Dogs are considered man's best friend, but for Texans dogs are a lifeline.
Over the last 15 years, Texas Hearing and Service Dogs has served almost 500 people with hearing or mobility problems.
"It's like I take care of her and she takes care of me,” said service dog owner Misty O’Neal of her dog Nellie. The two have been together for only three months, but Nellie's helping O’Neal handle muscular dystrophy.
Nellie came to O’Neal courtesy of Texas Hearing and Service Dogs.
"It's like guide dogs, but instead of helping people that are blind, they're helping people with other disabilities,” said Sheri Soltes, president of Texas Hearing and Service Dogs.
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Service dogs
The Texas Hearing and Service Dogs organziation trains dogs to help people.
 
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The organization saves and trains dogs to help serve people. The demand for services has more than doubled over the last year and a half. Right now, the waiting list sits at about a year to 18 months. THSD is hoping to raise money to build a new training facility in Austin in order to meet the demand. Texas Hearing and Service Dogs is hosting a 'Training Treasures' seminar next month. It teaches pet owners to train their dogs in the same fashion the group uses.
"The biggest thing is retrieving, it's picking things up for me because I fumble around and I drop things a lot and there's a lot of stuff that I can't reach,” O’Neal said.
It's quite a different story for Carolyn Wilson. She's a second-time student at The University of Texas studying American sign language after she experienced partial hearing loss.
"He can alert me to sounds that I have no other way of being aware of,” Wilson said of her dog Trooper.
She believes he is a life saver.
"There are sounds like smoke alarms, for instance that I don't know that I would be aware of it,” she said.
The dog alerts her about other things hearing people may take for granted, such as cell phones and alarm clocks.
Although this type of training costs about $10,000, the group does it free of charge for clients. It's funded primarily through donations.
For more information, or to make a donation, call (512) 891-9090.
