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It is hard to know exactly what our dogs are afraid of. Yes, we know that our dog is afraid of fireworks, thunder or a certain noise in our home, but what exactly is it that makes it scary? Is it just the sound or maybe also the flashes or the smell, or a combination of it all. For thunder it could be the sound, lightning flashes, the lower barometric pressure, the smell of ozone, electrostatic charges, the boom of thunder with possible vibrations or all in a great big mix of overload of the senses, what is also called trigger stacking. When we are trying to help our dogs become less afraid we can therefor try to remove some of the triggers to decrease the fear as well as add some training to help our dogs change their perception from scary to neutral or good.
This is also why, when helping your dog with their noise sensitivity or noise phobia it will take a lot of commitment, patience and time, and you might not be successful in removing the fear completely, depending on the severity and longevity of the fear. However, if you do not do anything your dog’s fear will most definitely get worse and worse, and spread to other sounds, items or humans.
So take action now!
In this section we will look into how to act if you do have some time to do some training with your dog to help them release their fear of noises.
It is important to note that if your dog suddenly starts to be fearful of noises or react in any way that is outside of his/her normal behaviour, then it might be due to undiscovered pain or illness and a visit to the vet is recommended to rule out any physical ailments.
Pain & Health
Pain or ailment along with gastrointestinal problems or cognitive dysfunction has all been shown to be related with noise sensitivities in dogs. It is therefor important to first, before starting any training, get your dog checked at the vets for any pain or physical ailments.
Your Behaviour Matters
How you act and feel matters both when training but also when you are just being with your dog. Dogs are very fast at picking up the mood of their humans, and their behaviour will reflect how the human is feeling.
When starting the training you therefor must fully believe that this training will work. Be confident in what you are doing, and only chose methods or ideas that you know that you can believe in and will do. If you are nervous or doubting the method then your dog will most likely pick up on that and that nervousness you are feeling will travel down to your dog, and make him/her nervous as well, and less likely to be able to learn anything.
Now that we have given ourselves a confidence boost and believe in that the training will work, then it is time to look at our accountability…unfortunately, like any other new years resolution we tend to fall short on following through and actually making it to the finishing line. This is why the below points might be an idea to implement before starting the training, to make sure you reach your goal and help your dog through his/her fear.
- Make the training a habit, rather than just a thought. Plan in 5 minutes of training every day in your daily planner and make sure to reward yourself with a cup of coffee, a gold star in your planner or a piece of chocolate afterwards, which will increase the motivation for completing next days 5 minute training session.
- Make training your dog your only goal.
- Make a specific training plan with doable goals and stick to it.
- Tell others what you are doing – share your progress on social media, your friends or family. Having others know what you are doing will provide more accountability from your part and support from others to help you keep going when the training doesn’t go as you would have hoped.
