Hunting dog hearing loss

[whoami-72]

Has anyone developed a test to see if their dogs have lost hearing over the years?

I don't hunt enough to really worry about killing my dogs ears. On the other hand, I do want to provide them the best life possible and at a minimum understand if any harm is happening to them. I also just got a new hunting pup so I was thinking I could track it through her lifespan.

 

[KurtR]

i dont know of a way to track it but i know of dogs who have been retired from running trials because of hearing loss

 

[BigMiss]

Boy, I am not sure how you'd test it. I can definitely see duck dogs losing hearing, and if I was a high volume waterfowler I would invest in dog ear pro. But for upland birds, my dog is usually at least 10, maybe 20 yards from the shotgun blast. I've not seen hearing loss in my 12 year old dog, so I am not concerned with my younger girl. Post a pic of the new pup!

 

[Wheels]

My 12 year old Chessie can’t hear thunder now. I do a lot of waterfowl hunting and always keep the dogs behind the barrel, but old dogs just like people lose their hearing.
He looks at me now waiting on his signal to go.

 

[johnnycake]

My 8.5 yr old pudelpointer is starting to show signs of hearing loss. It's sad, but it's also not surprising given that I hunt birds over her, often in groups with multiple shooters, and have her along big game hunting 9-10 months of the year. She probably averages a few thousand shotgun shells fired over her at 1-40 yards each year, on top of being at my side for a handful of rifle shots.

 

[whoami-72]

My 8.5 yr old pudelpointer is starting to show signs of hearing loss. It's sad, but it's also not surprising given that I hunt birds over her, often in groups with multiple shooters, and have her along big game hunting 9-10 months of the year. She probably averages a few thousand shotgun shells fired over her at 1-40 yards each year, on top of being at my side for a handful of rifle shots.

Dang, this year is probably the most shots my dog will ever see and id be shocked if she had 100 shells.

 

[johnnycake]

Dang, this year is probably the most shots my dog will ever see and id be shocked if she had 100 shells.

Lol, I'm definitely above average in the number of trigger pulls over my dogs each year, but way less than some serious waterfowlers I know. I would not expect ~100 rounds/year over the dog to cause a noticeable hearing loss over time, but I'm definitely not a veterinarian or audiologist.

 

[SixteenG]

Sometimes I think my older dog has lost some hearing, but pretty sure he has just developed selective hearing.

 

[BigMiss]

Shotgun blasts are quite different than centerfire too. If your buddy is 10 yards away and shoots with his barrel facing 90-180 degrees opposite you, it makes a big difference in sound imo. For me personally, as long as you follow the standard dog safety protocols with your shooting (Not shooting right over the top of your dog at low birds) I don't think you would see appreciable hearing loss within a standard dog's life. Again just my opinion, but the ones that do get hearing loss are predisposed to it from birth. Duck dogs are a different thing in my mind and I would expect hearing loss sadly.

 

[whoami-72]

In case anyone reads this in the future. I made some assumptions to try and get a gut feeling for how far a dog needs to be away to be "hearing safe".

Assumptions:
140db is hearing safe (osha human requirement for impact)
Shotgun blast is ~160 decibels
Dog is directly in front of gun and ears are unobstructed
Frequency (hz) of the shotgun blast is irrelevant
Quantity of shooting is low enough that its a single shot before their ears recover.

Result: 10 yards is far enough away.
Same calc but to get it under 120db at dog ear: 100 yards

Analysis: I think for low volumes of fire (a couple of shots per day over the years) in an upland setting is likely not going to significantly destroy the dogs hearing. Also, if your dog is 10 yards to the right or left it may have even less of an impact. Waterfowl is a different scenario. Interesting enough, that seems to line up with the comments on this post. So, maybe it was already known and I just put a bit of math behind it.

 

[whoami-72]

Shotgun blasts are quite different than centerfire too. If your buddy is 10 yards away and shoots with his barrel facing 90-180 degrees opposite you, it makes a big difference in sound imo. For me personally, as long as you follow the standard dog safety protocols with your shooting (Not shooting right over the top of your dog at low birds) I don't think you would see appreciable hearing loss within a standard dog's life. Again just my opinion, but the ones that do get hearing loss are predisposed to it from birth. Duck dogs are a different thing in my mind and I would expect hearing loss sadly.

Looks like we were typing at the same time. My post right after yours just put numbers to your hypothesis. It looks like the dog roughly needs to be 10 yards away if you're shooting over them.

 

[BigMiss]

Looks like we were typing at the same time. My post right after yours just put numbers to your hypothesis. It looks like the dog roughly needs to be 10 yards away if you're shooting over them.

Great info, thanks!