Along with smell, the ear It is one of the most powerful senses of dogs and one of the great keys to their communication system. Their hearing capacity is much greater than that of human beings, because thanks to this extraordinary ability they can communicate through barking and howling even at a long distance. Factors such as breed, lifestyle and age of the animal influence all of this.
The truth is that the ear dogs do not start working until 10 or 15 days of life. After this, its development is progressive until reaching its maximum level of hearing, approximately at six months. At the end of the year, they can distinguish and identify the sounds and focus their attention on each of them.
In this way, the dog's ear becomes an extremely sensitive organ capable of capturing noises that are imperceptible to us. For example, these animals can hear sounds of between 16 and 60.000 hertz, while humans only cover between 20 and 20.000 Hz. This explains their fear of loud noises. Likewise, dogs can perceive sounds emitted at a distance of 25 meters; people can only capture them at a maximum of 6 meters.
To all this we must add an important fact, and that is that some breeds can orient their ears thanks to their extraordinary mobility. This ability allows them to channel sound waves, locating their origin with great precision and speed. We must bear in mind that, while we only have nine muscles in the ears (of which we can only move two), dogs have seventeen.
On the other hand, the larger its size, the better it will capture auditory stimuli. However, those with floppy ears, such as the Cocker Spaniel or the Basset Hound, lose a bit of hearing acuity compared to other breeds, such as the German Shepherd or the Chihuahua.