Noise-Canceling Headphones and Earmuffs for Dogs
The jury is out: dog headwear isn’t just for fashion anymore. As we’ve learned more and more about the physiology of our pets over the past few decades, it’s become clearer that hearing loss presents a huge challenge to many of our furry friends.
If your dog is anxious in loud environments or starts to demonstrate the signs of hearing loss, it’s important to make sure to protect their ears at all costs.
Reviews of Noise-Canceling Headphones and Earmuffs for Dogs
We’ve made to sure to select three of the most popular, robustly tested noise dampening products for dogs. These products have been chosen due to their high quality, durability, and effectiveness as reducing hearing damage over time. Additionally, many of these products make guarantees about reducing noise aversion and anxiety symptoms in your pet.
1. Mutt Muffs DDR337 Hearing Protection for Dogs
- Over-The-Head Hearing Protection For Animals
- Specially Designed Wide Foam Filled Ear Seals For Maximum Comfort
Ranging in sizes from extra small to extra large, the Mutt Muffs are designed for dogs ranging from lap-bound chihuahuas to the bulkiest greyhound. These over-the-head ear muffs are lightweight and very comfortable, owing to their ergonomic design that keeps them on even the rowdiest pets.
Designed with wide foam filled ear seals, these muffs are easy to slip on your dog and remain comfortable even after hours of consistent use. The Mutt Muffs have been engineered specifically to properly adjust to the curvature of your particular dog’s head.
Each of the three major straps around the top of the head and base of the neck are adjustable in order to achieve the perfect fit. Moreover, the muffs come in colors like black, neon blue, pink, and red to provide your pet with a great sense of style.
Customers should keep in mind that the Mutt Muffs are not intended to be completely sound canceling; rather, they provide passive sound reduction that reduces noise-caused sources of anxiety. Additionally, the major purpose of the muffs is to prevent hearing damage in loud environments.
The inner foam of the muffs is crafted from high end ester resin foam that’s most often used in noise-canceling devices for humans. If you’re not satisfied or the fit isn’t perfect, rest assured that every buyer has a one year limited warranty.
Pros
- Comfortable for your pup to wear for long periods of time consistently
- Every strap in adjustable in order to provide the perfect fit
- Inner foam is made from ester resin that’s often used in high quality noise-cancelling headphones
Cons
- Not meant for anxiety reduction for thunderstorms or complete noise cancellation
2. Happy Hoodie Small and Large Two Pack
- MADE FOR GROOMERS, BY GROOMERS. Happy Hoodie was created as a grooming tool to CALM & protect dogs from the loud noise & high-pressured air associated w/ force drying. Happy Hoodie saves valuable time in the Grooming Salon & creates a safer environment by calming upset, disagreeable, aggressive, or sensitive dogs during any potentially stressful situation, such as toenail clipping, clipper work, brushing, bathing, etc. The dog anxiety calming aid you want to have in your dog grooming tool kit.
- HOW TO REDUCE NOISE. It is important to place the ears DOWN over the ear canals so the ear canals are NOT exposed, then secure them in place w/ Happy Hoodie. Noise reduction is achieved by Happy Hoodie’s gentle compression closing off the ear canal. IF YOU THINK IT’S TOO TIGHT, PLEASE KNOW SNUGNESS IS NECESSARY. IF YOUR 4 FINGERS FIT UNDER IT, IT’S NOT TOO TIGHT (IT’S SO STRETCHY!). Pets appreciate it most when used ONLY during a stressful situation. PLEASE REFER TO SIZE GUIDE BEFORE PURCHASE.
The Happy Hoodie is a thick, gentle compression fabric that wraps around your pet’s ears, neck, and head. Through swaddling your dog’s ears, the hoodie is perfect for dogs prone to anxiety, fear, and aggression caused by loud noises.
The entire package comes with one large and one small hoodie that is perfect to accommodate most types of dog breeds. The large size is great for extra large breeds, such as the Mastiff, and medium to smaller breeds liker Cocker Spaniels. The small size can fit over the smallest breeds of toy dogs and cats.
Many customers love to use the happy hoodie during vet visits and salon trips, since it effectively stops disagreeable behavior and upset whining. Toenail clipping, loud shaving, and brushing noises all become much less anxiety-inducing in your dog.
This long lasting, fully washable hoodie requires very little effort to slip onto your dog in any situation. Used by thousands of satisfied customers, the Happy Hoodie has seen enormous popularity for the past four years it has been in business.
Unlike other headphones and earmuffs, dogs aren’t irritated by bulky muffs and awkward straps. Using the same technology as thunder storm vests, the hoodie’s gentle compression techniques are a proven method to muffle noise and decrease anxiety.
Pros
- Pack provides small and large hoodie that slips on to virtually every type of dog breed, big or small
- Provides extreme anxiety relief from normally irritating vet visits and grooming
- Hoodie is fully washable and retains its compression even after frequent use
Cons
- Does not provide very effective noise cancellation, more effective for slight sound muffling and anxiety reduction
3. Zoni Pets LLC Happy Hoodie Two Pack
- MADE FOR GROOMERS, BY GROOMERS. Happy Hoodie was created as a grooming tool to CALM & protect dogs from the loud noise & high-pressured air associated w/ force drying. Happy Hoodie saves valuable time in the Grooming Salon & creates a safer environment by calming upset, disagreeable, aggressive, or sensitive dogs during any potentially stressful situation, such as toenail clipping, clipper work, brushing, bathing, etc. The dog anxiety calming aid you want to have in your dog grooming tool kit.
