An Ohio couple nearly gave their dog away to another family, and their decision to keep him saved their baby’s life.

Mindi and Ron Wynne adopted Papillon, a 2-year-old collie, from a local pet store. Soon after they brought him home they realized they had a problem on their hands.

“Papillon had developed some habits that we were not particularly fond of,” Ron said, according to Little Things. “He chewed up furniture and he literally ate the couch.”

He was really becoming a terror, and we thought it might have been jealousy from the baby,” Mindi said.

One afternoon, Mindi was in the shower after putting her 5-week-old daughter, Rachel, down for a nap. Suddenly, Papillon began making a lot of noise.

“The dog started barking, and I didn’t think anything of it because he barked all the time,” Mindi recalled.

She was doing her best to ignore Papillon when he came bursting into the bathroom.

I believe that animals do communicate with us,” she said. “I used to watch old Lassie TV shows and I figured he was trying to tell me something. I didn’t know what.”

She got out of the shower, and Papillon led her into the room where Rachel was sleeping.

“He ran around in circles to put his paws up on the crib, and when I looked in at Rachel she was blue around her lips,” Mindi said. “I knew something then was very wrong.”

Fortunately, Mindi is a trained medic. She called 911 and immediately got to work administering CPR.

“I covered her mouth and nose and just started puffing,” she explained

Soon Rachel was breathing again, and an ambulance took her to a nearby hospital, where it was discovered that she had a weak muscle between her stomach and esophagus. This had caused food to lodge in her esophagus and cut off her airways.

Following treatment, Rachel returned home and began to develop a close bond with Papillon, who is now a permanent member of the family.

“I don’t think there’s any question that if Papillon hadn’t alerted Mindi when he did that we would not have Rachel with us now,” Ron admitted.

He knows that he’s very special,” Mindi said of Papillon. “I don’t think there’s enough dog treats or biscuits or presents, there’s not enough in the world to express the gratitude I have for Papillon.”

The story of Papillon’s heroics was uploaded to the Little Things Facebook page and has since received more than 1,800 likes