That reminds me of something that happened to us many many moons ago when my 30 yr old son was a baby. We had a mixed breed dog (beagle and bassett) that loved the kids to death. One night I was watching tv and heard a really strange noise but since I couldn't identify it I ignored it. But the dog didn't. He trotted off down the hall and was gone for just a few seconds then came running back into the living room. He kept running back and forth until I got up to see what was going on. He led me into the baby's room where my little one lay in his crib. The baby was almost purple and and not breathing. I scooped him up and gave him a couple of breaths and he started crying. After crying he coughed this horrible sounding cough (the noise I heard before) and started choking. He was able to come out of that but we headed to the emergency room pronto. He was diagnosed with walking pnuemonia. Evidently he coughed up a couple of thick masses of flim that plugged his airway. The doctor compared our experience to avoiding crib death, because he had been as healthy and well as he could be when I put him down. He spent the night in the hospital and I was able to bring him home the next day with all kinds of medications and special instructions. Until the baby got well, the dog spent every minute with him. He would even sleep under his crib at night and a cough would wake him up out of a dead sleep.
I was absolutely amazed at that dog's behavior, and you are right; dogs are very intuitive. I think that they are so great about kids because the kids don't clutter their minds and are easier to read than adults are. But there ar dogs that are atuned to adults too. Just look at the service dogs that warn about seazures! |