page_title: Dog anatomy
section_title: Hearing
hierarchical_section_title: Dog anatomy / Senses / Hearing
caption_attribution_description: English: By Ruth Lawson. Otago Polytechnic.
context_page_description: Dog anatomy comprises the anatomical studies of the visible parts of the body of a canine. Details of structures vary tremendously from breed to breed, more than in any other animal species, wild or domesticated, as dogs are highly variable in height and weight. The smallest known adult dog was a Yorkshire Terrier that stood only 6.3 cm at the shoulder, 9.5 cm in length along the head and body, and weighed only 113 grams. The largest known adult dog was an English Mastiff which weighed 155.6 kg and was 250 cm from the snout to the tail. The tallest known adult dog is a Great Dane that stands 106.7 cm at the shoulder.
context_section_description: The frequency range of dog hearing is between 16-40 Hz (compared to 20–70 Hz for humans) and up to 45–60 kHz (compared to 13–20 kHz for humans), which means that dogs can detect sounds far beyond the upper limit of the human auditory spectrum.
  Dogs have ear mobility that allows them to rapidly pinpoint the exact location of a sound. Eighteen or more muscles can tilt, rotate, raise, or lower a dog's ear. A dog can identify a sound's location much faster than a human can, as well as hear sounds at four times the distance.
  Those with more natural ear shapes, like those of wild canids like the fox, generally hear better than those with the floppier ears of many domesticated species.
caption: Anatomy of the ear.
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