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Near the beginning of Teen Wolf, Scott Howard is noticing bizarre changes happening to him.

Scott is speaking to his father in his father's hardware store and starts covering his ears in agony because of an annoying high pitched sound. Mr. Howard seems oblivious as to what was wrong with Scott.

Scott: What is that noise?

Mr. Howard: What noise?

Scott then finds that the source of the noise was a child blowing on a dog whistle thinking that it was broken.

It is later revealed that Scott is in fact a werewolf. Scott's father, Mr. Howard reveals to Scott that he is also a werewolf.

If Mr. Howard is also a werewolf, why didn't he hear the dog whistle that was bothering Scott so much?

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    Suggestion #1 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbycusis
    – Valorum
    Oct 19, 2016 at 17:35
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    Suggestion #2 - He's more used to high-pitch sounds and better able to ignore them
    – Valorum
    Oct 19, 2016 at 17:36
  • Suggestion #3 - He was in agony, but hiding it from his son.
    – Valorum
    Oct 19, 2016 at 17:37
  • @Valorum I was almost afraid to open your link for fear of Steeler bashing images ;)
    – steelersquirrel
    Oct 19, 2016 at 17:58
  • 1
    I haven't got the patience to vandalise an entire wikipedia entry just to mess with your head.
    – Valorum
    Oct 19, 2016 at 18:02

3 Answers 3

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The most obvious explanation is that he simply didn't hear it. Despite his werewolf nature, Mr. Howard seems to be going through the same ageing process that normal humans face; greying hair, reduced vision and, presumably presbycusis, a condition that prevents those older than their 20s from being able to hear high-pitched sounds.

There's also the fact that he's worked around chemicals and loud noises for his entire working life, so he could easily have suffered from some kind of industrial-related hearing loss.

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As a seasoned werewolf, you would expect Mr. Howard's response to be far less dramatic given that he's had years of hearing high-pitched sounds and learning to ignore them. It's also reasonable to assume that Scott's hearing may be hyper-acute since he's only just coming into his powers and doesn't seem to be able to control them. Contrast how easily his father changes into and out of being a wolf compared to how much energy Scott needs to exert.

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  • Great answer! +1! You da man ;)
    – steelersquirrel
    Oct 24, 2016 at 21:45
  • I'd be interested to learn what kHz sounds you're able to hear. I could easily discern 14-15kHz, but couldn't hear anything over 16kHz; noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-you-hear-this-hearing-test
    – Valorum
    Oct 24, 2016 at 22:02
  • Well, I am 2 years from being 40. There's really no hope for me anymore...unless I decide to become a werewolf ;)
    – steelersquirrel
    Oct 24, 2016 at 22:10
  • @steelerfan - I've heard that these techniques can improve hearing over 40; bit.ly/2e5djLl
    – Valorum
    Oct 24, 2016 at 22:24
  • Hahaha! Dammit! Argh!!
    – steelersquirrel
    Oct 24, 2016 at 22:27
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I always assumed that he did hear it. He had spent decades of his life of hiding his true nature from others, from responding to sounds that others can't hear to being able to smell things easier than others. After so long, it probably is second nature not to respond to it. Not to mention, the kid has probably been blowing that whistle for hours if not days, he might be used to it already.

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    Along the same lines he might not have realized the noise he had heard, the dog whistle, was the same thing Scott was referring to. Dependent on the actual sequence of who knows what and when, of course, but if he was so used to keeping track of what someone else might or might not have noticed (to keep from over- or under-reacting), he might have genuinely been unsure if Scott might have been referring to some other noise, that he himself had missed due to the dog whistle.
    – Megha
    Oct 20, 2016 at 8:00
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If you blow a dog whistle around two dogs, they won't both react. You have to adjust the whistle until one of the dogs reacts to determine that dog's particular pitch. The same happened in Teen Wolf. The whistle was adjusted to only one dog's (werewolf's) pitch.

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    Can you offer any evidence to back up this bold statement?
    – Valorum
    Oct 9, 2019 at 6:32
  • Clearly either one of your dogs is deaf or you train sheepdogs to work in pairs.
    – Chenmunka
    Oct 9, 2019 at 15:10

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