I told you recently about Gus bolting away from the scary car backfires. Poor Gus. He’s always been highly noise sensitive from being a puppy. I’ve made huge progress with him but this was a big setback.
The next day we went to the beach for a walk. Gus was more subdued that usual and reacted by turning his head to every sound he heard. I had quite a job keeping him engaged with me and coping with the noises – this was because his stress hormones levels were still quite high after his reaction the previous day – it can take anything up to 48-72 hours for levels to fully settle.
Your dog will be somewhere on the scale between happily normal, through sound reactive, to sound phobic. Gus is firmly somewhere between the latter two states for several sounds and noises.
To help your dog, your first job is to determine what types of sounds your dog is uncomfortable with or reactive to. Watch your dog – he’ll tell you.
Sounds vary between high frequency and low frequency. Common sounds your dog may react to include fireworks, thunder and gun shots. The intermittent and unexpected nature of these sounds contributes to the fear.
There are no quick fixes, but here are some myths that need busting:
– “Don’t reassure you dog as it will reinforce the fear”. Nonsense. Always reassure and comfort your dog. You cannot make fear worse through reassurance or cuddles.
– “Provide a covered crate as it will muffle the sound” . it doesn’t. Putting a blanket over a crate or even using soundproofing material does not stop sound, especially low frequency sounds like thunder.
The things that can help are:
– sound masking – using “white noise” or something similar to help mask the scary noises. Best ones are those with low frequency sounds. You can get apps, or try things like floor fans or tumble dryers with trainers in that will rattle round, or even rock music. This only works in the home where you can play such things, of course. And it’s only management, not treatment. Oh – and it needs to be something you can cope with too.
– some dogs might be helped by using thundershirts (a tight fitting body cover), TTouch or massage, or pherormone diffusers.
– finding somewhere your dog feels safe – a cupboard, or cellar if you have one, might help – and help your dog to go there when he’s scared. Gus chose our boiler room during the last thunderstorm
As for treatment to “cure” sound phobias, you’re in for the long haul, for the rest of your dog’s life. Get help from your vet and a good dog behaviourist (such as – me). You may need drug treatment and you will need a thorough behavioural programme (counter conditioning and desensitisation programme). The aim is to improve the quality of your dog’s life and help them cope better with the scary things.
Gus can now cope pretty well with distant gunshots and far away thunder, but we’re still on that long, long journey to help him. Every incident such as the race track cars sets us back again. I’m cross with myself – when I realised what was happening around the field we had to use I should have just found somewhere quieter to leave Gus – unfortunately it was a hot day so I couldn’t leave him in the car.
These things happen. Expect setbacks. I’ll just have to keep working on it – and I will, because it’s horrid feeling scared and I want to help my dog.
Keep training
Carol