Is my dog hearing things?

February 12, 2024 11:49 AM

I think there is a sound in my house that I cannot hear but that my dog does hear and it may be irritating him. Is there an app I can get on an iPhone that would help me determine if there are sounds in the house at a pitch and decibel that I cannot hear but he can?
posted by GernBlandston to Technology (10 answers total)

I use this app and it tells you both the decibel level and the frequency of sounds in the environment. I think it could do the trick!
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 12:14 PM on February 12 [4 favorites]

I can't tell from the screen shots of the app Buddha posted whether it covers supra-human ranges, but humans can hear up to about 20 kHz, while dogs can hear up to 40 kHz. So between there is where you want to look.
posted by Dashy at 12:23 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]

The frequency response of the microphone in an iPhone drops off pretty steeply above ~12kHz. The average person can hear frequencies higher that that. Perhaps with a better microphone connected, this would work. You would likely need specialized equipment to detect ultrasonic frequencies. Do you know anyone who studies bats?
posted by bgrebs at 1:06 PM on February 12 [8 favorites]

Question: what is the dog's behaviour, that leads you to conclude this is a sound that is irritating him?

I'm curious how you'd differentiate from e.g. ear irritations resulting from either dietary incompatibilities or mites. I expect you have a reason, and I'm curious to know what behaviours have led you to this. Thank you, hope you don't mind tagging this onto your AskMe
posted by elkevelvet at 1:08 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Dogs can hear up to about 45 kHz and humans about 20 kHz, as Dashy says. iPhones are designed for humans primarily, and the in-built microphone doesn't even get close to the top end of human hearing. It is not possible for an app to do what you want without an external, specialist microphone.
posted by cincinnatus c at 1:12 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]

At one point, against my wishes, my husband bought an ultrasonic bark deterrent device to try to keep our neighbors' dogs from barking at the sight of our dogs. It upset one of our dogs so much, even when nobody was barking, that we (thankfully) had to throw it away. So if you don't identify the culprit in your own house, it might be worth asking nearby neighbors if they've got anything like that - for barking or pests.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 3:07 PM on February 12 [3 favorites]

I casually searched for microphones that can reasonably hear up in the 35-45kHz range and I saw lots of cool products that cost around $1k USD :-/
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:49 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Everybody is focusing on pitch but your dog can probably also hear (and discriminate) quieter sounds than you can hear. I've had dogs alert me when the FedEx truck was coming before I could hear it myself, for example. Often my dog will bark at "nothing" and when I go outside and listen there's a neighbor making noise or a dog barking that I couldn't hear.

Since there are so many ambient noises in your house (and those are part of the reason you may not hear things) I don't think a phone app or even sophisticated audio equipment is going to detect sounds like that in realtime. But I suppose you could record for a while with a good mic and then, when the dog detects something, play back the recording with headphones at higher volume and see what you can pick up.

Also, anecdotally, my reactive dog is FAR more likely to react to very low frequency sounds than very high ones. I have a music studio with good speakers and I've tested various frequencies, and 20-25 Hz will get his attention even when it's too quiet for me to feel / hear.

Oh, and if the dog is hearing a sound constantly (rather than in brief events) you should try unplugging and turning off things. For example a lot of power transformers emit low-frequency hums and fluorescent and LED lights can have high-pitched sounds.
posted by mmoncur at 11:41 PM on February 12

There are high frequency sound generators sold to repel mice and other pests.

How long have you lived in this place?
posted by SemiSalt at 4:53 AM on February 13

Have you installed smart receptacles in any of your power outlets? They can make a high pitched noise that’s upsetting to dogs (and sensitive humans)
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:19 AM on February 14 [1 favorite]