Dog Owners, Do Subwoofers And Loud Noises From Your Home Theater Bother Your Dog?

Not my dog but she is a retired bomb dog. 

I’ve had 4 large dogs since having a decent home theatre setup. One will sometimes leave and go sleep on a bed in the guest room if he’s annoyed. The others couldn’t care less. If a show or movie has a doorbell sound, lookout though… guess that means it sounds realistic.

Basically you just need to help the dog acclimate to it. If it’s an adult dog that seems skittish, start with lower volumes and work your way up over time. They’ll feed off your energy. If you are relaxed, they be relaxed too if you are the pack leader. Another useful tool I’ve found is “The Thunder Shirt”…one dog I had with pretty bad storm and separation anxiety calmed down immediately with that on. Eventually he didn’t need it at all.

My dog is fine with loud music, and low frequencies are no problem. If she decides she doesn’t like the music she goes in another room.  She freaks out with high pitched noises like smoke detectors - then she scrambles to go outside.

Have a big enough area they can go where they want while you jam. My lab doesn't seem to mind too much, she likes female opera and sometimes the home theater gets her barking at phantom voices.

I don't often listen to truly loud music, but our dog really doesn't seem to care.  He will on occasion go to the other room if he's annoyed.  I do find that certain sounds when very detailed will catch his attention, but that's not unlike a noise on the porch catching his attention.

It depends on the dog and you really won't know until you get him.  If you get a young dog your chances are better with proper training.

I've got three large dogs and there is some music and movie sounds they don't care for so they are free to go off into another room  when they want to. Loud sounds don't bother them.

Our 3 dogs (a Chihuahua, a Yorkie, and a Shih-Tzu) have done okay with the occasional loud 5.2 of “Avatar” and a few others…actually seemed bored with it all. Recently we watched a documentary about wolves though and they all reverted to their primordial canine-ness when one of the wolf puppies started howling. 😂  Darn near a “doggie barbershop quartet” there for a few minutes!

My dog loves listening to music. He will actually lay between the speakers in the sweet spot.

But I don’t include him in the home theater because it is in the basement, and he hates the sump pump...

ozzy

No DOG for 6 years? I’d be insane. I’m a dog person, so are ALL of my friends. No DOG no friend.. If my dog doesn’t like you. I know, I don’t.

My dog leaves the room if it gets to loud. They (a dog) may show signs of being gun shy. I've been sensitive to "ONE" that was given to me, that was just his way. He was from the pound. A Pound dog.. I had him the BEST 12 years of his 16 year life. I’ve found they are smarter than most creatures, I encounter.

A horse is right there too. I love a spirited horse. Like a big ol dog with horse shoes. 

BTW if it's to loud for the dog it's to loud for you too.. :-)

teo_audio,

Thank you for your info and advice.  I'll build him a doghouse outside to go to when I plan to play loud music or loud movies.  I'm excited about this, I haven't owned a dog in sixty years and I loved having a dog as a young boy.  Since growing up, I've never lived in a place before that was suitable for owning a big dog.

You have to have an area where it can be quiet for the dog. Dogs have very sensitive hearing and they don’t tend to (ever) be comfortable around loud noise. It will, over time, make them messed up. In most cases. Their life/existence reactions are designed to be very strong in the presence of vibration and loud noise, and human screaming, etc.

Home theater, done loudly, for your dog, if the dog is kept or forced to be in that space, is akin to your pup being interred at Guantanamo Bay.

Repeatedly torturing a dog into submitting to zaniness that it can’t really understand and then it calming down afterward, like a soon to be corpse on a pike no longer wiggling as much---- does not count as ’settled in’ and ’used to it’. 🙂

If another person was in your life and space and they would not put up with such things in their space, then this goes double for a dog. So, if you want to be noisy, have a space that the dog can go where the noise is minimal or non existent.