Dog Calls 911 To Save Owner

A dog named Lyric remembered her training Tuesday, using a preprogrammed telephone to call for help after her owner’s oxygen mask came loose.

Judi Bayly, who sleeps with an oxygen mask on because of a breathing disorder, said she could have died if her Irish setter had not been there to help.

“I feel like if my husband’s away I’ve got some kind of guardian angel sleeping on my bed with me even if it’s red with a fur coat,” she said.

When Bayly’s oxygen alarm sounded early Tuesday, Lyric first tried to rouse her owner.

Failing that, she knocked the receiver off a telephone, and bumped a speed-dial button on the phone three times to dial 911. Several buttons on the phone are programmed for the same number, so she doesn’t have to be able to choose one.

“It’s amazing,” said Charlene Hall, a dispatcher at Nashua Fire Rescue. “The dog is trained to go over and hit that phone three times to get 911 and she barks into the receiver.”

The town’s 911 system automatically gives dispatchers a caller’s address.