'Mild-Mannered' Dog Rescues Iowa Family from Middle of the Night Carbon Monoxide Leak

"I could tell something was up with Roxy," said Brad Harbert. In the middle of the night, "she just was jumping off my bed, jumping back up on the bed"

Photo: WHO13

A family pup is being hailed a hero after she alerted them to a carbon monoxide leak in the middle of the night.

On Monday, Brad Harbert if Ankeny, Iowa, told CBS affiliate WHO that his family's typically "mild-mannered" dog Roxy — a husky/coonhound mix — became unusually active in the middle of the night.

"She doesn't really bark a lot. She does howl if you ask her to talk," he told the outlet.

"I could tell something was up with Roxy. She just was jumping off my bed, jumping back up on the bed," Harbert added. "When I started to come to, I was hearing an alarm, and it wasn't the smoke alarm."

Harbert soon discovered it was the home's carbon monoxide alarm, chirping.

"I jumped out of bed," he recalled. "Right when I did, Roxy came out to the hallway."

Harbet said that the dog also scratched his son Jackson's door to alert him.

"I grabbed the [carbon monoxide] detector and found out that if it chirps four times, it's triggered," explained Harbert. "There's active carbon monoxide in the house."

Harbert, his son, father, and Roxy all made it out of the house without injury.

The Ankeny Fire Department arrived moments after Harbert called 911 and the energy company determined the carbon monoxide leak was coming from the home's combination electric/gas fireplace.

Harbert said of the life-saving pup: "She's pretty special to us … I can tell something was wrong that night –— she woke me up, and just her actions — she was kinda shivering and just really concerned that we weren't gonna get outside."

He added he's "very, very happy to have a dog. And very happy to have her."