Good girl! Quick-thinking dog runs to her doggy daycare after owner’s car wreck to get help

Saleen Martin
 USA TODAYShow CaptionHide Caption#videoDetailsToggle{color:var( –color-dove-gray,rgba(0,0,0,.6));cursor:pointer;display:inline-block;font-family:var(–sans-serif,sans-serif);font-size:var(–type-7);font-weight:var( –font-weight-bold,900);line-height:var(–spacer-twentyfour,24px);margin-bottom:-8px}#vdt_hide{margin-bottom:10px}.vdt-flex[hidden]{display:none}.vdt-svg{fill:var( –color-dove-gray,rgba(0,0,0,.6));height:var(–spacer-twentyfour,24px);width:var(–spacer-twentyfour,24px)}Watch this clever pup find her happy spot after owner’s fender benderWhen Melissa Fickel had a minor car accident in Clawson, Michigan, her spooked pup, Aries, took off for the sanctuary of her trusted doggy day care.USA TODAY

A Detroit dog was in a car accident last month and ran to the one place she knew she could get help: her doggy daycare.

Aries, a 3-year-old pit bull-mix, was in the car with her owner on Feb. 24, headed to the park. A car ran into their vehicle, prompting Aries to take off and head to the daycare facility she often visits, Hounds Town in Detroit.

The center was about a mile away from the crash, local television station WXYZ reported.

Melissa Fickel, the dog’s owner, told the outlet that no one was injured and there was minor damage to the vehicles involved. 

“I had the windows down because Aries likes to hang her head out,” Fickel told the outlet. “As soon as there was that smack, as soon as I felt and heard it, almost instantaneously, she was out the window.”

As Fickel stayed at the scene to give police information, she worried Aries would run into traffic or a neighborhood, she told WXYZ.

Surveillance video from the daycare facility shows Aries run to the front door and push up on her hind legs, peering inside for a split second.

Daycare workers thought dog looked familiar

Dominic Pace is the general manager at the facility and said Aries showed up during their noon break, when employees normally shut down the lobby to the public and catch up on cleaning and other tasks.

Pace went to the front to check the phones and emails. He and another employee were in the lobby when something caught their eye.

“We noticed something dart past the front door,” Pace told USA TODAY Friday morning. “It was like a black blur that just went past.”

They thought it may have been a dog, and they were right. When they walked out and saw Aries, she was standing by the sidewalk leading to the front door, panting and “a little freaked out,” Pace said.

They eventually brought her into the facility and she calmed down. As they peered at the dog, they thought she looked familiar, so they called Travis Ogdenover, the daycare owner.

Ogdenover immediately recognized Aries and called her owner, Melissa Fickel.

“She was very relieved when Travis had made the call to her to let her know that Aries had in fact ran to the daycare,” Pace said.

Aries likely ran to daycare because dogs are ‘pretty intuitive’

Pace said Aries is a super friendly, sweet dog whose “special move” is flopping onto her back and expecting belly rubs from anyone nearby.

While the general manager is no dog whisperer, Pace said Ares probably ran to the daycare because she picked up on the building’s scent, as well as the other dogs there. She likely ran there because she feels safe at Hounds Town.

“Dogs do have an intuition of knowing where they are and where they can be safe,” he said. “She knows that she’s safe here, that she has people here that will take care of her and dogs are pretty intuitive when it comes to that kind of thing.”

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at [email protected].

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