Football legend Stuart Pearce backs our campaign to recruit more volunteer puppy trainers

We are urgently looking for more volunteers across the UK to help train our life-changing hearing dogs and our ‘Best Club Ever’ campaign aims to highlight the benefits of becoming a puppy training volunteer.

As well as training dogs that will help deaf people to rebuild confidence, connection and companionship, Hearing Dogs volunteers also make new friends, learn new skills and feel a real sense of community with other people doing the same thing.

Stuart Pearce said: “I’ve been part of some brilliant teams in my time, but this is a club that really changes lives. The volunteers at Hearing Dogs are incredible, and it’s been a joy to help shine a light on the work they do.”

Our volunteer puppy trainers take a puppy into their home from eight weeks old, and with the full support of a local dog training instructor, get them started on their training and socialisation journey so that the pup can one day be matched with the deaf person whose life they will change.

Our dogs are trained to alert deaf people to important sounds such as smoke alarms, intruder alarms, alarm clocks, doorbells and even the sounds of a baby’s cry – all sounds that could otherwise be missed. They provide lots of love and companionship too, which is just as important as many people who are deaf or have hearing loss can feel isolated and cut off from their friends, families and communities because of their invisible disability.

We, along with Stuart, would encourage anyone who loves dogs, has enough time every day to dedicate to caring for a pup, and wants to make a real difference to someone else’s life, to consider volunteering as hearing dog puppy trainer.