Ever-Vigilant Dog Not Only Serves As Ears For Deaf Woman But Also Helps Her Fit In With The Hearing Community

As Barbara Biggs sees it, her dog Anna hasn’t really had a chance to be just a dog in more than nine years.

The medium-sized red heeler/ Labrador mix with the constantly pricked ears gazes up at Biggs from her place on the rug in their Eastern Oregon home.

“Anna always has had to be waiting for something to happen. She’s never just laid around,” Biggs said.

Anna is a service dog, trained by Dogs for the Deaf of Central Point to be Biggs’ vigilant ears. She is certified by the training center to accompany Biggs into public buildings and let her know what is happening in a world that Biggs can barely hear after losing 90 percent of her hearing at age 6.

More than nine years ago, Dogs for the Deaf trainers found Anna in a private shelter in the Medford area.

Biggs’ life companion almost didn’t make the first hurdle, though. Dogs for the Deaf usually selects smaller dogs, Biggs explained, since a majority of their work is in the home. But Biggs is a horsewoman, and had indicated to the service dog school that she preferred a larger dog that could comfortably accompany her outdoors.

Dogs for the Deaf obediencetrained Anna, socialized her, and taught her to respond to many sounds that Biggs can’t hear.

At almost 11 years old, Anna still is letting Biggs know when someone is at the door, when the telephone rings, the tea kettle whistles, the smoke alarm goes off, the oven timer buzzes, or the alarm clock rings.

Anna has two special skills as well. If someone in Biggs’ vicinity calls to her, Anna lets Biggs know. If the two are outside and a rattlesnake is giving its warning rattle, Anna also lets Biggs know. “She hits me,” Biggs said.

Anna works in near silence, seldom barking, trained instead to go to Biggs and make physical contact - a hit - to get her attention. Anna and other hearing ear dogs then lead their handlers to the source of the sound.

Call Biggs’ name and Anna will go to whoever said “Barbara.” And not slowly, either. Anna is intense, Biggs said, and always working.

In public Anna wears a bright orange collar and leash, her only identification besides a collar tag of her employment. She has a vest, “but hates it,” Biggs said.

“I’ve always been cautious when I’m in public that she’s doing the right thing,” Biggs explained. “When she’s bored in a store, she drops her head and looks up from under her eyebrows.” The look tends to scare people, who think Anna is about to bite. “Anna has never bitten,” Biggs said emphatically.

Take a moment to look into Anna’s pools of deep brown eyes, if you can distract them from Biggs, and the point is made. Biggs is Anna’s world.

“When I got my first look at Anna on placement day, I fell into the bottom of those eyes and I’m still there,” Biggs wrote in 1990. That year, Anna was honored as the National Hearing Dog of the Year by the Delta Society and the American Animal Hospital Association, groups that work with service and assistance dogs throughout the country. Biggs and Anna received an expense-paid three-day trip to Houston for the recognition ceremony.

Even though a few white hairs are beginning to grace Anna’s face, she and Biggs, along with Florence Palmer and her home hearing ear dog, Woody, conduct demonstrations in schools and for clubs around the area. The demonstrations focus on Anna’s and Woody’s work, and also on dog care and safe behavior around dogs.

Woody, Palmer’s terrier mix, has been with Palmer a little more than a year. He also was trained by Dogs for the Deaf, and Palmer is his second human handler.

Palmer and Biggs continue to work with and maintain their dogs’ special training, reinforcing what the dogs must do when they hear signal sounds. Additionally, the dogs must receive a high level of care to meet standards set by Dogs for the Deaf.

People interested in having a service dog, Biggs says, are sometimes unaware of the level of work required to keep the dog performing at its highest level.

It is all worth it to Biggs.

Anna, she said, has given her far more than the security of knowing if a smoke alarm is going off. “Anna has aided me in becoming an emotionally complete person,” Biggs has written. “I have always, despite my ability to lip read, feared personal contact with the hearing community. There has always been that feeling of not fitting into society. With one friendly wag of her tail, Anna began to crumble my emotional Berlin Wall against the hearing world.”

“Anna has fit into our family, perfectly filling the gap left by my hearing loss,” Biggs said.

Anna just continues to wag her tail, listening.