UK bomb-sniffing dog honored with military medal

A perky British Labrador whose bomb-sniffing exploits helped save lives in Afghanistan was decorated for canine courage in a ceremony at London's Imperial War Museum Wednesday.

Eight-year-old Treo joins a menagerie of heroic animals honored over the years with a special award known as the Dicken medal, including 32 pigeons, three horses and a cat.

Sgt. Dave Heyhoe, the black Lab's handler, said he was "very proud indeed," saying the award was not just for him and his dog but "for every dog and handler that's working out in Afghanistan or Iraq."

Treo merely flicked out his rosy tongue as he and Heyhoe posed for photographs with the silvery medal.

The military nominated Treo for the prize in recognition of his help uncovering a series of Taliban bombs during his time serving in Afghanistan's insurgency-wracked Helmand Province in 2008. The Labrador is the medal's 63rd recipient since its inception in 1943, according to the Peoples Dispensary for Sick Animals, the charity that awards the prize.

Man's best friend has won a big share of the medals, including a collie named Rob who joined British commandos in repeated parachute operations behind enemy lines during World War II and Beauty, a terrier who helped locate pets buried beneath the rubble of bombed-out buildings in the British capital.

More recently, Sadie, another bomb-sniffing dog, was awarded the Dicken medal for helping to alert coalition forces to an explosive hidden under sandbags in Kabul in 2005.

Other animals, notably carrier pigeons used in World War II, have bagged honors as well.

There's no equivalent to the Dicken medal in the United States, although military animals have been honored with medals or memorials on an unofficial, ad hoc basis.

The most famous U.S. recipient, a World War I mutt named Sgt. Stubby, served in 17 battles, was wounded in a grenade attack and survived several gassings. Between locating wounded Allied soldiers in the trenches, he even managed to help nab a German spy.

Stubby, now stuffed and on display at the Smithsonian, was awarded several medals, including a Purple Heart, and the mutt was made a lifetime member of the American Legion. But the practice of giving medals to animals was eventually abandoned by the U.S. military on the ground that the practice risks devaluing the awards given to soldiers.

Still, Lisa Nickless, a spokeswoman for the animal charity, said no one had raised any such concerns about Treo.

"He saved human life," she said.

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