The Manila Times is reporting that Dagul has been conferred the Elizabeth Lewyt Award which acknowledges the heroic deeds of animals.

In The Manila Times: at the height of the typhoon on May 27, Dagul’s timely warning barks alerted his master, Wilmar Castillo, 16, from his impassioned singing in front of a karaoke player inside their residence at Dominican Hill as a massive landslide was about to gobble up the two-bedroom house.

Castillo escaped but Dagul was trapped inside the house, which was almost buried by tons of loose soil, gravel and rocks. The following day, May 28, Jhylannie Castillo, 19, and Wilmar’s older brother went back to their house, not to salvage their belongings, but to look for Dagul. He opened the door and out came the dog, which was trapped inside.

The first pet to be awarded the Lewyt Award in March 1999 was Nene, a cat that saved her sleeping master from a fire in Idaho.

In October 2001, the Lewyt award was awarded to the 300 search-and-rescue and cadaver-finding dogs, which went on duty at New York City and Arlington, Virginia, in wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.