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“Lazer is very smart, but he’ll never be an assistance dog, professor. We need him focused on his job. Look at how distracted he gets whenever people mention him.”

“What do you think I’m doing?”

“Just looking at your cell phone. You’re even more distracted. You’re not paying any attention to the dog.”

“I am. The cell phone shows me what happens each time Lazer gets distracted – N1, P3, beta changes-“

“Professor, you’re just saying the same thing I said, and all the other dog trainers said.”

“Yeah, but my system told you that before you spent a year and 35 grand training him. All we have to do is put this headband on candidates for training, run a few tests, and we can save a lot of time and money.”

“Why dogs then? Why not do this with people who want to be pilots, save a lot more time and money?”

“We do. That’s how my company got started. We’re going to use it with potential dog trainers next.”

The dog trainer slowed down, lost in thought, then resumed her fast pace. “Really?”

“No. Just seeing if you were distracted. But we have been thinking about agility dogs. Maybe matching dogs or cats to potential owners. We could monitor alertness in assistance dogs to detect when they’re not paying attention. And-“ He suddenly fell backward as Lazer jumped back, pulling them both back to the curb. A truck just missed them both. The professor caught his breath, then started laughing. “I guess Lazer’s better with distraction than we are. Is he up for adoption now?”