It’s not uncommon for trained seizure detection dogs to spring into action to help their owners during medical emergencies, but what an untrained, one-year-old Maremma mix named Clover did this week was pretty doggone amazing.
As Haley Moore was walking Clover in their Ottawa neighborhood Tuesday, Moore suddenly had a seizure and fell to the ground. After checking Moore, the big white dog removed her leash from her dog mom’s hand and then ran into the street to stop a passing driver.
“It was really impressive, the dog actually blocked my way,” the driver, Dryden Oatway, told CTV. “The whole time she was backing down the street she had eyes on Hailey; didn’t look away from her. She kept her distance from me but made sure her owner was okay and that was amazing,”
As Oatway tried to help Moore, Clover got the attention of another driver, Danielle Pilon, who also stopped to help.
“You could tell she didn’t want to leave her even when we were with her, but I think it just came to her that she was like, ‘I need to go home to let them know she needs help,'” Pilon told CTV.
As Oatway and Pilon tended to her dog mom, Clover ran home and barked frantically at Moore’s dad, Randall Moore.
Thanks to Clover and the good Samaritans who stopped to help, Moore was taken to a hospital and has recovered from her seizure. “All I remember is waking up in the ambulance and being really confused, just like, ‘What is going on?'” she told CTV.
Moore doesn’t know what caused her to have a seizure. “If this ends up happening again, I feel 10 times safer and I know she will be there for me,” she told CTV.
As a reward — and I’m betting there will be official hero dog honors for Clover in the near future — Clover was treated to a delicious dinner.
“[My wife] Diane comes home with a couple of big steaks and I thought, ‘Wow, this is great, I’m getting a big steak,’ and she said, ‘No, it’s for Clover for doing such a great job,'” Randall Moore told CTV.
Clover’s heroics were captured by a security video camera. Really good girl, Clover!
Photo: CTV News/YouTube