Gordon & Leslie's 6½ year old black Lab Shadow has multiple tasks to perform. She was trained for hearing assistance work and as most Hearing Dogs, she alerts Gordon & Leslie to various sounds they would otherwise miss, such as fire alarms, the telephone ringing, buzzers or timers for cooking, people knocking at the door, or any other noises that aren't what she feels is normal in her world. She also does reach assistance work for them. Shadow will pick up things they drop and go get things that are a bit low and cause them pain to bend over and get.

Gordon says, "She makes the quality of our lives so much better and that's so important to us. Shadow does many things for us other than being a wonderful loving companion. Shadow is just incredible!"

You might enjoy reading Gordon's comments (see ID Cape & Patches) about how our products have helped Shadow to accompany her owners in public places.

Size & Color: Medium, Orange

Nanook, an Alaskan Malamute belonging to Darryl & Pam Paskett, enjoys hiking in the Australian bush. He uses a royal blue Banzai pack in size medium during his forays. When they're not hiking with Nanook, Darryl & Pam run a business called Dog Packs Australia. This is what Darryl says about their life and future hiking plans:

I live in sunny Perth in Western Australia with my wife Pam, our six month old son Matthew, and our three and a half year old wolf grey Alaskan Malamute. This is a picture of Nanook wearing his Banzai™ dog pack in our back yard. The first time I put the dog pack on Nanook and took him for a walk, he wasn’t sure what was on his back but quickly got used to the extra width and weight. Nanook can easily carry all of our gear (4 Litres of water, dog and people food, collapsible water bowl, first aid kit, keys, mobile phone, etc.), so when we go hiking in the national parks around Perth the only thing we need to carry is Matthew. The next day trip we have planned is to walk a section of the Bibbulmun Track, which winds it’s way from Kalamunda down through the south west of the state to Albany (963km), which passes through some of the most magnificent forests the state has to offer.

Size & Color: Medium, Blue