DIY Dog Hearing Protection?

cocolos

cocolos

Pre-takeoff checklist
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cocolos
Any ever try and make your own hearing protection contraption for your dog? I figure you could buy the earcup hearing protection for people that you can find at a hardware store and just make it with straps to fit onto a dog. Anyone tried? It is probably cheaper than mutt muffs or anything else out there...
 
Skylane81E said:
Paging Tim Winters
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Wha...huh...snort...yawn... :)

Oh

Yes, I did, they worked just okay.

Mutt Muffs SUCK. They don't do a damned bit of good in reducing the noise level for the dog. I did some testing of my own to reach this conclusion and that's why I built my own. As stated above my home builts didn't work great but they provided better noise reduction than Mutt Muffs.

There's a new kid on the block, 4paws aviation. I don't have first hand experience with their muffs but they appear to be designed FAR better than mutt muffs, especially the gel seals (well except Mutt Muffs don't even have gel seals, they have 1/8" thick foam seals...hence much of the inadequacy issues).

The 4 paws are quite a bit more than Mutt Muffs but you get what you pay for.

http://www.4pawsaviation.com/products/ear-muffs.php

I doubt you could build an effective set of muffs cheaper than you can buy one.

My dog has over 250 hours in the plane with me...but not much over the last two years. That's why I never pulled the trigger for a set of 4paws. I'm no longer traveling like I once was.
 
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cocolos said:
I figure you could buy the earcup hearing protection for people that you can find at a hardware store and just make it with straps to fit onto a dog. Anyone tried?
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I thought about this also when I was scheming to build a set. But my dog is a 80# shepherd and the ear cups aren't nearly big enough. It might be worth a try if you have a small dog...they might work.
 
Well, as someone who's transported around 2,000 dogs and cats in GA, I personally don't think there's much of a need. I've never seen one seem to care about the noise. Friends who've traveled extensively with their pets in GA have never had issues, either.

But if you want to buy one, go ahead. :)
 
Without a measurement of the noise inside the contraption, DIY hearing protection is not likely to protect hearing. This is a notoriously difficult problem that looks simple.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Well, as someone who's transported around 2,000 dogs and cats in GA, I personally don't think there's much of a need. I've never seen one seem to care about the noise. Friends who've traveled extensively with their pets in GA have never had issues, either.

But if you want to buy one, go ahead. :)
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I agree for a trip or two, but I think I would worry about it for a regular travelling companion. Over time, I think there could be the same sort of hearing loss problems that we humans (friendbeast in K9-ese) get from not bothering with hearing protection for a couple of quick passes on the grinder here and there.

After doing that for most of my 47 years, I wish I had started paying attention back then, instead of now. On the other hand, I haven't had any of my dogs make it to 40 yet either.
 
As Steve said, one or two trips...no problem.

A few hundred hours, then I owe it to my best bud to make an attempt to protect his hearing as well as I do mine.

But whatever...If you want to ruin your best bud's hearing, go ahead.
 
My friends who've flown hundreds of hours with their dogs have never noticed an issue with their dogs losing hearing, either. This is in a variety of planes.

But, just my opinion. If you want to spend the money, go right ahead. But I don't think it's a matter of "owing it" to the dog, my opinion is just that it's not necessary.
 
timwinters said:
What's that you say, sonny? Speak up!
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Sorry, I didn't have my hearing aids in. :D

If dogs lived longer and got more time in the plane, I'd worry about it more. The old engineers at leaky gray engines all wore hearing aids, mostly due to being in the test cells (which were really loud). One of them who used to mentor me had also been involved with a lot of flight tests, which were in the prototypes of some of the planes that we either fly today, or else wish we flew. Those models rarely had much sound insulation (as in zero), so they were particularly loud. I once asked him what they wore fore headsets, knowing what the answer would be:

"Headsets?! We didn't have any ****ing headsets! All of us wear hearing aids now, why do you think that is?"

You'd have to know the guy to understand just how funny the way he said it was.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
If dogs lived longer and got more time in the plane, I'd worry about it more.
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There's definitely merit in that statement, but I believe they also have far more sensitive hearing than we do. So, does the noise affect them more than it does us? I really don't know.
 
timwinters said:
There's definitely merit in that statement, but I believe they also have far more sensitive hearing than we do. So, does the noise affect them more than it does us? I really don't know.
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The empirical evidence I've observed indicates that it doesn't impact their hearing enough to make an impact in their lives.

