Hearing

May 31.  Today is Save your Hearing Day.   Which in our household, with Frodo, means that you should be wearing ear protection 24 hours a day.  OK. Maybe that’s an exaggeration.  He doesn’t bark when he sleeps.  Make that 16 hours a day for ear protection.

According to the Guinness Book of World records, the loudest dog bark recorded was 113 decibels.  To give you an idea how LOUD that is, the noise from an accelerating motorcycle is 110 dB and a chainsaw from about 3 feet away is 117 dB.  I think we need to record Frodo.  I bet he beats the record.

And you know, we each DO have our own barks.  And our human can definitely identify who is barking.  Of course it would be evident that Pax’s bark would be different and Frodo and I are also different.   My bark is “younger sounding” – and I say it’s because I AM younger.  But I CAN do a BIG dog bark if I see something ominous.  Like a rabbit.  THEN I sound mature.  And huge.

As for OUR hearing – we dogs can hear more octaves than humans. We move our ears toward the source of a sound – and we have 18 muscles that move our ears.  We can hear things that humans cannot hear.  My human has always wondered about dog whistles.   I mean humans blow them and can’t hear the sound.  But we are supposed to hear it.  The challenge – if we don’t respond, is it because we are just ignoring – or because the whistle doesn’t work….

Just like humans, our hearing range can deteriorate as we get older. And did you know, that dogs can even get hearing aids?  Apparently small dogs do better with them – but there are no guarantees.  And they are pricey.  Like thousands of dollars – just like good human hearing aids.  It’s not something that would ever likely happen in this house.  The dogs who get aids must be seriously trained and very compliant.  Need I say more?  We’ll rely on hand signals if our hearing starts to fail.  Or not.

We also know that in our house, we dogs have excellent “selective” hearing.  We can hear the fridge door being opened from anywhere in the house.  And if I even THINK I hear my human approaching the garage door – where the dog food is stored, I’m there.  On the OTHER hand, when I see something outdoors, and I am loose, I CANNOT hear my human calling my name.  I also cannot hear my human sometimes when she asks me to do something.  Like get off her bed.  Or give up the bunny.  I CAN hear her better if she has a treat in her hand.  Funny how hearing can be affected by treats.

Hearing is an important sense – and humans AND dogs should protect their hearing in noisy environments.  I checked on-line- and who KNEW you can even buy dog ear protection muffs?!  I must put those on my Christmas list.

Well – I must go – I think I just heard the treat jar opening!  Have a good one!

©  Linda Wozniak