Have you heard?

I know dogs have fantastic hearing. But it wasn't until Dieter became a fixture here at our house that I realized how acute his hearing was. 

Back in February we were sitting in the family room and Dieter was sitting between us on the floor by the coffee table. For some reason I can't recall, I laughed like Pee Wee Herman. Dieter was fascinated and would cock his head to the side and look at me with this quizzical expression. He was probably worried that he'd been dropped into a cuckoo's nest. 

I've been battling either allergies or a chest cold and have been coughing quite a bit. I also sound like the guy in the Men's Warehouse ad. He has a deep, sonorous voice and intones: "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it." Evidently I sounded so much like the advert guy this morning that I had Dieter cocking his head every whichy way. "Oh no. Mom's going through the change."

Dieter's obvious stellar hearing got me to looking up just how good a dog's hearing is. According to a site I found online today, ("How Well Do Dogs and Other Animals Hear," available at: http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/HearingRange.html) dogs hear in a range of 67-45,000 Hz. Cats, by the way, hear in a range of 45-64,000 Hz. So they hear better that dogs, but just don't care...or care to react...as much. Lowly humans hear in a range of 64-23,000 Hz. The good news is, humans hear better than goldfish, tuna, or bullfrogs.

Eh, what say?
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensonkua

Pardon?
photo credit: http://
www.flickr.com/photos/randomtruth

Judging by the size of Dieter's ears, he should be able to hear everything going on in the greater Chicago metro area. The trainer noted that next week we will be learning how to properly clean our puppies' ears and then made an off-the-cuff comment about the size of Dieter's ears. "They're sort of like twin satellite dishes attached to his head," I said. 

I'm all ears.