Dogs and ear protection

[Chester]

Simple question. One of these days I'll have a dog, and I'd like to take it out hunting with me.

For those of you with hunting dogs, do you have then use ear protection? I imagine given their excellent hearing, it might be far more detrimental to them than us, but I have no idea.

If not, have you noticed any significant hearing loss in your dogs as they get older?

[macey109]

great question. I would be interested in hearing all the feedback. When you hunt how many rounds are you really shooting? On the range I double up, in the field I want to hear eveything around me. I definitely notice a difference as my dogs get older- but isn't that part of aging? (my current dogs are 1.5, 3 and 8)

[lewdogg21]

If your duck hunting and your dog is sitting next to you over time their hearing will be affected but keep in mind they age so quickly that you can't exactly determine what is caused by the gunfire and what is getting older. If your hunting upland it's not a big of a deal.

This would be a lot of duck hunting as well.

[bohoki]

i think dogs have different damage thresholds than us i mean they can hear if you fart on the other side of the house and they bark so loud that it shuts my ears down for a bit

so as long as they are not right next to you i wouldn't worry

[Saym14]

i think dogs have different damage thresholds than us i mean they can hear if you fart on the other side of the house and they bark so loud that it shuts my ears down for a bit

so as long as they are not right next to you i wouldn't worry

this. as long as my dogs are several feet from the muzzle blast they dont even flinch.

A human can get permanant damge over 20 plus years of noise. A dog has gone to bone heaven by then.

[Chester]

Hmm, that all does make quite a bit of sense. As a very very very new hunter, I overlooked the fact that hunting isn't like going to BLM land and making lead deposits in a moutainside somewhere.

The loudness of a dogs bark and their short lifespan also makes sense.

[Ape]

I don't have a hunting dog, but my daughters MaltiPoo comes to the gun club with us and once she got used to the noise (IE: not startling her any longer) she just hangs out and even sleeps at times. And that's being maybe 10 to 15 feet behind us while we shoot.