Cam McFarland

Animal Lovers................>>>

For all you animal lovers out there, what possible harm could come to my dogs, while I am enjoying my surround sound when viewing DVD’s.?
They usually stay in the same room, but have left & gone to other parts of the house at times.

Erik.Ha

I dont know of any harm that could come to them, especially if they are free to leave the room on their own. Initially, loud noises might startle an animal, but after a while its like anything else... They get used to it and realize that the noise doesn't equate danger to their safety. If the sound levels are uncomfortably LOUD to you, they might be PAINFULLY loud to your dog. They hear a higher range of frequencies than we do, which really shouldn't be a factor in HT, but some breeds have more sensitive hearing in general and might be bothered by loud noises more than others...

I wouldn't worry too much about the "they get up and leave sometimes" thing...
Do your dogs ever move from one room to another when youre NOT using your HT? I would assume the answer is yes... Your dog could be moving from a warm spot in the house to a cooler one (or vice versa) or to a more quiet one (so he can catch some ZZZZs without disturbance) or because he wants to be alone for a bit, or because something more interesting to him is going on the other room, or because hes hungry, thirsty feels like a change of scenery, etc... As long as theyre free to move about where they want without restraint, theyll figure it out on their own...

"I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV..."

Julian Reville

I have 4 dogs that regularly watch movies with me. We made a deal: I can watch anything I want except "Old Yeller".

Cam McFarland

Well, thats pretty much the answer I was WANTING to
hear. I have always worried about how loud it would
be to them if I played it a volume that I enjoyed.
I had beeen concerned that some of the lower frequencies
might do possible damage, as they were the ones that seemed
to be taken more notice of (could be the floor vibrating though......).

Although my dogs might move from spot to spot in the same
room, they would rarely move to another room, unless of
course, they were following (herding in their eyes,lol)
myself or my girlfriend to another room.

Thanks for the reply.....

- Cam

Zen Butler

MarkHastings

Considering a Home Theater really introduces more bass than highs, I can't imagine it being any more harmful than a radio or non-HT setup tv turned up loud.

It might be worth finding out what frequencies your speakers cut out at and then find out what frequencies a dog can hear over our own sense of hearing.

My findings:

Human: Approximate Range (Hz)=64-23,000
Dog: Approximate Range (Hz)=67-45,000

http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/HearingRange.html
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/TimCondon.shtml One article I found (which I didn't post the URL to) mentioned that loud sounds (like firecrackers, storms, etc.) startle them more than do damage. As Erik said, as long as they are able to go somewhere else, I don't think you're doing any damage.

Also, ask your vet the next time you're there.

MarkHastings

One article talked about getting "used" to the loudness. They said you don't ever get 'used' to loud noises, your ears just get damamged and this is what we percieve as getting used to it.

Unless, of course, you mean the scariness of the loud booms, then that would be considered "getting used to the noise".

Julian Reville

I should have included the disclaimer that some dogs who have thunderstorm phobia (typically hiding, panting, attention seeking) will sometimes exhibit these same symptoms with bass-heavy soundtracks, especially those with multiple low-bass explosions, or heaven forbid, recordings of thunderstorms.

I used to have a Siberian Husky who was totally freaked by thunderstorms, as a result of a near miss by a lightening strike in the back yard while she was out there. She would start freaking out before the thunder, by the drop in barometic pressure or the increasing wind. Needless to say, she did NOT enjoy action movie nights.

Jason Harbaugh

My mom's cat sleeps on her SVS sub during an action movie. The dog doesn't like being in the HT room but the cats do. My cats freak out during specific surround sound moments but otherwise love to watch, especially the movie Cats & Dogs.

Erik.Ha

Can you really blame her? Id be wound a little tight myself if I was nearly struck by lightning...

"I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV..."