Millennium Dog Endal celebrated Christmas early by becoming the first dog ever to make a flight on the British Airways’ London Eye on Wednesday 5 December 2001.

Endal was trained by the charity Canine Partners for Independence, to carry out over one hundred tasks and to problem solve in order to help his disabled partner, Allen Parton, who is a full-time wheelchair user. Among these tasks are activities such as opening doors, picking up items in the supermarket and putting them in a basket, passing over a wallet at the checkout and fetching help in an emergency.

The flight is a gift from Tim Grant and Tom Stephenson, joint Managing Directors of fast-growing online car leasing company Tuskerdirect Ltd.

Endal, a yellow Labrador, was awarded the title Dog of the Millennium in 1999 after Allen’s wife, Sandra, entered him into a competition which was sponsored by Beta in the Magazine Dogs Today. The object of the competition was to find 12 dogs in different categories for featuring in the millennium calendar.

Kirsty Bowles, from the London Eye public relations department, with Endal and his owner Allen Parton.