The loyalty of dogs told through 20 incredible stories

Dogs are amazing creatures. One of the best things about them is their loyalty. If you have a dog yourself, you’ll probably be able to relate to at least one of these stories about how loyal dogs are to their owners.

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When we brought our daughter, Elyse, home from the hospital, our dog, Becca, seemed to roll her eyes as if to say, “Really? Another kid?” But we knew she really loved our kids. At the age of two, Elyse decided to take a stroll down our dead-end street while her father was washing the car. Becca kept her safe the whole time by calmly circling around her again and again to keep her off of the street and on the grass. Luckily, our neighbour quickly noticed that Elyse had gotten away, but Becca sprung right into action when she knew her little sister could possibly be in danger. —Donna Brazen

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Our black lab, Chloe, was a little over a year when she disappeared in January. It was one of the coldest weeks of the year, the temperatures at night dropped well below zero. We thought we had lost our pup for good, but after a week she magically showed up on our doorstep. She was pretty banged up and we had to nurse her back to health but we were so grateful we had her home again. We’ll never know what happened to her during that week, but she knew how to find her way home to her family. —Shelly Peavy

My Pomeranian, Luke, is as smart as a whip. He’s full of energy, but he can sense when I’m sad and stays by my side and even lays his head on my chest until I cheer up. When I learned about the passing of my brother-in-law, Luke stayed by my side for the entire day except for when he had to go outside to go to the bathroom. —Cheryl Geisler

I had a Rottweiler named Sugar Bear for 14 years. She was an amazing dog and had a great sense of humour. She would voluntarily wear silly devil horns on her head for hours on Halloween seeming to laugh along with the children that came to the house to trick or treat. Even on her last day with us, she brought joy to a whole group of people. Family was gathered around her giving her lots of pats when she loudly passed gas, there was a moment of silence before everyone in the room burst into laughter. She looked around the room with a huge smile on her face, huffing in laughter right along with us. —Lori Coronado

After our grandson told us he couldn’t keep his dog, Sadie, we took her in. We were a little hesitant about it and sadly two days after we got her we had to put our own dog, Bella down. Bella was the love of my husband’s life and he was very torn up when she left us. A few days after we put her down, my husband was sitting in his recliner and Sadie could tell he was upset. She circled around him two times, jumped up in his lap, put her paws under both of his arms to hug him, and put her head on his shoulder and they cried together. We knew at that moment she would be in our home and hearts forever. —Carole Swickert

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Our English Shephard, Nell, was a herding dog that always watched over our five children. When our youngest, Terri, was first learning to walk Nell would keep a close eye on her. If Terri was heading towards the stairs, Nell would block her from getting too close to the top step with her paws. One day, she came and got me while I was in the bathroom upstairs. She lead me downstairs where I discovered that Terri had gotten outside and was heading down our driveway towards the road. Nell helped save the day and keep our Terri safe. —Sandra Lang

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Our dog Rocky was super smart from the second we got him. At only 10 weeks he knew almost all of the basic commands. Then, he slowly started to not listen when I would tell him to roll over or sit. When it was time to take an AKC basic obedience class I say him down, looked him in the eyes, and told him he needed to listen to me so we could pass the test. During the test, he listened to everything I said and he passed.  He just smiles in his cute head tilted way and gives me a look that says it all: I did it for you but don’t get too excited—I also wanted to look good and I did. —Mary Gordon

We got our dog Governor as a puppy. He came to live with us before we had any kids or other dogs. He is an amazingly intuitive dog. When I was at the hospital having our first daughter he went to stay with a friend. Our daughter, Adelai was born at 4:30am. The following day my husband called our friend to tell her the good news. She couldn’t believe it, Governor who had been soundly sleeping got up at 4:30am, barked 3 times and then laid back down. When our second daughter was born, he was staying with the same friend. My husband called to tell her about Cora, our newest addition and our friend said she already knew, Governor told her by barking 3 times in the middle of the night when she was born. Our third daughter was born during the workday and no one was there to hear him, but I like to believe that he shouted Rowen’s arrival to the rooftops as well. —Colleen Homb

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My rottweiler Maggie had a very strong personality and attitude, but she was also my loyal protector. She never left my side. She liked to stay with me in the evening while I watched tv until I let her out one last time at 10pm and then went to bed. There were a few nights where I would watch one more episode after letting her out. When we got back inside she would start to head towards the bedroom, but stop when she saw that I wasn’t close behind. She would bark to tell me it was time for bed and when I told her I wasn’t ready she would sigh and come back to sit by my side. Then, when my show as over she would happily follow me to bed. —Cathi Demling

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