Good Dog Award Winner – Abby the Red Heeler Saves Owner

This week’s Good Dog Award goes to Abby, a two year old Red Heeler mix, that saved her owner after a serious fall down the side of a steep cliff, in South Australia.

Sue and Michael Pethick, from Caloote, South Australia, were on relaxing vacation with their adopted shelter dog, Abby. Michael had gone fishing and Sue decided to take Abby for a walk. When Sue didn’t return in a reasonable amount of time, Michael started to get concerned.

He reported to The Adelaide Advertiser that he heard a noise in the distance, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. “I thought something was wrong,” reported Michael. “I heard a noise in the distance, like a voice in the distance, but I couldn’t work out what it was.” Then he realized Abby was several hundred meters away on the top of a sand dune. He called for the dog and she came running to him. “I said ‘take me to mum’ and she turned around and headed down this little track, along the cliff face and walkways and… she stopped near an edge where it goes down to the beach and waited for me to catch up – three meters down, there was Sue laying on her back.”

Sue had fallen and broken her ankle when she attempted to walk down an embankment at the beach. He reported that his wife had told him that Abby didn’t want to leave her, but she told Abby to “go find dad” and that’s exactly what the dog did.

Michael called emergency services and Sue was airlifted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Abby was named a heroic “wonder dog.”

Here at Good Dog in a Box, we agree! That’s why we’re giving Abby our Good Dog of the Week award. Congratulations to Abby for a job well done.

Rescue dogs are amazing animals and this is a prime example. Thank you to Melaine at Life with Dogs for posting this story so we could learn about Abby and give her this week’s award.

If you know of a dog that’s done something amazing, email us and give us the details. They might become a future Good Dog of the Week.