A FOUR-LEGGED friend will be helping a music teacher during her lessons in the future.

Brentwood School teacher Sophie Biebuyck is set to have a hearing dog to assist her day-to-day life and accompany the 27-year-old to class.

The dogs are used by deaf people who struggle to hear alarms and are trained to alert their owners should such a sound be going off.

Former opera performer Sophie started suffering hearing damage when she was 17 and had to stop her budding professional singing career.

Without aids she has 24 per cent hearing in one ear and 45 per cent in the other but says her classical training has meant she has still been able to carry on in the music industry as a teacher.

Sophie said: “Losing my hearing was devastating but I received a lot of support at Brentwood and the philosophy of the school is to make the best of your situation.

“Singing is as much about technique as sound and I am finely tuned into observing people.

“My training as an opera singer has taught me the importance of pronouncing every single word clearly and carefully.”

Inspections have been done by charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People at the school and also Sophie’s home.

Breeds which are used as hearing dogs are spaniels, poodles, labradors and retrievers or crosses of them with it taking around 18 weeks to train a dog up.

Rob Panting, spokesman for the charity, said: “There are many recipients who are teachers who have hearing dogs and take the dog to school with them.

“Not only do the dogs help them with their own disability, but they are also a great influence in the schools too because there is a bit of a novelty factor as everyone loves dogs and they’re a calming influence to students as well.

“The responses we have got back from schools have been exceptional and it is a very, very good thing.”