[haileyandbandit]

Hey guys,

I recently saw a woman and her service dog at a movie theater, and my first thought was "wouldn't that hurt her dogs ears?". I am curious as to how sensitive dog's ears really are. I know I had to put a muffler on my clicker, because when I first started using it, every time I clicked my dog would flinch a little. If anyone has any information on this, or source I can read up on this about I would be very interested to know.

Thanks!

 

[Amaryllis]

Dogs can hear more of the spectrum of sound, that doesn't mean sounds are louder to them, per se. I doubt your dog was flinching because the clicker was too loud, he was just scared by the sound.

 

[Kayota]

^this... I sat Padfoot down in front of an outdoor stage as a kid and some lady told me that it was cruel to have him there, it would hurt his ears... but he was fine. On the other hand, I once had to walk him home from a civil war reenactment because the cannon was a lot louder than my mom and I expected and he was terrified.

 

[sandgrubber]

There are a couple questions here. What do dogs pick up with their antennae? How do they react?

No question that they can pick up things we don't hear, both sounds that aren't loud enough and sounds that are too high for us to hear, eg running to the gate to greet you when you're a half mile away. But they seem capable of coping with very high sound volume. My dogs (Labradors) are happy sitting next to a power saw that is loud enough to make me put my hands over my ears. I think they associate power tools with guys who give them bits of lunch and scratch their butts. There's also a reactivity dimension. My dogs bark at dog and some other animal noises, but don't react strongly to most audio stim. They seem to like guns and thunder, but it the bangs or claps don't make them wild. They slink away when the vacuum comes out. Some dogs react with fear to guns/thunder/fireworks.

 

[haileyandbandit]

Thanks for your replies, everyone!

Amaryllis- That makes a lot of sense. Also I can definitely see how she would be flinching because she was initially scared of the sound.

Kayota & sandgrubber- This also makes a lot of sense. Kiko could care less about thunder or gun shots, but when my horse neighs or the vacuum cleaner comes on she runs for the hills. I guess I'm always worried if something's too loud for her (like music, or the tv), but I guess she would let me know if/when something is making her uncomfortable.

Thank you guys for clearing that up.