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Key Takeaways
Do dog ear muffs work? Yes, and we can show by how much at every pitch, which is the part most answers leave out. Ear muffs, called ear defenders in the UK, are usually sold on one number, and owners searching for “soundproof ear muffs for dogs” often expect silence. Nothing is soundproof: a muff lowers the level, and how far it lowers it depends on whether the noise is a high crackle or a low rumble.
At BOLLSEN we are a family company that has made hearing protection since 2016, trusted by 1,000,000+ people, and our Dog+ earmuffs are the product measured here. One owner described a dog so sensitive to thunder that even faint, distant rumbles caused distress, and asked for something to make barely audible thunder completely inaudible. That hope sits exactly where every passive muff is weakest, so below we publish our full octave-band data, the landing level for common noises and the cases where the numbers are modest.
This is the measured side of dog hearing protection: how many decibels the muff takes off at each frequency, what level reaches the ear afterwards and which noises it cannot silence.
Do dog ear muffs actually work?
Dog ear muffs work by physically sealing over the ear, and BOLLSEN Dog+ is rated SNR 27 dB (H 29 / M 26 / L 19), published as up to 27 dB, which means low-frequency noise is cut by about 19 dB and high-frequency noise by up to 29 dB before it reaches your dog’s ears.
So the honest answer to “do ear muffs for dogs work” is yes, unevenly. Dog+ is a passive over-ear muff with soft padded cups and an adjustable flexible headband, and it has no electronics, so it is not noise cancelling in the headphone sense. It reduces sound by blocking it, and blocking works far better on short, high-frequency sound waves than on long, low ones.
Matija Medved, DVM, of the Dr.Vet clinic reviewed Dog+ for us, and his figures are attributed to him rather than folded into ours. According to Dr. Medved, dogs can experience discomfort or hearing damage from about 85–90 dB, where humans are comfortable up to about 110–120 dB, and a dog hears sounds at roughly four times the distance we do. His full reasoning on canine hearing, thresholds and fit is set out in Dr.Vet’s expert review of Dog+ hearing protection, and that 85–90 dB threshold is the working answer to how loud is too loud for dogs, which we use as the yardstick for every landing level below.
How much noise does Dog+ reduce at each frequency?
Dog+ reduces noise by a mean of 13.6 dB at 63 Hz, rising to 44.0 dB at 1 kHz and settling between 31.1 and 35.5 dB from 2 to 8 kHz, a spread of 30.4 dB between the deepest band and the best-attenuated one in our supplier’s octave-band measurements.
| Frequency (Hz) | 63 | 125 | 250 | 500 | 1000 | 2000 | 4000 | 8000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean attenuation (dB) | 13.6 | 15.7 | 23.3 | 35.6 | 44.0 | 35.5 | 31.1 | 33.2 |
| SD (dB) | 3.3 | 1.5 | 2.6 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 2.5 | 2.4 | 2.2 |
| APV (dB) | 10.3 | 14.2 | 20.7 | 32.2 | 40.7 | 33.0 | 28.7 | 31.0 |
The APV, or assumed protection value, is the mean minus one standard deviation, the cautious figure that allows for variation between test measurements. The SNR 27 and the H, M and L values are derived from those APV figures, which run from 10.3 dB at 63 Hz to 40.7 dB at 1 kHz. We have no measurement below 63 Hz, so we do not quote one; the most we can say is that the reduction there is less than at 63 Hz.
The high end matters more than it looks. In a 2021 survey of 386 owners published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science, dogs’ responses were significantly stronger to high-frequency intermittent sounds, such as alarm beeps, than to low-frequency continuous ones. Dogs hear from about 67 Hz up to 45 kHz, against roughly 64 Hz to 23 kHz for humans, according to the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, and across that high end, 1 to 8 kHz, Dog+ takes off 31.1 to 44.0 dB. That study describes how dogs respond to sound; it is not a claim that a muff changes how a dog feels.
What does a dog actually hear with ear muffs on?
With Dog+ on, a busy street at about 80 dB lands at roughly 54 dB, the level of a quiet office, and a 90 dB hoover lands at about 61–64 dB, because the landing level is the level at the dog minus the reduction at the pitch that dominates the noise.
