It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a… hang gliding service dog?!

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One man’s service dog is taking loyalty to new heights!

Hang glider Dan McManus of Salt Lake City, Utah, created a special harness for his service dog, Shadow, so the loyal pup could join him in the skies. But, he says, taking the dog flying was Shadow’s idea.

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McManus told Fox13 News that Shadow earned his name by following him absolutely everywhere. Shadow, a psychiatric service dog, helps McManus deal with severe separation anxiety. As someone that struggles when alone, Shadow rarely lets him get to that point.

So, how did the dog become a hang gliding partner? “He always liked to chase me,” he said. “So I would be out here flying, and he would chase me and jump up at me and sometimes get my foot and hang on a little bit.” McManus said it drove Shadow crazy to see him all alone up in the sky.

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“He needs to keep me safe, so he needed to go flying with me to keep me safe.”

McManus says that Shadow absolutely loves flying.

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“He’ll put his little paws and arms out around me and hang onto my arm and get right with it,” he said. “He shifts his weight. He looks down at the ground. He looks around at the other gliders in the air.”

McManus says that while it may seem odd for a dog to hang glide, Shadow is where he belongs. “As we always say, home is where the heart is,” he said. “And I think this is where his heart is. He was born to fly.”

Check out Dan and Shadow tandem hang gliding in the video below:

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