Owners Praise Boston Terrier for Alerting Them Infant Daughter Was Struggling to Breathe

A Boston terrier is being hailed as a hero for alerting his owners that their infant daughter was struggling to breathe.

Over the weekend, Jeff and Kelly Dowling of Glastonbury, Connecticut, noticed their 9-month-old daughter was feeling under the weather.

“We took her to urgent care Sunday, because her fever was spiking,” Kelly told WFSB. 

Doctors discovered the infant had fluid in her left lung, and told the parents to monitor her until they could take her to the pediatrician during the week. 

On Monday night, while the baby was sleeping, Jeff and Kelly noticed their 8-year-old Boston terrier Henry was behaving oddly.

“Usually the dog puts himself to bed and kind of keeps to himself,” Kelly told ABC 7. “That night, he was headbutting the door open and going into her room and standing there.”

Kelly said she shooed Henry away, but he kept sneaking into the nursery when she turned her back.

“And that persisted until he woke her up,” she told WFSB. 

Once the baby awoke, Kelly noticed her condition had worsened.

“She wasn’t clearing her airway. She started to turn blue and go rigid. She really couldn’t… she couldn’t get air, couldn’t get any oxygen,” Kelly told ABC 7. 

The parents hurried their nine-month-old to the hospital, where doctors cleared her airways. The family went home later that night.

Doctors say the baby had fluid in one of her lungs, according to ABC 7.

“I don’t think it was a full respiratory arrest, but [she was] struggling badly,” Dr. John Brancato of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford told WFSB. 

The couple says their daughter still had a sniffle as of Wednesday, but she is doing much better.

“To my knowledge, the baby is doing very well,” Brancato said. “I think [Henry knew something], because that was very abnormal for him to keep pushing his way into the room after he was told not to.”

Kelly took to Twitter to praise her pooch. 

“I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t woken her. We don’t deserve dogs,” she tweeted. 

Jeff told ABC 7 he is still in the process of rewarding Henry. 

“He was allowed to sleep in bed with me last night, and he’s got a steak in his future,” he said.