It is not uncommon for people to associate dogs with paranormal happenings. A dog’s hair raising habit of howling and peering into the darkness as if looking at things unseen by human eyes is commonly attributed to psychic abilities. Dogs are deemed to be one of the animals that have the uncanny ability of predicting death. Of course these beliefs have no scientific basis and dog behaviorists attribute these uncanny skills to the dog’s ultra sensitive senses.

Dog owners would attest to the fact that the sense of smell is the most sensitive sense of the dog and the sense of hearing comes a very close second. These ultra sensitive senses are the reasons why dogs excel in protection work. Dogs are relied to alert humans to the presence of intruders.

The ears of humans and dogs have an almost similar anatomical characteristics but a dog’s hearing ability is far superior to what humans have. Human ears are plastered close to the head while a dog’s ear that has 18 or more muscles allows more mobility. Dog ears can capture sound more efficiently as they can be rotated, tilted or swiveled. The ears of a dog is not unlike a satellite dish whose direction can be moved to better capture the sound. This ability to move the ears is a valuable asset of dogs used by law enforcers as the direction of the ears gives a clue to the location of suspects. The type of ears does not impair the hearing ability of a dog. Bloodhounds and other floppy eared breeds can still hear much better than humans.

The skill of a dog’s ears to pick up sound independently could mean that the dog will be inundated with cornucopia of sounds. Loud sounds that are picked up simultaneously will surely be overwhelming to humans. Not many dog owners are aware of the pet’s ability to filter sound. The raucous created by the blaring stereo and the screaming voices of playing children would be intolerable sounds for humans but a dog can peacefully sleep through this kind of din.

Dogs have a unique knack of counteracting their sensitive hearing abilities. Dogs have this effective trick of filtering sounds. A dog that would sleep through a jumble of discordant sounds but would rouse at once at the crackling sound of the kibble wrapper is showing its ability to screen sounds.