Dog Saves New Family Six Hours After Being Adopted

11/14/2011

The. Best. Dog. Story. Ever.

A gentle giant named Hercules proved his worth as a loyal canine companion only six hours after being rescued from an animal shelter and brought home by Lee & Elizabeth Littler last Wednesday.

Just as the Littlers were preparing to take Hercules outside for a walk Wednesday night, the 135-pound Saint Bernard, who had not made as much as a peep since being adopted that afternoon, started growling, plowed through their screen door and charged after an intruder trying to get into their house through their basement door!

[Watch amazing stories of animals transforming human lives on Saved, Mondays at 8 p.m. e/p.]

Brave Hercules even managed to chomp on the man’s ankle as he climbed a fence and got away. Police say the home’s phone and cable lines had been cut. They have not yet found the man that Hercules chased away.

Kindness Repaid

"When I saw Hercules for the first time, I fell in love with him," Elizabeth Littler told ABC News. "He's 75% underweight and just, he looked awfully beat up."

The Littlers initial intentions were to foster Hercules and find him a good home to keep him from being euthanized. But Hercules has officially earned himself a permanent home with the Littlers, his new forever family.

"To have adopted a dog 6 hours before the incident and have him already defending you with that resolve, it's amazing. If you show care and affection to your animals, they will return it," Lee told ABC News.

Yay for the Littlers for giving Hercules a new lease on life and what a wonderful testimonial to the innate loyalty of our canine companions.

 Looking for your own Hercules? Visit Petfinder.com and see thousands of loving animals that would love to meet you and become part of your family.

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• 'Hero' Puppy Saves Family After Loss of Military Son

 

Comments

[Joy]

I admire the loyalty of dog's to their master...

[lee anne]

Awesome story

[Christa]

I admit this is a great story...but am I the only one wondering if this dog is coming with some serious aggression issues? What if the person in the house had been a friend or family member who had let themselves in? We so often comment on the loyalty of dogs who attack intruders, but forget how difficult it can be for dogs to discriminate friend from foe. Sorry to be a downer, but I really thought it deserved pointing out.

[Thungchanpeni patton]

I love dogs and when I hear a dog story like hercules and hachiko etc I become more certain that it is worth loving dogs.

[Carrie]

@Christa

I truly disagree. There is a severe difference in a person's energy if they are a friend compared to if they are intending harm.

Dogs - most animals - read that energy very well and from quite a distance.

I sincerely doubt this dog will randomly attack a friend of the family.

[Christa]

@Carrie

I do hope you are right in this case. I work as a trainer and have met many dogs who cannot discriminate friend from foe, they would just as soon bite a 'bad guy' as grandma who meant no harm and gave off no 'bad vibes'.

But, I do sincerely hope that this was one of the rare cases of a dog knowing the difference :) I just wanted to put my thoughts out there.

[Lisa]

@Christa....@Carrie just posted what I was about to. Almost word for word. They have great instincts and she's spot on about the energy they read.

[Carolina]

Yes @Christa, I also believe dogs can "smell" that kind of bad energy from an intruder. Certanly there might be cases of dogs attacking without reason, but in this case I think the dog was right, otherwise the intruder wouldn't run away. Greetings (:

[Christa]

I would run away if I saw a huge St. Bernard coming into the house I was robbing, LOL ;)

But of course dogs can sense danger and bad intentions, I just wanted to make a point about how sometimes we praise guard dogs, yet criticize those who bite mailmen, neighbors, etc. There is a fine line between the two in many cases.

We also don't know all the details of this story. I do hope in this case that the dog was being a good boy. He certainly deserves the great life that I'm sure he will now have :)

[Hamster]

The creep had cut the phone and cable lines before entering the house. That means he meant serious harm or even a chance of death to the family if not for this dog.

[Pokeypup]

@Christa other dogs well maybe, but NOT a Saint Bernard I am owned by my fourth saint now and have known many and sadly even one who was tied out in a yard and had every right to be mean and not one not ever have they mistaken friend from foe and I do mean NEVER!!!

