Signs of Hearing Loss in an Aging Dog: What Our Panel Watches For

The dog that wasn’t ignoring you

In my practice, I’ve watched this play out more times than I can count: a twelve-year-old Labrador named Otis, sixty-eight pounds, came in because his owner was convinced he’d become “defiant” over the winter. He’d stopped coming when called from the backyard. He slept through the doorbell, something that used to send him into a barking fit. His owner had started raising her voice, then felt guilty about it, then brought him in half-expecting a behavior referral. What she actually had was a dog with progressive, symmetric hearing loss that had been building for the better part of a year — she’d just attributed each sign to something else. The barking-stopped-at-the-doorbell moment was the one that finally got her attention, months after the first missed recall in the yard. That gap between onset and recognition is the pattern I see again and again, and it’s the reason this list exists.

Why the ears fail before the dog seems old anywhere else

Age-related hearing loss in dogs, presbycusis, is degeneration of the hair cells and the organ of Corti inside the inner ear — the structures that convert sound vibration into a signal the brain can use. It tends to start during the last third of a dog’s expected lifespan, and unlike an ear infection, it’s usually symmetric: both ears decline together, quietly, without redness, odor, or head-shaking to tip you off, according to PetMD. That symmetry is part of why it’s so easy to miss. A dog that loses hearing in one ear from an infection often tilts its head or startles from one side; a dog losing both ears gradually just seems to be listening less.

High-frequency sounds go first. Whistles, the beep of a microwave, a doorbell’s upper tone — those often disappear from a dog’s world before conversational-range sounds do, per PetMD’s reporting, which is why a dog can still seem to “hear fine” at the sound of a food bag while missing a squeaky toy entirely. Eventually, in more advanced cases, hearing drops across the range.

The signs, ranked by what owners actually notice first

Not startling awake as easily, sleeping through sounds that used to wake the dog instantly, is usually the earliest and most-missed sign — it reads as “sleeping better,” not as pathology. Next comes inconsistent response to name or recall, especially outdoors or with the dog’s back turned, which owners often chalk up to distraction or age-related stubbornness rather than hearing. Later signs are harder to miss: barking that sounds different (often louder, since the dog can no longer self-monitor volume), failure to respond to the doorbell or another dog barking, and startling more easily when touched or approached from behind, because the dog didn’t hear you coming.

It’s worth separating age-related decline from other causes early, because the workup differs. Chronic or severe ear infections, tumors, certain endocrine disorders, and trauma can all cause acquired hearing loss in a dog that was born hearing normally, and these are frequently treatable or at least manageable in ways presbycusis is not, according to the American Kennel Club. A dog with a sudden, one-sided change deserves a same-week ear exam, not a “let’s watch it” approach; a dog with a slow, symmetric decline over many months in the senior years is the classic presbycusis picture.

Confirming it: what a hearing test actually involves

If you want a real answer instead of a guess, the gold standard is a Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER) test — small electrodes placed under the skin near the scalp and each ear measure the brainstem’s electrical response to sound, and it can assess each ear independently, which behavioral testing at home usually can’t do reliably, per BluePearl Pet Hospital. It’s non-invasive and typically done in a single visit. You don’t need a BAER test to start adapting how you communicate with your dog, but if you’re trying to rule out a treatable cause versus confirming presbycusis, it’s the test that actually settles the question rather than leaving you to interpret head tilts.

Where cellular support fits, and where I hold the line

Here’s where I want to be direct with owners who ask me whether a supplement can “fix” their dog’s hearing: nothing on the market reverses degeneration of the inner ear’s hair cells once it’s occurred, and I won’t tell a client otherwise. What I will say is that some of the same cellular-aging science behind our panel’s longevity supplement coverage is relevant to how tissues, including sensory tissue, hold up over time. Nicotinamide Riboside, a NAD+ precursor, supports normal cellular function, according to Boops Pets’ vet-reviewed claim list. Quercetin is a flavonoid with antioxidant properties studied for immune and cellular support, and Resveratrol and Quercetin together are antioxidants that support cellular health and vitality, per that same claim list. Those are structure/function statements about cellular support broadly, not claims about restoring hearing, and I’m not going to blur that line for a worried owner in the exam room. If a client wants to weave a cellular-support supplement into an aging dog’s care plan alongside diet and monitoring, I don’t object; I just won’t let it substitute for a BAER test or an ear exam when the picture calls for one.

The scene that changes how owners cope

One of the dogs I worked with, a fourteen-year-old Shih Tzu named Biscuit, forty pounds lighter in confidence than she’d ever been, had an owner who spent three months growing quietly frustrated before bringing her in. Biscuit had stopped responding to “sit” from across the kitchen but still sat instantly if you were in front of her, hand raised. That’s not selective listening; that’s a dog reading a visual cue because the audio cue had faded out from under her. Once we confirmed presbycusis and ruled out anything acute, I walked the owner through hand signals for the commands Biscuit already knew, paired the old verbal cue with the new gesture for a few weeks, and had her start approaching Biscuit from the front or stomping on the floor so the dog would feel the vibration before being touched. Within about a month, the household friction dropped considerably, not because Biscuit’s hearing came back, but because the humans stopped expecting sound to do a job it no longer could.

The verdict

A dog that’s stopped responding to sounds she used to react to instantly isn’t being difficult; she’s very likely losing her hearing gradually, the way most senior dogs eventually do. The counterargument I hear most is “he still barks at the mail carrier, so his hearing must be fine” — but presbycusis is rarely all-or-nothing, and a dog can retain response to some triggers (vibration through the floor, a visual cue at the window) while missing most conversational and doorbell-range sound. I still land on early hand-signal training and a same-week vet visit for any sudden or one-sided change, because that combination catches the treatable causes early and prepares the household for the ones that aren’t. Cellular-support supplements may have a reasonable place in a broader senior wellness plan, but they are not a substitute for that workup, and I won’t present them as one. If your dog is showing several of the signs above, ask your vet about a BAER test before assuming it’s just old age doing what old age does — and if hearing loss is confirmed, know that dogs adapt to it far better than most owners expect, especially when the training starts early. For related mobility changes that often show up around the same life stage, our panel has also covered hind-limb weakness and how to tell arthritis from normal aging stiffness.