Martta’s barking helped save a neighbour from a sewage pit

A dog’s unusual barking led its owners to a neighbour who had fallen into a sewage pit in Kittilä, Yle reports. The owners kept the exhausted man afloat until rescue workers arrived.

Martta, a Lapponian herder, wanted to go outside and brought Pekka and Anu Nevalainen with her to the neighbour’s property. They found the man in the pit, where cold water threatened his life.

The Nevalainens could not lift him out, but kept him above water during a struggle that lasted about half an hour, until the rescue service arrived.

“The worst thing was knowing that if he slipped from our hands, it would be over before our eyes,” Pekka Nevalainen said.

Martta will receive the Finnish Kennel Club’s Hero Dog title at the Dog Fair in Helsinki on December 13. The club will honour seven other dogs for actions that likely saved at least one person’s life. The Nevalainens have rewarded Martta with ice cream and extra praise.

Seven other dogs to be honoured

The other recipients are Kajo, an Australian working kelpie who protected its owner from a bull in Laitila; Nelle, a Russian toy dog that led its owner out of a burning house in Espoo; and Leo, a toy poodle that led its owner to a young man lying in freezing weather in Joensuu.

Also being honoured are Tico, a Shetland sheepdog that showed rescuers where two people were in trouble in the water in Kotka; Vode, a Jämthund that alerted its owner after his spouse fell down stairs in Ruokolahti; Alvari, a standard poodle that woke its owner during a heart attack in Vihti; and Taiga, a Brittany that alerted a man after his wife fell from a bed and became paralysed in Rovaniemi.

The Finnish Kennel Club will also give honourable mentions to 14 dogs.