my 7 year old lab has apparently lost his hearing over the last week. when he is asleep I can yell his name repeatedly and he doesn't respond. he is slow to respond to commands since he can't hear me, but can sense I am telling him to sit or heel and tries to figure it out. I asked my vet, and he is checking around since he doesn't see this much. Any ideas?

I have a 14 year old 1/2 Britt 1/2 GSP that has done the same thing. Luckily when he was young my wife taught him basic commands with using hand signals. I use an ecollar with vibrate on him anytime he is outside. I noticed his starting at about 10 yrs old. You will have to be careful and keep a close eye him so he doesn't do something that could get him hurt because he can't hear you. mine can still hear a whistle some and as weird as this sounds, he can hear when you snap your finger if he is close.(probably feels the vibration?)

Dogs like us will have hearing loss with age, but 7 is too young. Other than an infection or damage from an infection, you might want to think about how you hunt with him. I have seen dogs next to layouts that are allowed to be far enough forward that they are likely in the blast zone of the shotgun muzzle. Even worse is hunting from boats like a canoe or kayak with the dog on the bow or in front. My paddled/poke boats are all configured for the dog to sit behind me. As well I believe to keep a dog out of the blast zone is one of the reasons for sit to flush when upland hunting flushing dogs.
http://www.msstate.edu/web/media/detail.php?id=1812
There are of course worse less common things that cause hearing loss, but hunting and age is the most common. My older dog Blaze has hearing loss beyond normal for her age that was sudden and still left over from a tick disease as well as blindness. Which if the hearing loss was sudden, your dog has been exposed to ticks in the last few weeks, and everything else was ruled out, adding that to a blood test might be worth doing to rule it out.

thanks guys. he hasn't heard a gun since January. he did have surgery a couple of months ago cause he ate a sock, but has recovered well and is back to normal in all other areas. really puzzling.

I have a 12 year old Brittany that is deaf in both ears but her nose is still 100%.

Many times, my E.pointers, regardless of age, cant seem to hear a thing unless they happen to be wearing an e-collar.

All mine were deaf at times unless they had their hearing aid around their necks.

Another forum member had a dog put under and had his teeth cleaned. Woke up deaf.

I found this link from Louisiana State University.
http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/Sudden.htm

A buddy at work had a 2 yr old dog that was put under for teeth cleaning and never woke up.