Hearing dog
assistance dog specifically trained to assist people who are deaf or hard of hearing
A hearing dog is a specialized assistance dog specifically selected and trained to assist people who are deaf or hard of hearing by alerting their handler to important sounds, such as doorbells, smoke alarms, ringing telephones, or alarm clocks. They may also work outside the home, alerting their handler to sounds such as sirens, forklifts, and a person calling the handler's name.
Training
Dogs that may become hearing dogs are tested for proper temperament and willingness to work. After passing initial screenings, they are trained in basic obedience and exposed to things they will face in public areas, such as elevators, shopping carts, and different types of people. They are also trained in audio-response training, where they are exposed to different house appliances or other noises, like doorbells. These results are then logged. Only after that period of socializing and audio-response training are they then considered to be fully trained in sound alerting.
Hearing dogs may be trained professionally in as little as three months, though many are trained for at least a year. Generally, training involves getting the dog to recognize a particular sound and then physically alert or lead their handler to the source. They may also be taught to physically alert to and/or lead away from a sound, such as in the case of a fire alarm.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q38877. The Library of Congress control number is sh85059625. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hearing dog” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.