Golden Labrador Byron – angel on 4 paws
First of all, the beautiful dog Byron performs dozens of such tasks faultlessly for his owner every day. In fact, he helps ‘best friend’ Kate Cross peg out her washing, make her bed, and go shopping. In addition, he even takes money out of the cash machine. Noteworthy, the trained hound is a life-line for Kate, who suffers from Ehlers Danlos syndrome. The rare condition means the retired teacher’s joints are so weak that she can dislocate her shoulder from just opening a door. But, fortunately, Byron is never far from her side – and has learned to do all the things Kate struggles to.

‘He’s given me my life back – I can live independently and not have to rely on my husband or other people doing everything for me because Byron is always there.

As she makes a morning coffee, Byron will open the fridge door himself, before fetching Kate a carton of milk. ‘He never gets fed up with helping me – it’s all a big game to him, but I’d be lost without him.’ The faithful hound helps Kate into her wheelchair every morning, acting as a support for her as she steps out of bed into the chair.

And the clever canine even retrieves his own breakfast bowl from the cupboard – before jumping up and placing his empty bowl in the washing up bowl.

He accompanies Kate to the supermarket – reaching down to low shelves to pick up any item Kate has on her shopping list.

And to the envy of dog owners everywhere, Byron can even open the door to let himself out to the toilet.

‘In the supermarket, I stop my chair near to the item I want, and he follows my eye line and takes the item off the shelf. ‘Byron even unloads my shopping onto the conveyor belt at the till and hands my purse over to the checkout assistants.

‘He can do such amazing things – he takes my bank card and reaches up to put it into a cash machine, and takes the cash when it comes out, and passes it to me – all I have to do is put in my pin number.

‘He can reach out and press pedestrian crossing buttons with his nose, and picks up anything I drop on the ground. Before we go to bed on cold nights, he even fetches my hot water bottle, and when I’ve filled it, he trots upstairs with it, and puts it on my side of the bed, under the covers.

Golden Labrador Byron – angel on 4 paws

dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2097649