The distinctive sound of food wrappers

I have always been amazed at how well dogs hear. Not only that, but their ability to tell similar sounds apart.

Misha is pretty at doing this especially where food is involved. I get a kick out of her ability to determine what we are getting out of the kitchen. She knows the difference between Lifesavers (she won't get any) and the cracker box (which she might get a crumb). She will listen and then go back to sleep if the wrapper sound is not one of the ones she might beg a crumb from.

Misha is even smart enough to know who is in the kitchen. She knows if it's me her chances of getting anything are next to nil, so she doesn't even bother getting up. She knows Grandma is a sucker and so she runs when she realizes she is in the kitchen.

Does your dog make these distinctions as well?

 

Absolutely. Mishka knows the sound of the cracker box and also the sound of a sardine can being opened.
When it comes to whose making the cuppa, Mishka gives up on my wife but knows it's me who will give her a little milk in her bowl.

It all seems Pavlov is correct.

 

It's amazing how good their hearing is for wrappers, isn't it? Yet, have you noticed when you call them sometimes they are completely deaf? Sometimes I will yell for Misha, then go looking for her. Almost every time, she will come out walking behind me so that I turn around and there she is. LOL

My Lab had excellent hearing. When I would prepare vegetables, she could hear if I dropped a pea or broccoli on the floor. She'd come running into the room. I think she waited for these things to happen.

 

Yes! And then the look you get when you finally find them is "What? Did you need something? You could have just called for me!"

 

It's the same with Homer! He always knows what vegetables I'm cutting. If they're potatoes, he won't react because he doesn't like them. But if it's carrot, he will hear it from another room and he will run to me within seconds. It always amaze me. And he always gets a little reward

 

My dogs know the sound of cheese wrappers...and it's their favorite food. Even if they're downstairs, they'll hear it, and come running up like mad and just beg.

 

So true. We call it cotton wool in the ears when Mishka has selective deafness.

 

Homer has selective deafness too . He not only knows which vegetable is being cut in the kitchen, he also knows who is cutting it. My sister never shares her food with him, so if she is in the kitchen, he ignores it completely

 

Dogs are the true experts in studying human behavior. They not only know what we are doing, but who is doing it!

Jessi, I always think Misha is saying "I was right behind you the whole time!" as she is snickering that she fooled me once more. It's almost uncanny how she comes up behind me as I turn to look somewhere else. I feel she is waiting to see how long I will search.

Claudine, Sierra had that ability to know what I was chopping. She hated mushrooms, which is good since the ones in the yard could be poisonous. If I dropped a mushroom, she would not come. If I dropped broccoli, she knew it and ran into the room. She loved raw broccoli. I suspect with something like this smell might be a factor, too.

 

Dogs apparently do have great hearing. I don't know if it makes up for the fact that they see things in black and white (or so I've heard). So, their acute sense of hearing makes up for their eyesight.

 

They see things in black and white? It's strange, I could swear that Homer sees more colors... he always reacts when he sees something in mint because it's the color of his favourite blanket.

 

I don't think they see in black and white. Someone posted to this forum some graphics on what colors dogs see. It seems to me there was a lot of green in their field of vision.

This is the thread I was thinking of. Unfortunately, the two graphics are broken images now so you can't really see what it was.
http://www.dog-forums.com/threads/what-colors-do-dogs-see.691/

 

I can vouch for that.

Actually it's my father who can vouch for that. He's the one who stays at home with Candy. He told me that Candy could tell when I was coming home. Even when I was just at the other end of the lane, a couple of hundred yards away. Not just during the quiet of the night. She could recognize the sound of my vehicle even through the hubbub of the day. And she could recognize the sound of all three of my vehicles.

 

Homer is able to recognize the sounds of vehicles too. He always barks when he hears my father's vehicle and I don't have to wait for the doorbell, I already know that I'll have guests. But sometimes, when he sleeps, he ignores this sound. He never misses the sound of me cutting carrots

 

Maybe he's picking up on the shade of yellow that's in it then? And so he associates others that are similar to it because of that?

 

I think it's very possible. I really see that he is very interested when he notices something in mint and he instantly gets very angry when somebody is touching it - it doesn't matter what is this, it's just have to be mint. With different colors it's not the same. He has had his mint blanket since he was a puppy.

 

Does that mean he likes to eat carrots? I don't remember any of my dogs being interested in the sound of me preparing food in the kitchen. They are only interested when they hear the sound of the rice pot being opened. Rice pot being opened means food on the way.

 

He is obsessed with carrots. He could kill for one
Did you share with them the food you were preparing? If not, they probably just thought it's not worth the effort to run to the kitchen