I will say, our dog hates flying the last time I had her in a plane. But she also hates driving with me, and likes driving with Laurie. Go figure. I think some of it might have to do with the fact that about 3 years ago I was driving back and forth between PA and Boston with the dogs in the back of the Excursion, and they just got sick of it.
 
My one year old labs love to fly. The male gets tired of the noise so he wedges his head between the bottom cushions of the front seats. We put a towel between the seats for him to lay on and that's how he flies. The female usually just sleeps on the back seat with no obvious discomfort.

I tried those mutt muffs, I agree, crap.
 
Buddy slept on the floor behind me (I kept the backseat out). He'd lay down as soon as we reached cruise altitude and seldom moved until I pulled the throttle in the pattern. Then he'd hop up to see where we were. I always wondered if he really knew. If so, I'm sure it was by smell and not sight.

Heck, even I could smell Augusta, Ga from about 5 miles out! Got so familiar that I probably could've flown the ILS by scent. :wink2:
 
Ted DuPuis said:
My friends who've flown hundreds of hours with their dogs have never noticed an issue with their dogs losing hearing, either. This is in a variety of planes.
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That's good info to add to the decision-making process. I'm not claiming any knowledge about the resiliance of canine cochlea or anything like that. I'm mostly just wanting to play it safe.
 
My dogs fly with me 15-20 hours per year and can still hear a mouse fart at 100 yards, but only when I am trying to sleep! :mad2::mad2:
 
My wife puts cotton balls in her bloodhounds ears when we fly.

My dad and I were flying a rescue bloodhound from Louisiana to Arkansas a few years ago. We were cruising along with the heat on and dad asleep in the right seat. Apparently the dog farted. It woke dad up. We flew with the windows open for a few minutes.
 
timwinters said:
Mutt Muffs SUCK. They don't do a damned bit of good in reducing the noise level for the dog. I did some testing of my own to reach this conclusion and that's why I built my own. As stated above my home builts didn't work great but they provided better noise reduction than Mutt Muffs.
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Mutt Muffs work well on my dog. They don't offer much actual attenuation (easily checked by putting the cups over your own ears) but there is some. Based on a purely non-scientific analysis I'd guess the amount of reduction is on the order of 3-6 db (50% or 75% reduction in sound pressure, barely to obviously noticeable reduction in sound level). But for most applications much of the benefit is simply the result of the cups causing the dog's own ear flaps to fold over and block the sound.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Well, as someone who's transported around 2,000 dogs and cats in GA, I personally don't think there's much of a need. I've never seen one seem to care about the noise. Friends who've traveled extensively with their pets in GA have never had issues, either.

But if you want to buy one, go ahead. :)
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One of my friends has two older dogs. He used to fly them all the time, without ear protection of course. Both dogs are now deaf. I’d rather not take that chance.
 
Back in the day when we flew without headsets, I don't think we ever knew that there was a problem with noise in the cockpit. I take mine off every now and then while flying and it is hard to believe that we used to fly without them.

Just don't ever give your dog a headset and they'll never know what they are missing!
 
We have a set of each, mutt muffs we've had for a while and 4paws that we picked up at Osh this last summer. My wife(the only one that really cares) hates the 4paws, I don't think they stay on our golden well. We've went back to the mutt muffs. I do not think they are necessary, but my wife hates it when I take the dog along and he doesn't have his muffs on!

If you're getting them to make the dog happy...don't bother. If you're getting them to make the wife happy...they're worth the $'s. Personally I don't think either do enough to make a difference for the dogs long term hearing.
 
I have 2 yorkies that I fly back and fourth from KUGN (Chicago area) to Phoenix and back. I bought the mutt muffs and the dogs would shake them off their heads in a second. I ended up using cotton to block their ear canals and the cotton stays in place for a 9-10 hour day of flying with 2 fuel stops. when we get home I just pull out the cotton with tweezers.
 
I have flow an audiologist friend and while we were up, she measure the dB levels of the plane in cruise out of curiosity. The levels in cruise were somewhere around 95 dB if I remember correctly - not enough to cause hearing damage immediately, but that level was just over the line where it would begin to cause hearing damage after prolonged exposure. I don’t think Mutt Muffs work great, but I use them for our dog as I’m hoping they take enough of the edge off to keep the levels out of the damaging range. That was for cruise, of course, I’m pretty confident takeoff is simply damaging.
 
Anything over 80db will eventually cause hearing loss in humans. More than 8 hours at or greater than 85 dB will cause damage. Every 5 dB increase reduces time to damage by 50%. And the more damage you’ve already sustained the less time and or noise you need to sustain more damage. Ask me how I know.
 
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