But, for 10-year-old Sally the Labrador, it’ll take more than one missing limb to put a dent in her boisterous nature.

For owner Brian Drechsler, from Estella, she really is man’s best friend – they share a special bond.

A bond that has grown stronger through a remarkable story of survival and persistence after a setback some would struggle to come to terms with.

At the age of five, Sally was tied in the back of an 18-foot tray body truck when she took a tumble off the side and snapped a nerve in her shoulder. 

“I had her tied in the middle ... she went over one side and must have come back to the driver’s side and overbalanced,” Mr Drechsler, 65, said. 

“I looked in the rear view mirror and I saw the collar hanging over the side of the truck.”

Sally spent the next three years with her leg virtually still attached as Mr Drechsler tried to save it using a number of different makeshift splints, including one made from poly pipe, but a number of vets told him it wouldn’t work. 

“(The leg) was there but it wasn’t there, she learned to walk off her other foot,” he said. 

“I made a boot for her, but it just didn’t work.”

Despite the eventual need to amputate the entire leg, Mr Drechsler said the most important element remained in tact – happiness. 

“She is happy and that’s the main thing,” he said. 

“She gets around no trouble at all.”

“It doesn’t stop her from jumping in and out of my boat, in and out of my troopy (Toyota Trooper) and going for a walk,” he said.

“I generally hang onto her collar when she jumps out, just to take the pressure off her front leg.”

Mr Drechsler has always had Labradors - he previously lost one after it was baited, while the other was bitten by a snake. 

“(Sally’s) the longest one I’ve had out of five,” he said.