The table below matches each source to its dominant frequency on the octave curve for our Dog+ earmuffs (SNR 27 dB, sizes XS to L, £69.95), with landing levels rounded to whole decibels and always approximate, since distance, room and fit all vary.
| Noise source | Typical level at the dog | Dominant frequency | Dog+ reduction | Approx. landing level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Busy street | ~80 dB | Mid (500 Hz–2 kHz) | M 26 dB | ~54 dB (a quiet office) |
| Hoover / vacuum cleaner | 75–90 dB | Mid to high | M/H 26–29 dB | ~46–64 dB |
| Hair dryer | 80–90 dB | Mid to high | M/H 26–29 dB | ~51–64 dB |
| Grooming force dryer | 94.8–108 dBA at the table | Mid to high | M/H 26–29 dB | ~66–82 dB |
| Fireworks crackle and whistle (garden distance) | 70–90 dB | 1–8 kHz | 31–44 dB | ~26–59 dB |
| Fireworks thump and bang (garden distance) | 70–90 dB | 50–200 Hz | 13.6–23.3 dB | ~47–76 dB |
| Close thunderclap | ~100–120 dB | 20–120 Hz | 13.6–15.7 dB (63–125 Hz) | ~84–106 dB: a net positive, not silence |
| Owner’s raised voice or whistle | ~70–80 dB | Mid to high | ~26–29 dB | ~41–54 dB: your dog still hears you |
Read the last column against the 85–90 dB threshold Dr. Medved describes. Street noise, a hoover, a hair dryer and the high end of fireworks all land well under it, and a grooming force dryer, measured at 94.8–108 dBA at the table in a forced-air dryer study, drops to about 66–82 dB. The rows that stay high are the low-frequency ones, the firework thump and a close thunderclap, which is exactly what the octave curve predicts.
Why does the bang of a firework get through more than the crackle?
The bang of a firework gets through more because its energy sits at 50–200 Hz, where Dog+ takes off 13.6–23.3 dB, while the crackle and whistle sit at 1–8 kHz, where it takes off 31–44 dB, so a display heard from the garden loses most of its sharp high end but keeps a softer thump.
Fireworks measure 150–175 dB at source, UK consumer fireworks are capped at about 120 dB under BS EN 15947, and the RSPCA has campaigned for a 90 dB limit. Distance does most of the work, because a display 200 m away reaches a dog at roughly 70–90 dB. At that garden distance, Dog+ reliably protects your dog’s ears: the crackle lands at about 26–59 dB and the thump at about 47–76 dB.
Low frequencies also have a second route. Very loud, deep sound can vibrate the skull and reach the inner ear directly, a path called bone conduction, which a review by Stenfelt and Goode (2005) in Otology & Neurotology describes in detail for human hearing. No over-ear muff can seal that path, which is one more reason we never claim Dog+ removes low-frequency noise.
The wider subject of dogs and fireworks, from timing the last walk to where your dog spends the evening, starts from these numbers: much less crackle, a softer thump and never total silence.
Do dog ear muffs help in a thunderstorm?
Dog ear muffs help in a thunderstorm, but less than with any other common noise, because thunder puts most of its energy at 20–120 Hz and Dog+ takes off 13.6 dB at 63 Hz and 15.7 dB at 125 Hz, so a close thunderclap at 100–120 dB still lands at about 84–106 dB.
That is a net positive, not silence. For the owner who wanted barely audible thunder made completely inaudible, a distant rumble gets roughly 14–16 dB quieter under Dog+, which is a noticeable change, but no passive ear muff makes it disappear.
Because the muff does least here, helping a dog through thunderstorms leans more on the rest of the plan, such as a quiet inner room, closed curtains and advice from your vet, with the muff as one physical layer among several.
What about gunfire?
Gunfire is the loudest thing most working dogs meet, and no ear protection takes it out completely. BOLLSEN Dog+ cuts a large amount of it, at the moment it matters most, across a whole season of it. We deliberately give no figure here, because an SNR is a rating for continuous noise and a shot is a single impulse that the rating was never designed to describe.
