Dog Hearing

Dog hearing, how good is it?  A little hint...don't be surprised when you whisper "walk" to find him at the door waiting.

Dogs can hear at an ultrasonic level; they hear two octaves higher than we do. The evolutionary reason goes back to survival and the dogs being able to hear rodent noises, I think I’m happy only hearing the cow. Dogs can hear more than the higher-pitched noises, though. They’re also able to detect and localize sound with exceptional accuracy.  Consider that a newborn puppy is born with closed ear canals; by seven weeks, they hear and translate sounds better than we ever will – it’s astounding.

Dogs have more prominent ears than us and are much more able to move them. Dogs have about 30 muscles in their ears. We only have nine. This allows them to better zero in on a sound – floppy-eared dogs are slightly disadvantaged. Even our Doodles, with their heavy ear flaps, can hear four times better than us – which does explain how Winston can hear me creeping about, ever so stealthily, at night.

This knowledge might help us understand our Dood’s fear of the vacuum and/or thunderstorms. Vacuum motors make high-pitched noises that we don’t hear, yet they send our Doodles running for cover. Winston may be given permission to be outside on the next cleaning day. Imagine hearing a thunderstorm on your surround sound—now turn the volume up four times your average listening level. I suspect we’d all run for cover.