[Rikki]

I'm thinking that if you have family and friends with keys to your home it may be a good idea to let them know that you just brought a new dog home and they should ring the bell. However, I do agree with those who said dogs sense negative energy. It's a great story. Save a dog.

[Barb]

Friends have a rescued St Bernard. We were visiting one day and my husband was petting the dog on the back of his head and the dog was in heaven. Jim moved his hand lightly down his back and the dog turned and ripped the skin on the back of his hand open. The next morning I did something one is not supposed to do - I realized later. I walked up to him and bent down to talk to him while looking into his face. Luckily I had quick reactions as he nicked the bridge of my nose and I had 3 little puncture marks there. We sent our separate ways and later on I was outside taking pictures of the countryside and I got one of him looking at with great distain. As in- humph showed you.

[A.F. for Animal Planet]

GOOD DOGGIE!

[Donna]

I am the owner of 2 wonderful temperment Saint Bernard's, they do know the difference between friend and foe...they have such a keen sense of smell I could disguise myself (such as for Halloween) and they would know it was me.. gO Hercules, love to hear stories like this

[Donna]

Never came across an aggressive saint yet....Hercules was doing his job protecting those who rescued him!!!

[North Face Outlet]

Come on give it a chance. God Bless Arthur Beaulieu

[jennie]

to the person wondering if the do has a general aggression problem- that's a grand assumptions. animals have AMAZING instincts...ever heard the saying that they can "smell fear"? well, they can smell a rat too. my family dog did the SAME thing when our house was broken into. chased them out the basement window they came in through- there were dog scratches all over the wall up to the window and he had the intruders baseball cap. this dog was sweet as pie to the family, but KNEW when we needed to be defended.

[fashion guides 2011]

Save a dog. do it

[Jenn]

Christa you bring up an excellent point and something I was considering as I read the story. The very first thought I had was 'boy thats some serious resource guarding!' Because many of us spend so much time with dogs there is a lot of baggage and anecdotal assumptions, not based on any verifiable science, we bring along when considering behavioral responses to situations. Behaviorists/ethologists/trainers etc who try to consider all possible reasons for non-human animal responses are those who often seem to have the most insight into the non-human mind. Thanks Christa for bring up one, of several, plausible reason for this dogs reactive behavior.

[Tina Petraline]

Adopt a dog! It's a win win situation!

[Crazy Hannah]

I think that who ever is a downer is thinking the wrong things about this dog. Ya it might have been a friend letting themselves in but that proves nothing. This family saved that dog and all he was doing was saving them back. This just proves he was smart and you can't be to sure.

[voxleo]

While that may be a point to consider about the aggressiveness issue, I do think that something like that might have indicated before this particular situation at the rescue/shelter or even towards the adopting family if that were the case. Plus just from reading this, it would seem that there was some considerable distance between the dog and the intruder (at the very least, a closed screen door) and that the people, without the dog, might not even have known the guy was there. If he had time to get up and over a fence with the dog coming at 'im, there was something that Hercules didn't like about the guy from a distance and out of sight.

The fact that the guy cut the phone and cable is some indicator of some unusually dark mojo - he likely had more than robbery in mind.

Dogs know things because they don't have the same hinderances and ego-based attachments that people suffer from which prevent them from seeing things as they truly are. "Bad Intentions" probably have a very distinct odor that they can recognize considering that they can sniff out cancer in a human... Heck maybe even a physical correlation goes with the intent, for all we know.

I think there are some things that are pretty clear even when we want to think the best. An aggressive dog doesn't usually go unnoticed for long.

[Betty Schueler]

Christa asked the same thing I asked myself when reading the article. Hercules was given up by another family for some reason; it might be aggression. Let's hope he is a gentle giant who just outgrew his previous family.

[African Grey Parrot]

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