Dogs and High Frequency Noise

Dogs perceive the world around them differently than humans do. Their senses work in different ways. Some are keener than a humans, while others are not as sharp. Dogs don't rely on vision as much as people. However, they compensate for this with a stronger sense of smell and with hearing that accesses a wider-range of sounds.

  1. Frequency

    • To understand why dogs can hear higher frequency noise than humans, it is important to understand what frequency is. All sound is made up of waves. Ears take those waves and translate them into an auditory signal that the brain processes as sound. The frequency of sound is measured in hertz, which describes how many cycles the wave makes within a second. What the brain understands as pitch, or how high or how low a particular noise sounds, is a function of the frequency of that noise. A higher hertz rating on a sound results in a perceived higher pitch.

    Physical Limits

    • Human beings have a range that averages from around 64 Hz to 23kHz. Dogs on the other hand hear from around 67 Hz to 45kHz, meaning they have the ability to hear sounds with almost double the frequency that humans can perceive. These limits are imprecise, as factors such as individual physiology and age-related deterioration affects that actual hearing range of any individual person or dog.

    Evolution

    • Evolution has much to do with why dogs can hear better than humans can. Dogs evolved from wolves and other similar predatory species that lived in the wild. These predators relied on a keen sense of hearing to locate prey in the distance. This is also why dogs can hear high range sounds at lower volumes that humans can. It enabled them to find food that their vision couldn't locate. Humans on the other hand, evolved as a species that hunted much more with the eyes.

    Training

    • Because of the nature of a dog's hearing, noises that are supersonic to a human make excellent training tools for dogs. Many people train dogs to respond to a dog whistle. This whistle emits a sound that is too high-pitched for humans to hear, but which dogs can detect, even at great distances. This is why hunting dogs are typically trained with a whistle. They respond to the whistle's commands even when far away from the master. This provides dog owners with a silent and effective system for dog training.