Dog Hearing
Although all dogs possess excellent hearing, they vary in their abilities. In dogs with erect ears, the outside part help focus sound waves. These extension are controlled by 17 muscles, whic enable the dog to move its ears in the direction of the sound. Dogs with low, droopy ears do not have this skill, and probably lack the extremely keen hearing of erect-ear breeds.
The typical human can detect sounds between 20 and 20,000 Hertz (cycles of the sound waves per second). Dogs, on the other hand, can detect sounds up to 40,000 Hertz, which explains why dogs react to high pitched sounds that humans cannot hear. Dogs also possess the ability to detect rhythms and filter out unwanted soudns.
Dogs use their remarkable hearing for many purposes, including hunting, protection and even finding a mate.