That means dogs can hear sounds that are not loud enough for our ears. They can hear those sounds when they are between -5 dB and -15 dB on average. So, sounds too quiet for humans to hear are given a negative decibel rating.Īccording to Coren, when sounds are between 3,000 and 12,000 Hz in frequency, dogs’ ears are far more sensitive than ours. The loudness or intensity of a sound is measured in decibels (dB) with 0 dB being the average intensity of a sound that can just barely be heard by a young human. In addition, at high frequencies dogs can detect much softer sounds than we can. These are sounds far too high-pitched for us. (Hertz is a measure of the frequency of a sound, and the higher the frequency, the higher pitched the sound.) Dogs, on the other hand, can hear sounds as high as 47,000 to 65,000 Hz. The average adult human cannot hear sounds above 20,000 Hertz (Hz), although young children can hear higher. Where dogs really shine is with higher-pitched sounds. In his book, “ How Dogs Think,” Stanley Coren, Ph.D, says, “The truth of the matter is that, for some sounds, a dog’s hearing is really hundreds of times better than ours, whereas for other sounds, dogs and humans have sound sensitivities that are very much the same.” It’s pretty obvious that dogs have more powerful noses than humans, but how well can they hear? You might have read that dogs have far better hearing than humans, but it’s not quite that simple.

Dogs see ghosts