If you suspect your dog might be suffering from hearing loss, a good way to do this is through any of the following tests, which you can do at home.

1. Begin by making everyday sounds your dog should know well, such as ringing the doorbell, clapping your hands, and bouncing a ball on a hard surface.
2. Make sudden sounds both when your pet is wide awake and fast asleep. Make a note if they cock their head in the direction of the noise, their ears twitch, or they suddenly wake up from their slumber.
3. Make random noises both in the same room as your pet and in other rooms to establish how they respond at various distances from it.

If your dog is not exhibiting any signs of noticing or recognizing the noises you make, you should make an appointment with a vet to get their hearing properly checked out.

When you take your dog to the vet with suspected hearing loss, they will try to confirm a diagnosis in any one of the following ways (or a mix thereof).

The first thing your vet is likely to do is a physical exam of your dog’s ear canals. They will do this with an otoscope, which is a specialized instrument that can detect inflammation, blockages, and ear infections.

Although invasive, it is a painless procedure that can be done from the comfort and safety of your vet’s office to check for a range of conditions, including ear yeast infection. 

Should your vet need a more thorough look at your pooch’s ear canals to help them make their diagnosis, they might order a CT scan, X-rays, or MRI.

To further help them make a diagnosis, your vet might also want to give your dog what is known as brainstem auditory evoked responses (BAER) test.

This test involves fitting them with earplugs that make a clicking sound and putting small needles under their skin to record their brain and nerve responses to them.

Usually, the procedure takes around 10 – 15 minutes, and for most dogs is not too disquieting and uncomfortable.

Generally speaking, most vets will try and resolve your dog’s hearing loss with treatments. For instance, if the hearing loss is caused by ear infections, antifungal or antibiotic medications will usually clear it up and possibly even restore the hearing loss. Similarly, for blockages, your vet might be able to remove the obstruction surgically from the ear canal, which could help restore your pooch’s hearing.

However, in other cases, your vet might say that dog hearing aids via a company in the USA called Fetchlab are an option, in which case, it will be good for you to know what they are. The American Kennel Club outlines the process here. Invented by Dr. Patricia Luttgen in the late 1980s, dog hearing aids are a medical device that is used in canines to amplify the sound that enters their ear canal.

At present, there are no hearing aids for dogs available commercially. However, there is a technique that was developed by a vet at Auburn University in 1987, specifically for other vets to administer, which involves putting a human hearing aid onto the dog’s collar and connecting ear pieces to it with tubing that goes into the dog’s ear. You might be hard-pressed to find a vet doing this, though, particularly outside of the USA.

Many breeds of pet dogs who are afflicted with mild or moderate hearing loss can be viewed as potential candidates for hearing aids. However, it is worth noting that these types of devices will not work on dogs that suffer from profound hearing loss.

Unfortunately, if your canine falls into this category, sound simply can’t be amplified enough to make it loud enough for them to hear.

Moreover, often, by the time the pet parent realizes their dog has an issue, then it is often too late. The problem has usually developed beyond the point where dog hearing aids can be effective.

For this reason, it is worth making a regular appointment with your vet to monitor the current level of your dog’s hearing to ascertain whether it can be given a boost by fitting them with dog hearing aids.

One of the main challenges with dog hearing aids is that you might struggle to find them in your geographic region. Additionally, even if you can, dog owners often have unrealistic or over-hopeful expectations that can’t be met.

Unfortunately, some canines may never adjust to hearing sound again, let alone new sounds, which means that they won’t respond to verbal commands. Instead, you might be better off teaching them to respond to visual commands.

Additionally, as your dog will need to get used to having a strange object in their ear, it might require pet owners to spend a lot of time training them how to respond to you. In such circumstances, it might be worth engaging the services of a canine behaviorist

If your dog is fitted with a hearing aid, you will have to assist your dog to adjust to the new sounds they will be able to hear. This involves keeping your home environment quiet to prevent your four-legged friend from becoming overwhelmed with background noise.

You should also be mindful of your dog vigorously shaking its head because this can dislodge the device in their ear. That said, you can have the device attached to their collar via a chain, which will significantly reduce its chance of going missing.

Ultimately, this decision is up to you because even if your dog is a good candidate to have a hearing aid installed, it might not be the best solution.

As mentioned, acclimatizing your dog to wearing a hearing aid might take a long time, and sadly, some breeds might not ever do so. They will also have to get used to noises sounding a bit different from what they used to recognize, which might cause them a bit of confusion.

You should also be aware that their hearing will never restore to the levels it was when your canine’s hearing was at its clearest. Also, dogs will have to get used to listening to an electronic device rather than a natural voice, which might be a little disconcerting for them. 

While we know you love your pooch and you only want the best for them, you should never have a dog hearing aid fitted in your pet without first consulting a fully qualified and experienced vet.

Although these devices are a potential way for your canine to maintain their hearing, you need to first make sure the cause of their hearing loss is not down to something else, first and foremost.

You’ll also need to be aware of whether your four-legged friend’s hearing can actually be reinstated.

Here are some answers to questions that are frequently asked about dog hearing aids.

One of the main ways vets determine if your dog is suffering from hearing loss is to give them a Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER) test.

Occasionally, referred to as a Brainstem Evoked Potential (BSEP), this test takes the form of a hearing assessment which evaluates the hearing in a range of animals, including dogs and cats.

Generally, dogs tend to go deaf gradually over time. However, this can happen as a consequence of other causes, such as toxic medications, blockages from an inflammation or tumor, and injury from a loud noise.