Hearing assistance dogs enable those who are deaf or hard of hearing to be more aware of their surroundings. These dogs can accompany their handler who is deaf in public settings and will naturally give off sound cues to the handler. For example, if the dog looks to his left, the handler will know there is an auditory signal coming from that direction, which prompts the handler to look to their left to see if it is something they should respond to. Hearing dogs are also trained to purposefully alert their handler to certain sounds in the home. These dogs are trained to paw at their handler’s leg when the smoke alarm goes off, the doorbell rings, the microwave dings, or the teakettle whistles. Our dogs are trained on a case-by-case basis for the specific sounds each recipient will need to be alerted to. Size is not a factor for hearing assistance dogs.