What is the main idea in this diary entry? April 27 Wow! We’re getting a new Labrador puppy—temporarily. The puppy will be a part of our family, and we’ll spend a lot of time training him. But we won't be able to keep him, no matter how much we want to. That's because we're training him for the Hearing Ear Association. A hearing ear dog assists a deaf person in much the same way that a seeing eye dog helps a blind person. It alerts its owner to important sounds, like a knock at the door, a morning alarm clock, or a whistling tea kettle. Before the program places a dog with a deaf owner, the dog spends a year with a host family. That's us! Our first job is to get the puppy accustomed to family life and to teach it basic commands. We’ll teach it to sit and to fetch. Later, we’ll train the puppy in special hearing skills. A representative of the Hearing Ear Association will deliver the puppy today. It's going to be an educational year for everyone!

In this excerpt, the main idea is that the family will be training the dog for the Hearing Ear Association. However, the author includes many other details and facts in order to make the passage more interesting. We learn that a hearing dog helps deaf people in the same way that a seeing dog helps blind people. We also learn a little about the process that the family will have to follow in order to make sure that the dog is properly trained.