It's morning, she's in a motel and has a meeting in an hour. She's sound asleep and doesn't hear the wake up call.
This is a job for SuperHearingDog!
He bounds up and smacks her in the face. "Go away," she moans, "gimme five more minutes." But SuperHearingDog will not be brushed off. He swats at her face until she reaches for the phone. Mission accomplished!
Now she's in the shower and a co-worker knocks on the door. Time for SuperHearingDog to go into action! Charge! through the shower curtain and drag her to the door. Will SuperHearingDog give her time to grab a robe? Well, okay, but don't take too long.
After breakfast, they walk down the hall to the meeting. Her boss sees them from behind and calls her name. The mild mannered black and white dog breaks out of his stately trot, and swings into action. SuperHearingDog whirls her around and drags her to the boss, just in time to save her from certain firing.
Who is this hero, SuperHearingDog? Where did he come from? How did he get so smart?
For starters, he's a border collie, a breed best known for its sheep herding abilities. To herd sheep properly, without harming them or letting harm come to them, the border collie must work in partnership with the shepherd. Sometimes that means obedience to the shepherd. Other times, it means having the confidence to say, "Nope, you think all the sheep are in, but I think one is missing and I'm going back after her."
The breeding and training that go into making a good stockdog can create a terrific assistance dog as well. A dog that works for a blind, hearing impaired or physically disabled person must be perfectly obedient in public, well-mannered, quiet and unobtrusive. But when there's a job to do, the dog must demonstrate intelligence and, often, initiative.
In real life, SuperHearingDog is known as Noah, Utility Dog. He's the partner of Ilene Caroom, who has a severe and progressive hearing loss. You probably wouldn't know that Ilene's ears are so bad. She uses powerful hearing aids and she's a great lip reader. But drive up behind her and honk and she won't jump out of your way. Come to her house to fix the furnace and she won't hear you ring the doorbell. It's an invisible disability, but a very real one.
Enter Noah. Temperament tested and intensively trained for nearly eight months, Noah joined the honorable ranks of border collies working as certified hearing dogs and service dogs. (Some of the big border collies can be guide dogs, but most are just a bit too small.)
Noah goes to work with Ilene, goes shopping with her, lies on the floor in restaurants and even accompanies her to the ladies room (blush). After all, you never know when a fire alarm will sound. He rides in crowded elevators, curls up at Ilene's feet on airplanes and waits quietly through interminable boring meetings.
But let the tea kettle whistle or the door bell chime and Noah is all action. He's a dog with a job to do and that's how he likes it. In other words, he's a border collie, doing what this very special breed does best--working with his human partner to be sure that everyone is safe and sound.
When Ilene was a little girl, she saw a movie about farm life. At the end, as the sun set, the farmer's dog lay on the porch and the caption said, ". . . Shep, the farm dog, always sleeps with one eye open and one eye closed." Shep, of course, was a border collie. A dog a farmer could depend on.
And now Ilene depends on one of Shep's descendants. Energetic, confident, communicative, reliable. A dog you can trust with your safety. A SuperHearingDog.
(Photo by Dan Beigel)
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