Endal

Allen Parton came back from the Gulf with a head injury that took half his memory, most of his speech and the use of his legs, and by his own account most of who he had been. Endal was a yellow Labrador who had failed his own assistance training on health grounds, and the two met at a Canine Partners centre where Parton was waiting, unwillingly, for his wife. Because speech was unreliable, the dog learned to work from signals: a touch to the head meant one thing, to the shoulder another. He worked a cash machine, put the card away, loaded and emptied a washing machine, fetched items off supermarket shelves, and pulled the wheelchair when it stalled. He learned upwards of a hundred instructions and — the part that made him unusual — began offering solutions Parton had not asked for. In 2001, in a hotel car park, a car struck the wheelchair and threw Parton out of it, unconscious. Endal pulled him into the recovery position, dragged a blanket over him from the overturned chair, retrieved his mobile phone and put it by his head, and when nothing happened, ran to the hotel and barked until somebody came. He was given the PDSA Gold Medal for it. He died in 2009, and Parton went on to found Hounds for Heroes.

Loved by · Allen Parton

Honours

• 2001Put Allen Parton in the recovery position after a car struck his wheelchair, then fetched help
• 2002PDSA Gold Medal for animal gallantry and devotion to duty
• 2000Named Dog of the Millennium
• · Reported as the first dog to use a cash machine
• 2010Hounds for Heroes founded in his name by Allen Parton

Their kind

A Newfoundland water dog refined in England for a soft mouth and a steady head. The temperament that makes them poor guard dogs makes them the standard for assistance work.

A life in seasons