come to report minor crimes ray begins his shift at 4 am after checking on the local businesses he decides to head to his office it was after 5 probably 5 30 i guess so it's very early in the morning and there was nobody around and that's when i ran into the duck at first ray tries to ignore the duck's strange behavior and i thought you know that's weird why would you know why would a duck do this and that's why i thought the duck something was wrong or the duck was injured still didn't figure out what was going on until finally the [Music] duck went back up to lay down [Music] that's when i discovered that little babies were down in the sewer [Music] after finding the ducklings in distress ray decides to call for backup alison hill an officer with the vancouver police service remembers that morning on july 11th i was working what we call alpha shift and it's from 4 30 in the morning until about four in the afternoon when this call came over the air i mean there was a note of humor in her voice attentional units we have a duck underneath the groundwall street bridge who appears to have her ducklings down in the storm sewer allison arrives on the scene and assesses the situation when i arrived if the duck was intimidated by all of us being around she didn't indicate anything like that she clearly stood around and and clearly knew that we were going to be the ones who are going to help out to rescue her ducklings the slots in the grate were about four or five centimeters apart so you could see how the mother duck could walk across the grate and then all of her ducklings fell through as they followed her while we were trying to figure out what to do with the ducklings the duck was standing calmly watching us and watching the great and watching us and and her calmness to me was amazing another officer arrives on the scene and together they try to remove the storm drain upon first review it would be hard to understand why the duck would stick around with so many people coming in i mean obviously its initial fight at the pant leg of the policeman didn't work and now there's more people arriving one would think the duck would just get out of there and some birds might do that as some mammals might do that but what we have to all remember is that from a survival perspective it's imperative that our parent remain firmly bonded to us for as long as is reasonably possible to ensure our survival with in the case of birds the bird will continue to respond in a protective manner or at least it'll continue to hover in the area as long as it continues to hear its chicks peek a dispatcher came over the air and suggested that we have a towing company come out and we thought that was a good idea because the tow truck could pull it right out a tow truck arrived on scene and it backed up into the area and the doctor stood there watching and quacking she didn't go anywhere and that's again it just amazed me how she stood her ground a resident has lent the officers a soup strainer to try and retrieve the ducklings from the storm drain once the grate was up as i recall ray went down on his belly and he scooped out the ducklings as every duckling came out the mom greeted every doctor it was like a tussle of the feathers or the beak to beak so to say like oh am i ever glad to see you i can see a theme with adult individuals protecting perceived offspring or real offspring i see a very big difference in the programmed behavior of the duck vs behavior of the dog i think the dog is a manifestation of 15 000 years of of honing but already coming to the table with a set of genetics that give it a very much a pack mentality and a pack protective mentality with the duck it was simply looking to make sure that its youngsters survived biologically this duck has a lot invested in her offspring she'll do whatever it takes to protect them even if it puts her in harm's way it was a child's story book about animals come to life in a way a lot of us grow up listening to stories about animals who have human qualities they speak their way they wear human clothes they do uh human things and here was an a real life animal who did something that i think most people would have only believed could happen in a storybook in animals as with humans the bond between a mother and her babies is a sacred one and whether duck dog or human there's a maternal instinct that kicks in which spurs animals into action bridget and bambi were quick to react when they noticed baby forest in danger alerting his mother karen to the situation and saving his life while the mother duck put herself in a potentially dangerous situation when her little ducklings were in [Music] at trouble that i've been through

Channel: Pets & Vets

Views: 2,459

Rating: 4.878788 out of 5

Keywords: Animals, Animal Documentary, documentaries, nature documentaries, nature documentary, Pet Heroes, Pet Heroes Season 1, dog saving kids, dog saving people, pets saving peoples lives, pets saving owners, pets saving kids, Dogs

Id: YZTYQOJLj9w

Length: 22min 7sec (1327 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 04 2021