After vet felled by PTSD, service dog Honor aids family now

[link to hosted.ap.org]

CLYDE, N.C. (AP) -- Part of the Labrador retriever's training was to sense when the demons of war had invaded Wade Baker's dreams.

"I was having a nightmare, a flashback," Baker, a Gulf War veteran, once told an interviewer. "And I woke up with Honor standing on my chest, licking my face."

He tried to push his service dog away, but Honor persisted.

"He was stopping the nightmare for me," Baker said.

And so, this summer when he saw his master lying in the flag-draped casket, Honor pushed through the clutch of weeping family members, reared up, placed his paws on the edge and tried to climb in. Unable to comfort Baker, the lanky black dog in the camouflage-patterned vest curled up underneath.

For Baker, the long nightmare was finally over. But Honor was still on duty.