Meet Luna.

This beautiful Australian Shepherd came into my life 8 years ago and she might soon be gone from it.  We don’t know how much longer we have with her, but I wanted to celebrate the time we have left together by looking back at the times we shared together and the ways she has made my life better.

I started to lose my hearing when I was 16 years old, but I didn’t seriously begin looking for a hearing dog until I had graduated college in May of 2009.  I partnered with a local trainer who owned her own dog training company and also had experience training a variety of service dogs.  I had imagined having a small dog, since I didn’t need a dog to be able to open doors or do big tasks.  The trainer, however, highly recommended an Australian Shepherd for their personality and eagerness to work, so we all kept our eyes out for potential candidates.

She found Luna through a local shelter-type farm and we scheduled a visit.  Luna instantly responded well to me, and showed interest in learning commands.  She was willing to stop playing to listen to something, and she showed no issues about wearing a vest.  She was about a year and a half – 2 years old and had a little bit of an unknown history.  Her most recent owner had given her the name Luna (she has a white spot on one eye that looks like the moon), but then suddenly had a family emergency and had to relocate to Texas.  She wasn’t able to bring Luna with her and had to make the hard choice to leave her behind.  From that first meeting, Luna was sweet and eager and we bonded right away.

My first time meeting Luna!

This is my favorite picture of Luna, taken just a day or two after we had brought her home.

We started regular obedience training right away, and taught her the sign for each command (sit, stay, come, etc) and she learned quickly to respond to both a verbal command and a signed command.  Also, as a hearing dog, she needed to learn that she was to be near me at all times.  So for those first few weeks and months, she was on leash that I held with me at all times.  This helped with not developing any bad habits like chewing on things she wasn’t allowed to have, and it also solidified the bond between us in that we both learned to always be within sight of each other.  Eventually she didn’t need the leash anymore and would stay near me out of her own accord.

After that we were pretty inseparable, building our friendship while continuing all her training.  I was learning to read her nuances, and she was learning to sense my emotions and needs.  I knew that having a service dog would help my independence, but I had no idea just how much help Luna would be to me, or how much of an impact she’d have on me.  She may have been a rescue dog, but in many more ways she rescued me.

In the coming weeks I’ll write more about her training, our life together, and various snapshots of special memories with her – stay tuned!