Hearing loss in dogs can be caused by a variety of diseases, trauma or congenital issues. In the case of congenital issues, the dog is born deaf while hearing loss as a result of injury, disease, ear infection or exposure to loud noises may appear gradually or suddenly.

Hearing loss can be categorized as unilateral (affecting one ear) or bilateral (affecting both ears) and are usually noticeable to the owner. Congenital cases will show symptoms at an early age with either inappropriate responses or a complete lack of response.

Hearing can be tested through a BAER (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response) test which is a computer assisted program that records the electrical activity in the dog's brain in response to a variety of sound stimulations. As a pet owner, your dogs hearing can be tested at home or with the vet’s assistance with the simple methods below:

• Calling in a normal voice, but increasing volume if there is no response
• Whistle or blow a whistle to gauge your dogs’ response
• Squeeze a squeaky toy out of sight of the dog
• Clapping your hands at a distance where the dog cannot feel the air movement

Dogs may lose either the upper or lower portion of the audio spectrum and you will need to perform tests using a variety of sounds. The dogs response will depend on whether the animal is partially or entirely deaf and whether it is in one ear or both.

Although there is no known treatment for deafness in dogs, many will adjust to their limitations with little problem and can be trained to respond to hand or light signals.