Service Dogs Facts

Allen Parton came home from the Gulf War in 1991 unable to walk, talk, or remember his wife and children. Doctors told Sandra to leave him. A Labrador named Endal - rejected from service training - learned 200 commands from Allen's gestures and rebuilt his capacity to feel. When a car knocked Allen out in 2001, Endal put him in the recovery position, retrieved his phone, and ran to a hotel for help. Endal was best man when they remarried.

On the eve of Thanksgiving 1997, a New York woman brought five puppies into a maximum-security women's prison and taught a group of inmates to raise them. Today her prison-raised service dogs go home free of charge with wounded war veterans, each one spending two years with someone serving time and learning more than 70 commands. The puppies still grow up behind bars.