I thought this was Bark-lays bank… | Metro.co.uk
The pooches are among an army of ‘assistance dogs’ who have been trained to withdraw money from cash machines for their disabled owners.
They are adept at inserting and withdrawing cards at ATMs to help owners in wheelchairs who are often not able to stretch far enough to do it themselves.
A spokesman for charity Canine Partners, which trains the dogs, said: ‘They put in the card and take it out and take out the money and give it to the person in the wheelchair.
‘They can’t put in the Pin but a person in a wheelchair can go sideways on and do that.’
Up to 30 dogs are trained each year and the charity is hoping to double that figure next year. It takes two years to train them, in which time they also learn to load the washing and pick up items from shop shelves.
One of the graduates of the scheme is ten-year-old Endal, who helped start the ATM service by chance.
The labrador’s owner is Allen Parton, a Gulf War veteran who lost the feeling down his right side after an accident in 1991 while serving as an officer in the Royal Navy.
Now in a wheelchair, he said that one day he was struggling to retrieve his cash from an ATM when Endal jumped up to reach for the card, money and receipt with his mouth.
Mr Parton said: ‘It was amazing, as he had never been taught to do this.’
The feat helped Endal earn the Dog of the Millennium award in 1999.
(Via Neatorama)
(See why I want to raise service dogs? They are too cool…)
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