What Can Dogs Actually Hear?

Dogs hear a good deal more than we do, and the difference is mostly at the top end. A young adult with good hearing manages roughly 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz; a dog runs from about 67 Hz up to around 45,000 Hz. That upper reach is why a so-called silent whistle works, and why a dog can be bothered by something in a room that sounds empty to you. They are slightly worse than us at the very lowest notes, and they are no better at pinpointing exactly where a sound came from — what they have instead is range, two ears they can aim independently, and the ability to pick a quiet sound out of a noisy background.

The range, and what sits above ours

Human hearing spans roughly 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz at its best, and the top of that falls away steadily with age — most adults past forty have lost the highest couple of thousand hertz without ever noticing. A dog’s range is usually given as about 67 Hz to 45,000 Hz. The practical meaning of that gap is not that everything sounds louder to a dog, but that a whole band of the world exists for them and not for you.

That band is where the training whistles sold as silent operate: they are not silent, they simply sit above the ceiling of human hearing and comfortably inside a dog’s. It is also why high-pitched squeaky toys hold attention so well. The squeak sits in the region dogs hear best, and it is close enough to the noises small prey animals make that the interest is not a surprise.

Ears built to be aimed

The visible part of the ear, the pinna, is a funnel, and a dog’s is moved by around eighteen small muscles. Each one works on its own, which is why you can watch a dozing dog swivel a single ear towards the kitchen while the rest of them stays asleep. We can manage none of that; we turn our heads instead.

Inside, the canal is not a straight tube. It runs down and then turns inwards, an L-shape that protects the eardrum well and drains badly. That shape is behind most ear trouble in dogs — water, grass seeds and debris go in far more easily than they come out — and it is the reason cotton buds are a poor idea: anything pushed down the vertical part is being pushed towards a corner it cannot get past.

On placing a sound, people are a shade better than dogs at saying precisely where a noise came from. Dogs make up the difference by aiming the ears, and by hearing the thing in the first place. A dog that lifts its head at nothing has usually heard something real.

What the house sounds like to a dog

This is the part most owners find useful, because it explains behaviour that otherwise looks like nonsense. A dog knows your car from the other cars in the street. A dog knows the particular click of the drawer the lead lives in, and is at the door before you have straightened up. None of that is intuition. It is a better microphone paired with a very good memory for sound.

It cuts the other way too. Some household electronics put out noise above our range — certain ultrasonic pest deterrents are sold on exactly that principle, and various chargers, alarms and screens whine quietly at frequencies we have lost. If a dog consistently avoids one room, one corner or one chair for no visible reason, it is worth switching things off one at a time before deciding the dog is being odd. Vacuum cleaners, hairdryers and some power tools are loud in our range and louder in theirs.

Two things follow for training. Volume is rarely the answer: a dog that is not responding has usually not understood rather than not heard, and shouting only adds tension. And because dogs read movement so well, a hand signal paired with a word gets through more reliably at distance than the word on its own — which is also true of what they actually see.

Does ear shape change what a dog hears?

A little, and less than people assume. An upright ear, as on a German shepherd or a husky, funnels and locates sound slightly more efficiently than a heavy dropped ear on a spaniel or a basset. The difference in what the dog can hear is small. The difference in airflow down the canal is not, and that is the part worth attention: a dropped, well-feathered ear holds warmth and moisture, which is why those breeds need the ears looked at and dried after swimming or a wet walk.

Head shape and size matter in their own small ways as well, since the distance between the two ears is part of how any animal works out direction. None of it changes the basic picture. All dogs hear higher than we do, and all of them are listening while they appear to be doing nothing at all.

Puppies, and dogs born without hearing

Puppies are born deaf. The ear canals open at around two weeks old, and hearing comes in over the next couple of weeks after that, which is part of why the sounds a puppy meets between three and twelve weeks shape so much of how it reacts to noise later.

Some dogs never hear in one or both ears. It is linked to certain coat patterns — the merle and extreme white or piebald patterns particularly, which is why it turns up in dalmatians, double merles and some predominantly white dogs. A puppy that sleeps through a clatter its littermates jump at, or that cannot be woken by voice, is worth mentioning to a vet, who can refer for a proper hearing test rather than leaving it to guesswork. Dogs that cannot hear live perfectly ordinary lives on hand signals, vibration and routine.

An older dog’s ears

Hearing fades with age in dogs much as it does in people, and it goes from the top down. The first signs are easy to read as something else: a dog that no longer comes when called from another room but arrives the moment you walk in, one that sleeps through the post, one that startles badly when touched because it did not hear you cross the floor.

The adjustments are small and work well. Build in hand signals while the dog can still hear, so the vocabulary is already there when it is needed. Come into a sleeping dog’s line of sight before touching, or stamp gently on the floor so they feel you arrive. Use the lead in places you would previously have trusted a voice recall. And keep an old dog’s layout and routine steady, because a dog that hears less is relying more on what it already knows about the house.

Where the Calming Chews sit

Dogs that react strongly to sound are a common thing to live with, and the groundwork is the same as for any unsettled dog: a predictable routine, somewhere to retreat to that nobody disturbs, and no fuss from the humans. Telling anxiety apart from boredom is usually where to start.

Biotic’s Gain Dog Calming Chews are a complementary feed containing L-theanine, fed alongside a complete, balanced diet and given to the guide on the pack, which is sized by the dog’s weight. A complementary feed cannot claim to treat, prevent or cure anything, and we do not say it does. The anxiety guide covers what is worth knowing before adding anything to a routine.

See the Biotic’s Gain dog range

When to speak to your vet

Ears are one of the most common reasons dogs end up at the surgery, and most of it is straightforward when it is caught early. Book an appointment if you notice:

Head shaking, scratching at an ear, or rubbing the side of the head along the floor or furniture
Redness, swelling, discharge or a strong smell from one or both ears
Flinching or crying when an ear is touched
A head tilt, loss of balance, or walking in circles — the same day, this one
Hearing that seems to have dropped off suddenly rather than gradually
Any suspicion of a grass seed, water or a foreign body in the canal after a walk or a swim

Do not put drops, oils or cleaners down an ear without asking first. If the eardrum is damaged, some of what is sold for cleaning can do real harm.