How well does a dog or a cat hear?

Dogs and cats have a much better sense of hearing than the average human, and sounds that are acceptable to us may be extremely loud to them.

Cat and dogDogs can pick up sounds that are four times as far away than something a human can hear, and they hear a wider range of sounds than we do. Dogs can hear frequencies between 40 and 60,000 Hz while humans only hear frequencies between 20 and 20,000 Hz.

They have eighteen muscles in their ears, allowing them to rotate and tilt their ears to pick up sounds better – and they can determine if it’s the right or left ear that’s picking up a sound.

Cats can pick up sounds all the way to 64,000 Hz – an octave more than the dog – and have around three dozen muscles per ear. They can rotate their ears a full 180 degrees to ensure they don’t miss anything important.


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