Dog Perfoms Heimlich on Owner!

This is from the Times, mind you, not the Star. The dog apparently got excited when he saw his owner attempting to give herself the Heimlich maneuver, which based on John Belushi's depiction of Liz Taylor attempting the same feat is no doubt quite an attention getter.

"The next think I know, Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders," she recalled. "He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest." That's when the apple dislodged and Toby started licking her face to keep her from passing out, she said.

The cynic in me imagines the dog reacting rather excitedly to its owner's bizarre behavior and decided it would be great fun to thump on her chest, as well. The dislodged apple no doubt left a sweet residue along the woman's mouth that the pooch was happy to lick clean.

On the other hand, dogs are amazingly tuned into us, having spent the last several thousand years acquiring this skill. There was a case in my home town here in N.J. a number of years back of a dog saving his owner's life. A man was walking his dog one winter night along the frozen river when he fell through the ice under a bridge where the ice tends to not be so thick. The dog ran up the bank to the street above and proceeded to bark feverishly at passing cars, one of which stopped. The driver followed the dog down the bank, saw the man struggling in the water, and went back up and got help. So I don't doubt that dogs can sense danger to their owners and take steps to mitigate it, though I'm pretty sure this sophistication stops short of being able to execute 20th century first-aid techniques.