How well does your dog hear
It is not uncommon for people to associate dogs with paranormal happenings. A dog’s hair raising habit of howling and peering into the darkness as if looking at things unseen by human eyes is commonly attributed to psychic abilities. Many dog owners believe that these animals can predict death. However, these beliefs are not supported by scientific basis and the dog’s amazing abilities are attributed to the animal’s sensitive senses.
Dog owners would attest to the fact that the sense of smell is the most sensitive sense of the dog and the sense of hearing comes a very close second. These ultra sensitive senses are the reasons why dogs excel in protection work. Dogs are relied to alert humans to the presence of intruders.
The ears of humans and dogs have an almost similar anatomical characteristics but a dog’s hearing ability is far superior to what humans have. Human ears are plastered close to the head while a dog’s ear that has 18 or more muscles allows more mobility. The outermost section of a dog’s ears can be tilted, rotated and swiveled independently to capture sounds more efficiently. By moving the ears like a satellite dish, the dog can turn the ears to the exact point where the sound is coming from to better pick up the sound. Law enforcers that use canines take advantage of the dog’s unique ability to move the ears as often times, the direction of the ears discloses the location of a suspect. The hearing sensitivity of a dog remains the same even if the sound is muffled by floppy ears. The hearing abilities of floppy eared dogs are still much more sensitive as compared to the hearing abilities of humans.
The skill of a dog’s ears to pick up sound independently could mean that the dog will be inundated with cornucopia of sounds. In spite of the fact that human hearing is not as sensitive as canine hearing, various sounds heard at the same time will be overwhelming to humans. Loud sounds will not trouble dogs as all they have to do is to filter any unwanted sounds. The raucous created by the blaring stereo and the screaming voices of playing children would be intolerable sounds for humans but a dog can peacefully sleep through this kind of din.
Dogs have a unique knack of counteracting their sensitive hearing abilities. Dogs would simply filter the sound. A dog that would sleep through a jumble of discordant sounds but would rouse at once at the crackling sound of the kibble wrapper is showing its ability to screen sounds.
