Hearing Health from Puppy to Senior

Hearing Health from Puppy to Senior

Adopting a puppy into your home is an undeniable joy. Seeing a puppy’s playfulness and energy is endearing and entertaining. The first two years of a puppy’s life are full of new experiences about their world, and hearing is essential for their learning and training. When a senior dog enters the last few stages of her life,  the deep love and bond that has been shared throughout her life in partnership with you is heartwarming. From puppy to senior, it’s important to know about each stage of canine hearing health.

Newborn puppies are deaf until about three weeks of age. Until then, a puppy uses her sense of smell to navigate to Mom, siblings and her surroundings. Eyes begin to open in the second week of life, between ten to fourteen days. Puppies’ ears begin to open generally around fourteen to eighteen days old and continue to develop until eight weeks old. Once they have their full hearing ability, they hear twice the frequency levels of  humans and sounds four times farther away.  When you first bring home a puppy, at this early age, the distinctive sound of your voice becomes imprinted as their new family. 

Senior to geriatric dogs, who fall in the age range of seven to fourteen years or older, experience hearing loss as they age. The physical cause is due to degenerative changes in the nerves inside the ear. Loss of hearing is very gradual, so as a pet parent you may not notice the change right away. The common form of deafness in dogs is age-related hearing loss, referred to as ARHL. Most dogs experience some degree of ARHL, beginning in the third trimester of life. ARHL begins by affecting the middle to high frequency range of sounds but eventually encompasses the entire range of frequency hearing ability by the geriatric stage.

For seniors, acknowledging their hearing loss is an important step to helping them navigate a new life stage. When dogs have pain or have an illness, dogs often become stoic, not showing feelings of pain. Fortunately, when they’re in our care, we can be on the lookout for signs of hearing loss. Perhaps your dog no longer comes when you whistle, shows changes in daily behaviors, has an increased startle reflex specifically to touch, creates a louder than usual bark to get your attention, increases sleep time or has general apathy. When you have suspicions that there is something wrong with your dog’s hearing, take her to the veterinarian for evaluation and possible treatment.

Whether your senior dog can no longer hear, or your dog is deaf from birth, you can observe her sense of smell and sight in greater use. They are still their wonderful doggy beings, they’ll just require extra attention from their caregiver for safety in their daily life.

Since you won’t be using your voice to access her attention, you have to learn other ways of communicating with your senior.  A dog will use his eyes to observe activity more closely and watch people’s physical movement for cues as to what is happening. For example, your dog will feel the new air flow created by the opening and closing of a door. Your senior will feel the vibrations on the floor from footsteps and will see lights turn on and off. Sight, motion, smell and changes in energy are senior dogs’ new methods of navigating. A smile from your face and reassuring touches will give your dog confidence that everything is okay in this phase of life.

One technique that I have recommended to pet parents with a puppy, or a senior dog is to create a scent trail game by dabbing a small amount of lavender essential oil around the house. I recommend lavender because this scent is known to be calming for dogs. Breathing the lavender helps to reduce their anxiety and stress. Make a scent trail for your dog to follow as their nose- work in your home. This also works well with high value treats like cheese or bits of meat. The more smell, the better! This creates a fun activity and will give your dog confidence.

Hearing and Sleep

Canine ears, like human ears, never close! When we sleep, our ears are still hearing, though our brains go in and out of responding to sound according to the different stages of sleep. There are two basic types of sleep: REM-sleep and non-REM sleep, (rapid eye movement) which has three different stages.

 Stage One occurs right after you fall asleep and is very short.

  Stage Two is a light sleep. Heart rate slows and body temperature drops.

  Stage Three is the deep sleep stage.

Each of these stages is linked to specific brain waves and neuronal activity. It is a fascinating  subject to look into, as we do it every day of our lives.

Research has identified that the brain waves of dogs during sleep are comparable to those of humans. Have you seen your dog twitch when she is sleeping? This is when your dog has entered REM sleep or rapid eye movement. Compared to humans who have 25% of REM deep sleep, dogs only need 10% of REM for health. Getting quality sleep every day is a key component of your dog’s health at any age.

If your dog experiences agitating noises while home alone, your dog may not be getting sufficient rest. This is important because during sleep, dogs, just like humans experience allostatic regulation, which is the balancing of cell function. How much sleep a dog needs depends on the breed of dog, the size of the dog, their diet, daily walks, and amount of play exercise.

Canine rest periods weave in and out of daily life. As sleep or rest is a major part of their day for health and rebalance, the acoustics and sounds in their environment is a key factor. If their environment is noisy, like the reverberating cement walls of animal shelters, dogs hardly get a chance to rest deeply. In a veterinary kennel, the same acoustic issues can apply which can exacerbate the emotional stress of separation anxiety. Have you seen your dog go into a deep rest right after a veterinary checkup? Just being home helps your dog succumb to the quiet and safety to release muscle tension due to stress. There’s no place like home!

Excerpt from What Dogs Hear: Understanding Canine Hearing and Behavior by Janet Marlow, Sound Behaviorist