Does a storm rolling in send your dog hiding and trembling under the bed? Do you dread the Fourth of July as the fireworks terrify your dog? Or is it the sound of the vacuum cleaner or kitchen blender that send your dog hi-tailing it to the other end of the house?
YOUR DOG IS NOT ALONE. So many dogs suffer from noise phobias and develop terrible anxiety and fears in reaction to different sounds. These poor dogs suffer terrible anxiety and distress with some even requiring medication. Others break out of their yard to ‘escape’ the thunder or fireworks and end up lost or in pounds.
YOU CAN HELP YOUR DOG overcome its phobias no matter what age your dog is or how long he/she has had the phobia! A gentle training method can be used to help your dog face their fears and overcome it!
HOW? Imagine for a moment that you have a phobia of spiders. You are absolutely terrified of all spiders…they give you the heeby jeebies! Your friend offers to help you overcome your spider phobia. She tells you that if you look at a tiny 2cm spider she will give you $100 (i.e. positive reinforcement). She will even sit next to you and reassure you that it is OK to help you stay calm. You take a deep breath and try it out.
Hey…it was not so bad. Your friend helped you stay calm and you are feeling so good about the money that the spider doesn’t seem so scary after all. When you are completely calm with the tiny spider, your friend ups the ante to a 5cm spider and again you earn another $100. When you are calm with the 5 cm spider, she then ups the ante to a 7cm spider and so on and so forth until you have a stash of money, a tarantula right next to your hand and you feel calm!
DOES IT WORK? Yes! The simple method I described above (systemic desensitisation) has been used for decades to help humans overcome phobias. Professional dog trainers and dog behaviourists all use the same method to help dogs overcome their noise phobias. It’s simple to use so let’s dive into how to use this method to help your dog.
You will need a familiar and calm environment to train your dog. Somewhere your dog feels completely comfortable such as on its bed in the lounge room. A must have is a sound socialisation and training tool such as Brave Puppy available for free from Google Play, Apple Store and Amazon, which has been specially designed to help dogs overcome noise phobias. So how do you train them:
1. Play the sound at the very lowest volume on your device (remember your dog hears much better than humans). If your dog reacts in a scared or anxious way, then:
- DO be your dog’s friend and reassure it that it is OK.
- DON’T molly-coddle or baby your dog as it won’t help your dog build confidence.
- DO reassure your dog and pat him/her with long, slow and calming stroke.
- DO give your dog positive reinforcement. Since it is hard for your dog to spend $100, instead give treats, your praise and/or engage in play.
- DO make the experience as positive as possible so that when your dog hears the sound it starts associating the sound with all things good!
- DO keep training sessions short of 5-10 minutes maximum. Long sessions can be overwhelming for your dog. One short session each day is enough.
2. Please be patient with your furry friend, he/she may need several sessions at Step 1 before they feel relaxed. ONLY proceed when you dog is visibly calm and relaxed at the lowest sound volume. To proceed to the next step increase the volume one notch. Again reassure your dog if it reacts and give them pats, treats and engage in play.
3. Continue Steps 1 and 2 increasing the volume of the sound until your dog is at the highest volume. You may also use a bluetooth speaker to project the sound louder. If your dog is not reacting at all and remains calm then your dog has faced its fear and overcome it!
4. Once your dog has overcome its fear of one sound, do the same process with similar sounds. Dogs are not good at generalising so you may have helped your dog overcome a phobia of a booming firework but not a whistling firework. Test your dog on similar sounds to help it overcome all the variations of the noise phobia.
Congratulations!! You have not only helped your dog overcome its noise phobia but reduced your dog’s anxiety, built up their confidence and strengthened your bond with your best furry friend!
BIO: Dr Erika Alacs is a biologist and professional dog trainer. Erika and her husband Phoenix are the developers of Brave Puppy app which is an innovative sound socialisation/training tool they developed to help their own dogs overcome their noise phobias and over-excitability.
