Saturday, January 26, 2013

Can dogs hear better than people?


Dogs can hear many sounds that our ears cannot hear.  If you have a pet dog, then you know what keen ears dogs have.  A dog will bark at approaching footsteps long before they are heard by his master.

It’s easy enough to hear noises.  You can hear with noises, loud noises, and in-between noises.

All sounds are produced in the same way.  Every kind of sound begins with the vibration of something.

When a bell is rung, the bell shimmers and shakes.  We say, that it “vibrates.”  When a lion roars, the voice cords in the lion’s throat vibrate.

These vibrations disturb the air and cause sound waves that travel outward like ripples in a pond, and when they reach your ear they make part of your ear vibrate, too.  That’s when you hear the sound.

But we cannot hear all the sounds around us.  Our ears can only hear certain sound vibrations.

Some animals, like the dog, can hear sound vibrations that humans cannot.  The “silent” dog whistle makes a sound vibration so high and so shrill that you can’t hear it – dogs can!

A cat can hear even higher sounds.  And the bat can hear the highest sounds of all. Dick Rogers

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