Distance matters as much as the muff. A dog working beside the gun is in a very different position from a dog hearing fireworks across a park, and the muff is there to reduce the noise reaching its ears, not to make standing closer any safer. Handlers planning gundog hearing protection for the shooting season should count Dog+ as one part of it, alongside distance and positioning.
Can my dog still hear me with ear muffs on?
Your dog can still hear you with Dog+ on, because a raised voice or whistle at about 70–80 dB sits in the mid-to-high range where the muff takes off 26–29 dB, so it lands at roughly 41–54 dB, somewhere between a quiet room and a quiet office.
That is the practical difference between a muff and soundproofing. You use your voice to reassure and redirect, and a landing level in the 40s and low 50s keeps that channel open while the noise around it drops.
Why does one SNR number not tell the whole story?
A single SNR number averages a muff’s performance across frequencies, so SNR 27 dB hides the fact that Dog+ takes 44.0 dB off at 1 kHz and 13.6 dB at 63 Hz, and the H, M and L values of 29, 26 and 19 dB show where that average comes from.
Most listings for dog ear muffs quote one NRR or SNR rating and stop there. If you want the arithmetic behind those labels, our explainer on what NRR and SNR ratings mean shows how both numbers are calculated and why they differ, using sleep earplugs as the worked example.
The HSE guidance on hearing protection makes the same point for people at work, noting that its SNR-based guide is not appropriate where noise has significant low-frequency components. Firework thumps and thunder are exactly that kind of noise, which is why we publish the whole curve rather than one figure.
Fit then decides how much of the rated number your dog actually gets. Fur trapped under the cup, a strap left too loose or a floppy ear folded awkwardly can break the seal, and a bad seal leaks sound and costs attenuation. Dog+ comes in four sizes, XS to L, to fit most breeds, and when you weigh up the best dog ear muffs: what to look for is a seal that holds, a size that fits and frequency data you can check, not just the headline dB.
Are ear muffs enough on their own?
Ear muffs are a physical layer you can add to your plan rather than the whole plan, because Dog+ is designed to reduce the noise reaching your dog’s ears by up to 27 dB but does not treat fear of noise, and a dog that struggles with fireworks or storms deserves a conversation with a vet.
The RSPCA’s fireworks advice covers preparing the home, timing walks and when to speak to your vet about noise fear, and it is the right starting point for UK owners. Introduce the muff days or weeks before you need it, in quiet moments, so that on the night it is familiar rather than one more new thing, and it can help your dog stay settled while the noise is lower.
So how much difference will ear muffs make for your dog?
For everyday noise and the high end of fireworks, a lot: Dog+ takes 26–44 dB off the pitches that dominate hoovers, hair dryers, traffic and firework crackle, and brings an 80 dB street down to about 54 dB. For thunder and the low thump of fireworks, the reduction is smaller at 13.6–23.3 dB, a net positive rather than silence.
Those are the numbers we can stand behind, and we would rather you buy with them in mind than expect a soundproof box. BOLLSEN Dog+ ear muffs, rated SNR 27 dB, come in four sizes for most breeds, so fit them early, check the seal and let the table above set your expectations for the next fireworks night.
His connection to hearing protection stems from personal experience with sound sensitivity during live events and work in noisy environments, an issue that made him more aware of the long-term risks of unmanaged noise exposure. Today, as both a communicator and a user of BOLLSEN products, he is passionate about raising awareness around the importance of proactive hearing care.
At BOLLSEN, he develops data-driven marketing campaigns, writes SEO-focused articles, and manages communication channels that connect customers with practical knowledge about hearing protection. His work ensures that BOLLSEN’s message—prioritizing health, performance, and sustainability reaches a global audience in an engaging and trustworthy way.
Passionate about writing since childhood, Timotej combines creativity with a strong analytical approach, continuously testing new ideas in digital marketing, performance advertising, and social media. He believes in learning through innovation and collaboration, balancing leadership with openness to new perspectives.
Beyond his professional role, Timotej is committed to a healthy lifestyle and finds inspiration in fitness, sports, and quality time with friends. His personal passion for well-being aligns with BOLLSEN’s core values, making his work not only a career but also a cause he deeply believes in.