- HOW TO REDUCE NOISE. It is important to place the ears DOWN over the ear canals so the ear canals are NOT exposed, then secure them in place w/ Happy Hoodie. Noise reduction is achieved by Happy Hoodie’s gentle compression closing off the ear canal. IF YOU THINK IT’S TOO TIGHT, PLEASE KNOW SNUGNESS IS NECESSARY. IF YOUR 4 FINGERS FIT UNDER IT, IT’S NOT TOO TIGHT (IT’S SO STRETCHY!). Pets appreciate it most when used ONLY during a stressful situation. PLEASE REFER TO SIZE GUIDE BEFORE PURCHASE.
Much like the Happy Hoodie, the Zoni Pets hoodie relies on creating slight compression and swaddling around a dog’s ears in order to calm and comfort pets. In fact, professional groomers often keep a couple pairs of Zoni hoodies on hand in order to make grooming anxiety more tolerable.
With both a small and large hoodie, the Zoni Pets hoodie will work for virtually any type of dog breed and may even fit cats. It’s easy to use, cost effective, long lasting, and fully machine washable without causing any loss in compression over time.
So, how are these different from the original Happy Hoodie product? Well, the Zoni pets hoodie uses a slightly thicker, softer, cross-stitched fabric in order to provide the most consistent compression over your pet’s head.
Many customers use the Zoni hoodie as an after-care product due to dog ear infection. If your dog is prone to scratching their irritated ears, the gentle compression helps to both relieve anxiety and protect sensitive ear canals.
Pros
- Mainly used to decrease anxiety and provide gentle noise reduction
- Made from slightly thicker, cross-woven fabric that assures durability and comfort
- Great for medical use after ear infection treatment or irritating sores in the dog’s ears
- Fully washable and will not lose compression over time with frequent use
Cons
- Not completely noise cancelling, better for slight sound muffling
What Causes Sound Sensitivity in Dogs?
In many dogs, noise sensitivity may be caused by a traumatic experience. Your dog may associate a certain sound with punishment or pain, causing them to lash out in anger, aggressive behavior, or total aversion whenever they hear something similar to the original source of trauma.
Otherwise, the sensitivity may be due how loud the environment actually is. As a human, it’s hard to understand that your hearing is much, much less sensitive than a dog’s hearing.
The average adult human cannot hear sounds above 20,000 Hertz (Hz) while dogs hear sounds as high as 65,000 Hz. Consistent, high pitched noises that you can’t even perceive may be a source of a physical pain.
If your pet has recently suffered an ear infection, they may also be much more sensitive to normal noises directly following treatment. As ear wax and other deposits loosen due to medication, they may be hearing more anxiety-inducing noises than normal. Before the mucus lining builds up again, it’s important to protect your pet’s hearing by using protective head gear.
If you live in a noisy city or use industrial appliances at home, your dog may be much more bothered by high-pitched squeaks totally inaudible to you. Pay attention to what parts of your home that the dog tends to avoid in order to determine if an environmental trigger is causing pain.
How to Select the Best Hearing Protective Earmuffs for Your Dog
Thankfully, there’s a huge array of products are built to create powerful noise-cancelling and anxiety-reduction guarantees in your pet. No matter the breed or size of your dog, many earmuffs are very comfortable to wear for long amounts of time in most noisy environments.
In order to choose the best type of noise-cancelling headphones for your dog, there are a few important factors you should keep in mind. Cheaper earmuffs may be prone to wear and tear, in addition to losing their noise dampening effect over time.
Currently, there are two major camps of noise-reduction muffs for pets: swaddling fabric and actual headphones that fit around the dog’s ears.
If you work in a busy, very loud environment, you’ll likely want to opt for actual headphones that adjust to your dog’s head shape and size. Most dog muffs are made with dense, comfortable resins and foams that are used in human headphones for noise cancelling purposes.
Additionally, ear muffs are more well suited for noise cancellation than anxiety reduction in pets. High quality dog muffs can be distinguished by the material used in manufacture and how well it will fit over your particular pet’s ears.
The one major downside of ear muffs is that it can take quite a while for your pet to get used to them. At first, your dog may find the muffs uncomfortable, heavy, or bulky, which will cause them to tear the muffs off their ears. However, most dogs will grow to like the muffs after three to four long term uses.
The other type of noise-cancelling product is swaddling fabric, that wraps around the dogs ears and head in order to create a compression effect.
Gentle compression is a unique technology that serves to reduce the symptoms of anxiety in animals. In fact, vet-prescribed thunder vests work this exact same way to decrease anxious and aggressive behavior.
If you believe your dog’s sensitivity is caused by an underlying anxiety issue, swaddling fabric is absolutely the way to go. These fabrics are incredibly comfortable and your dog will barely notice that it’s there. High quality swaddling muffs will not lose their compression over time, even after dozens of washes.
However, users should keep in mind that swaddling fabric is not meant to provide complete noise cancellation. At most, these fabrics will dampen or muffle noise, yet your dog will still be able to hear most noises around them.