A Tribute to Tara

Good Friday is a day that Christians traditionally remember the death of Jesus Christ. For me, it will also be the day that I remember the sudden death of my wonderful Hearing Dog, Tara.

We had gone out to Cornwallis Beach for a picnic with friends. It was a glorious autumn day and Tara and I were having fun. Tara loved water and would do anything to swim out to a stick or a ball that I threw and bring it back to me, dropping it near my feet and waiting eagerly for me to throw it again. Every now and again Tara would go up on the grassed area to roll around and get dried off or she'd furiously dig a hole in the sand around the stick, totally engrossed in what she was doing. She'd stop, grin at me with tongue lolling, and we'd be off again - throwing and retrieving.

Then she came up on shore, wobbled a bit, collapsed and was gone - a massive heart attack had claimed her life. I was sobbing and pleading with her to come back. For the first time since I'd had her, Tara refused to obey a command.
 
I'd first met Tara just before Christmas 2000 at the Animal Refuge Centre in Waitakere City. As I love dogs and had recently been puppy walking for Guide Dogs NZ, I decided to offer a temporary home for a dog over the Christmas/New Year period.

Although I had not intended to keep Tara we'd been researching Hearing Dogs as I am severely deaf and wanted to get an assistance dog in the future.

Hearing Dogs had recently been founded in New Zealand but there was no training centre, so I took on the initial training myself, teaching Tara to respond to sound and to paw me. Then one of the trainers came to assess her and agreed to continue her training with doorbell, timer and smoke alarm. She was given a training coat and I set about teaching her how to behave appropriately in shops, ride on buses and trains and get used to all sorts of situations in the big wide world. She passed her final assessment with flying colours and we became one of New Zealand's first Hearing Dog teams.

Tara came to work at Kelston Deaf Education Centre with me. The following year I went to Auckland College of Education to do a postgraduate diploma in teaching deaf and hearing impaired students. Tara came with me every day and also out to mainstream schools and deaf units where I did practicum. She became my 'partner' often helping children to relax. She "listened" to their reading and they showed her their work. I got a much higher standard of work from the pupils when they knew that Tara would be appraising them!

The following year, I embarked on a Master of Counselling degree with Waikato University. Although most of the work was on-line, there were block courses at Waikato and also at Unitec in Auckland. She was the first dog to be allowed on Mokau marae where we stayed for a week and she even received a blessing from the kuia.

When the SPCA and St Johns started the Outreach Pet Therapy programme, we were quick to volunteer.  We began work in rest homes where Tara patiently went in and out of rooms, going up to people to be patted. She would rest her head on the knees of people who could not communicate and just 'hug' them with her presence. The residents looked forward to her coming. We were transferred to the Pawz Up programme in a juvenile detention centre.

Right from the start, Tara with her repertoire of tricks was a hit! Her favourite game was "Find It!" - someone would hide her ball and then tell her to 'find it'. She'd race off, sniffing as she went, and in no time would bring the ball back to the person, or would indicate where it was if they had hidden it under a cushion or in a hard to reach place.  Young people who had experienced rejection began to see that they could relate in positive ways. Tara gave unconditionally of her love, time and energy to them.

And where do I even start to tell about all the ways she worked for me?

" Waking me up in the morning by pawing the bed and not giving up until I had woken up enough to give her a treat
" Letting me know when someone was at the door, the cooking timer had gone off - or her favourite - lying at my feet when the smoke alarm went off and then racing outside to play together as a reward.
" Stopping me from crossing the road when I didn't hear a car reversing
" Finding the way out of buildings when I got 'lost' after an appointment
" Opening the way to conversations with people and giving back my confidence in social situations
" Teaching me to have fun and 'play' each day and to take pleasure in simple things like wandering through the bush or along a beach
" Always being pleased to see me, to forgive quickly and to love unconditionally
" Being a willing partner to give back to others the joy we found in our relationship

Throughout her ten years, Tara touched the lives of many people. As they have found out about her passing, the tributes have flowed in. Over and over again, people have mentioned her gentleness, her loyalty and the great team we were.

Tara was more than "just a dog". We could 'read' each other and Tara understood over 15 commands in NZSL so verbal communication was not always needed. The bond between us was incredibly strong. She was a great ambassador for Hearing Dogs NZ and an amazing companion for me.

I will miss her forever.