IF you are walking around The James Cook University Hospital you might spot a cockerpoo, called Jenson.

Jenson is a hearing dog for Sarah Urwin, assistant service manager for admin and clerical.

Hearing dogs alert their owners with hearing loss to certain sounds that they may have otherwise missed.

There are 30 in the north east.

Sarah, who has suffered with hearing loss since being a child, wears bone-anchored hearing aids but decided to sign up for a hearing dog when she realised she needed some extra support in certain situations.

She said: “I moved into a three floor house on my own and on the first night there I thought if something happens, I wouldn’t know about it because I wouldn’t hear.

“So I looked it up online for ways of supporting people with hearing loss and there is a charity that provides dogs to support people with hearing loss similar as the guide dogs for the blind.”

Sarah was paired with Jenson in November 2019.

“Jenson is trained to do sound work for me, so basically he can let me know when the phone rings, the door alarm, any timers or smoke alarms that may go off," she said, “when he hears something he will nudge and then if I ask him what it is he will take me to where the sound is coming from, or if it is a fire alarm he will lie down.

“I can also train him myself, using a squeaker, to alert me to any other sounds I want him to alert me to, for example my phone alarm.”

Sarah said Jenson has made a big difference to her confidence and work life.

“Having Jenson has been huge in terms of people realising that I am profoundly deaf and that I do struggle in certain environments at work," she said, “when I was younger I used to hide away from the fact I was deaf because I was a bit embarrassed.

“I’m embracing it much more now.”

Sarah’s advice to anyone who see Jenson or a working dog is that although they love being made a fuss of, whilst working they are focused and distractions may cause them to become playful and create bad habits.

If Jenson is in working mode it is best not to approach him to avoid distracting him from his work routine. However, if they are in a casual setting like a café, Jenson more than welcomes a fuss.