Molly ShoreShantee is a playful 2-year-old yellow...

Molly Shore

Shantee is a playful 2-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, but when

her owner puts an orange vest on her before leaving the house, the

canine knows it’s time to go to work.

In September, Shantee will accompany Ryann Austin to her special

education class at Burbank High School.

Austin, a 19-year-old senior who has been deaf since birth,

depends on Shantee to be her ears, and the dog takes her work

seriously.

“If a person knocks, my Shantee touches my hand and takes me to

the door,” Austin said, communicating through speech as well as sign

language, which her mother, Maria Austin, translates.

Before Shantee came into her life, Austin relied on the family

dog, Buffy, a Labrador-Brittany spaniel mix, for assistance. Buffy,

though, died last year.

But Austin said Buffy wasn’t her dog and didn’t love her the way

Shantee does.

“She loves me, and I love Shantee a lot,” said Austin, who lives

in Glendale.

Her mother said the family did not know how much Ryann relied on

Buffy for environmental cues.

“Any sound that [Buffy] was alert to, that’s what she [Ryann] paid

attention to, and we didn’t realize that,” she said.

After Buffy died, Austin didn’t like being alone. In August, she

filled out an application to receive a trained hearing dog free of

charge through the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of

Cruelty to Animals’ Hearing Dog program.

After waiting nearly a year, Austin traveled to San Francisco last

month, where she met and trained Shantee during a nine-day program.

As the dog’s primary caretaker, it is Austin’s responsibility to

feed, brush, walk and clean up after Shantee, and at night Shantee

sleeps in Austin’s bedroom.

Austin has a summer job in the offices of the Burbank Youth

Outreach Employment Program, and Shantee goes to work with her. Once

there, Shantee snoozes at Austin’s desk while she makes copies,

stuffs envelopes and completes other tasks.

For more information on the San Francisco SPCA Hearing Dog

program, call (415) 554-3020 or use Telephone Device for the Deaf at

(415) 554-3022.