Animal Ears 🐕 How animals hear
Dog hearing range in hertz
Canis familiaris
It hears squeals so high they're silence to you: that's why ‘silent' whistles work.
In short
A Dog hears from about 67 Hz up to 45 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 4 kHz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
In the middle pitches, a dog hears much like you do. The difference is upstairs: it reaches about 45,000 Hz, more than double your ceiling. That whole stretch is ultrasound, and to you it is silence: a squeaky toy, a jingling tag, a mouse scratching inside the wall. It's also especially sharp near 4,000 Hz, the zone of high whistles... and of your voice when you talk to it in that ridiculous tone it loves.
Hertz (Hz)
Which pitches it hears
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
A low sound rumbles (think thunder); a high sound squeals (think a mosquito). These three numbers mark how far down this animal goes, how far up it goes, and which pitch it hears most clearly of all.
| Lowest it hears | 67 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 45 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 4 kHz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Dog's
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 45 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 40 Hz | 59 dB |
| 63 Hz | 38 dB |
| 125 Hz | 22 dB |
| 250 Hz | 12 dB |
| 500 Hz | 8 dB |
| 1 kHz | 5 dB |
| 4 kHz | -5 dB |
| 8 kHz | -4 dB |
| 16 kHz | 8 dB |
| 32 kHz | 20 dB |
| 45 kHz | 60 dB |
| 60 kHz | 72 dB |
Averaged across breeds; best ~4–8 kHz. 60 dB SPL criterion (67 Hz–45 kHz). Points digitised from the published curve.
Can a Dog hear things you can't?
A Dog picks up everything from 67 Hz (the deepest) to 45 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 4 kHz.
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 45 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Dog hear?
A Dog picks up everything from 67 Hz (the deepest) to 45 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 4 kHz.
Can a Dog hear things you can't?
Yes: it picks up pitches so high they are pure silence to you, up to about 45 kHz. Your ceiling is 20 kHz.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Dog would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Dog starts to hear each sound. We take that curve and apply it to your recording like a giant equaliser: we turn up the pitches the animal hears beautifully and turn down or remove the ones that simply don't exist for it. The result gets close to what it would notice... but it still arrives through your ears.
Hertz (Hz)
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
Ultrasound
Sounds so high your ears no longer register them: above about 20,000 Hz. To you they are total silence, but a dog, a cat or a bat hears them perfectly. That's exactly where a ‘silent' dog whistle lives.
Where these numbers come from
- Heffner, H.E. (1983). Hearing in large and small dogs. Behavioral Neuroscience, 97(2), 310–318. doi:10.1037/0735-7044.97.2.310
- Fay, R.R. (1988). Hearing in Vertebrates: A Psychophysics Databook. Hill-Fay Associates.
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