This is because the acuteness of a dogs hearing covers around eight and a half octaves. This means that if somebody is at home and recognises the signs then they can put the kettle on and a pot of tea should be brewing awaiting your arrival.
It has been written that the dogs hearing is 4 times more acute than that of a human. This is a slightly misleading statement because the truth is that the dog is able to hear sounds from 4 times the distance that a human can hear. Both we and our canine companions hear notes in a broadly similar fashion but dogs are better at detecting higher notes.
Research shows that dogs can locate the source of a sound in six-hundredths of a second so if your errant hound chooses to ignore your instruction to come when called then there is no excuse.
Selective deafness has taken over!!
Dogs have the ability to locate the sound with one ear and then use both ears to catch the maximum number of radio waves. All this is possible because dogs are able to move their ears independently using 18 muscles.
Certain dogs will have better ability than others. For instance, those whose ears are erect such as a German Shepherd Dog will have a more acute ability to hear over long distances than a Spaniel who has drop ears.
In 1876 an Englishman called Sir Francis Galton was attempting to find a way of testing the ability of people to hear. This led to the invention of a small device that by today’s standards was a rather crude piece of technology but at the time was quite advanced.
Any of you who have ever used a “silent” whistle can thank Sir Francis because to give that device its technical name it is actually the Galton Whistle.
For those who are unaware, puppies are born deaf and start to develop the ability to hear from between two to three weeks.
And for those of you who like the technical stuff;
Your cat is able to detect a mouse travelling through the undergrowth at a distance of up to 10 metres. It is then no wonder that cats are so proficient at controlling vermin.
Finally today I offer you a totally irrelevant fact that you may try and work into the conversation at your next dinner party. I freely admit that I was under the impression that the creature with the best hearing in the world was a bat but I was wrong.
It appears that honour goes the Greater Wax Moth. Researchers at the University of Strathclyde discovered that the Greater Wax Moth can hear frequencies up to 300KiloHz, by far the best hearing ability ever recorded.
We can learn something new every day.
I am indebted to Bruce Fogle MBE. DVM. MRCVS. For certain information contained in this article
“Dogs have a way of finding people who need them, filling an emptiness we didn’t know we had.”
Thom Jones
With subtitle or not?