Orange is the New Black Dog Names

While most dogs’ self-appointed jobs usually entail keeping the house and yard free of strangers (and often the sidewalks as well), squirrel patrol, making sure their dinner bowl is empty and routinely displaying the finer details of their self-cleanliness, some dogs have much more significant duties, including Piper, the Airport Dog. 

Piper, a (sadly) now-deceased Border Collie, was the best friend of owner Brian Edwards, the Airport Operations Supervisor at Traverse City, Michigan’s Cherry Capital Airport. It took a year and a half of what Edwards called “passive training” to get Piper adjusted to helping him with wildlife control, including getting him comfortable with the various and intense engine noises, but once Piper got used to the work, he quickly became a natural. 

Piper’s duty is not only rare, as very few dogs work in the field, but incredibly important. Bird strikes are not only somewhat common in aviation, but they can be deadly. By example, the US Airways Airbus A320 that crashed into the Hudson River in 2009 was the result of a flock of geese being ingested into the engines, causing engine failure. So instead of sending out people to clear the runway area or relying on the updated engines designed to withstand larger birdstrikes, Edwards instead employed Piper, who leapt out of a moving truck to chase the birds out of the area. It was Edwards’ hope that instead of just shooing the birds away, having Piper chase them down would eventually teach them that there is a regular predator in the area, making it an unsuitable landing spot. 

Piper even had a full rig of gear to suit up in, including specialized RexSpex dog goggles (doggles?) that not only protected his eyes from harmful UV rays, but also kept his vision free and clear of debris that may have been swirling around the airport landing spaces. He was also outfitted with a special harness with a handle, a pair of earmuffs to protect his hearing, as well as customized boots that helped with traction and protection from the cold, as the work certainly did not stop in winter. 

But on top of his duties as a wildlife mitigator, he also served as an ambassador for the airport, and in the process, gained nearly overnight notoriety after one of the GIFs of him out on the runway went viral. Since then, numerous private and commercial pilots have come out in support of him and his work, many reaching out to Edwards directly when he was offered an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on the Reddit forums. 

But maybe just as important as both other jobs, Piper also played a role much more familiar to most dog owners, the role of Chief Morale Officer, which he excelled at in great capacity thanks to his lovable personality and endless dedication to his work and his owner up until the time of his passing.