"The feeling of pride I get from what I do just can’t compare with anything else"

We want to highlight one member of staff at our charity who embodies happiness – Karen Long. Karen has worked at Hearing Dogs since 2016 and is now a member of our Placement Team.

Beginning as a volunteer herself, Karen’s 9-5 revolves around nurturing the cherished connection between our hearing dog graduates, their volunteers and their deaf partners. Lovingly documenting the life-changing journeys of each of our dogs, Karen loves every second of her role as it brings her happiness, every day. She explains:

It was purely a chance meeting 11 years ago, when I met a volunteer and their puppy-in-training on a walk, that led me to register as a Hearing Dogs volunteer myself. I’m forever grateful for this encounter that has resulted in so much happiness being brought into my life.

After that, I completely embraced volunteering for three years, and I’m proud to say that the three dogs I cared for - Arthur, Mini and Luca - all qualified as hearing dogs.

Karen and hearing dog Mini

That experience inspired me to look for a job with the charity. Since 2016, I’ve worked in the Healthcare Team, then in Logistics, and I’m now part of the Placement Team as ‘Canine Communications Lead’. My proudest achievement at work is definitely the development of our dog ‘scrapbooks’.

Scrapbooks are basically digital photo albums that are shared with our volunteers and deaf partners – I know it’s a thrill for them to receive these.

They record each dog’s journey from the nest, through training, then to partnership, and continue to record special milestones throughout their working lives and into retirement. It’s my responsibility to upload information, photos and anecdotes from all the volunteers involved with each dog’s training and, once the dog is qualified, their deaf partner.

Lockdown gave me the time to concentrate on building them and now we have about 1,800 active scrapbooks. There’s nothing better than finding my email inbox full of stories and gorgeous photos showing our dogs being dogs, having fun, and continuing to learn and support their partners! I especially enjoy being a detective and finding photos of our older dogs and their parents.

In my role, I feel I’m always meeting someone new with an inspiring story to share. I’ve laughed and cried with our partners and volunteers and feel privileged they allow me to do so. It’s also a privilege to be tasked with recording and sharing our dogs’ entire life stories for them.

Most of my time is spent making sure that our wonderful volunteers feel valued and celebrated. I make sure that all their achievements are recognised with certificates and a shout out on our charity intranet. I also feel I’m able to understand any worries our volunteers may have because I’ve been there myself – most of all you just want to make sure you’re giving the dog you’re looking after the best chance of success.

Something I’ll never forget is when our Royal Patron visited to celebrate the charity’s 40^th anniversary. I was given the honour of introducing three of our partnerships to HRH The Princess Royal, along with the 36 staff and volunteers involved in making those partnerships a success. She listened intently to the father who felt his daughter would not be with us if it wasn’t for her hearing dog. It made me feel so proud.

I love being part of this wonderful charity. It can be a very emotional job, particularly towards the end of a dog’s life, but the feeling of pride I get from what I do just can’t compare with anything else. It brings me so much happiness and I absolutely love my job.