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My dog is scared of the slightest of sounds - advice needed

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karen s

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In september last year my 8yr old springer x whippet spent 8 days in the vet on a drip. Hes fine now but since coming home he is so so stressed over the slightest noise esp from neighbours (we live in a block of flats) If they close a door, even gently we can hardly hear it but he just wants to run and hide. Its worse at night as the neighbours dont go to bed till late. They are certainly not noisy but its the SLIGHTEST sound. Our sleep is being disturbed badly with him. We have tried leaving music on but he can obviously hear above it. We have a DAP plug in and a calming spray and neither makes a diff. I would really appreciate some feedback x

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Hello Karen, welcome to Dog Forum, I am Anna :)

Your boy is beautiful.

I am not sure what to suggest but think maybe you could try to get a behaviourist to come out to your flat to see if he//she can help him.

You seem to be doing most of the things I would suggest.... What had happened to him that necessitated a week on a drip?
 
Hello and welcome!

My name is Chris :)

From what has been explained above it does sound that something has spooked him to the point he is very nervous. Whether that's related to the drip is just a guess at this stage.

Behaviours in dogs is a very complex subject and can be difficult to determine a possible solution, and I would highly recommend contacting a professional behaviourist.

It's clear your dog is trying to comunicate something to you but I do feel it needs an experienced person to see that message.

I will also add that if you are worried about a dogs behaviour whether it is a slight change or a drastic one, I would alway recommend you see your vet to rule out any medical conditions.

Once medical issues have been ruled out, your vet should also be able to recommend a local behaviourist to help in getting answers.

I'm sorry I cannot be more specific, but as you can probably appreciate it's a difficult subject and one in which a qualified person should really be advising on.

Please keep us updated though as we'd love to see how he gets on!
 
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Hi Anna,

Thankyou for liking Baxter!

He was regurgitating his food for a few weeks and nothing seemed to help and became dehydrated. Hes had various tests and he has been diagnosed with an ulcer at the opening to his stomach.

I think all this has started because he was so distraught all those days in the vet and the animals are left alone during the night so i would think that any slight noise would have upset him tho hes getting worse
 
Hi Chris,

Thankyou for taking the time to reply to my post. I think you are right about specialist help. Baxter is sat with me now and his heart is racing with the noises from downstairs even tho they are minimal. At this rate i fear for his health
 
Have you taken him back to the vet to make sure there isn't anything medical wrong with him?

I also wonder if you could use something orally to help calm his nerves, there is stuff you can get for stressed dogs around fireworks etc?
 
karen s said:
Hi Chris,

Thankyou for taking the time to reply to my post. I think you are right about specialist help. Baxter is sat with me now and his heart is racing with the noises from downstairs even tho they are minimal. At this rate i fear for his health
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It sounds like he is petrified of something. If his heart is racing then a vets trip maybe the best starting point, however this may also be a little scary for him also.

Is there a place in the house he feels safer?

Have you thought about a crate?

The reason I suggest that is because dogs naturally in the wild would have a 'den' to go back to if they felt unsafe. In this instance he has nowhere to call his own?

A crate is a great way of encouraging this behaviour.

It doesn't need to be locked just a place he can go too to wind down. You could even cover it with blankets and put his favourite toys in there to make him feel more comfortable.
 
HI guys, I think you are right and the 1st stop will be a chat with the vet. He does like to go and hide under our duvet when hes upset. Thats his little haven!
 
karen s said:
HI guys, I think you are right and the 1st stop will be a chat with the vet. He does like to go and hide under our duvet when hes upset. Thats his little haven!
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Sounds to me like he needs his own little hidaway.

If you don't like the sound of a crate what about a largeish box (temporary of course) on it's side with his blankets in there.

That way you'll be able to test to see if he likes the idea before you spend your money on a crate?

I still think he needs a vet visit as you say but I would consider strongly the idea of a crate.

Let us know how you get on at the vets!
 
Hi Chris,

All my dogs have been crate trained tho after puppyhood i abandoned them. I could try to reintroduce a crate tho with the way he is im not sure about it.I can borrow a crate just to see if it helps and if so then go ahead and buy one. I do appreciate your help and advice thank you x
 
You're welcome. It may not work but if you can borrow one it maybe worth trying.

Good luck :)
 
A crate covered by a blanket may well help him feel more secure. Also, how do you react when he is showing this behaviour? Sometimes neurotic behaviour is best ignored....acknowledging it by trying to comfort or calm rewards the dog, even though it is not what we mean to do.
 
We try to ignore his behaviour tho when he throws himself across me its not always easy!!!!
 
aaw its is very difficult to ignore something you love that is frightened. My dog used to get a bit nervous and would wimper, for no real reason in the car sometimes. I never worked out why as he was normally fine in the car. One thing that did work was singing loudly back to him, i made up a song about him to the tune of yankee doodle dandy! Almost like sticking my fingers in my ears and going lalalalala, it did work tho, and if he gets worried now, i do the same. He does calm down.

I think that dogs read the whole atmosphere in a place, so if he gets worried, obviously this will stress you out, you wont be able to help it. But doing something else that your dog recgnises as you having fun, will make them think, well hey, they're not worried, so they can reassess they're own feelings.

Good luck :)
 
hanneroon said:
aaw its is very difficult to ignore something you love that is frightened. My dog used to get a bit nervous and would wimper, for no real reason in the car sometimes. I never worked out why as he was normally fine in the car. One thing that did work was singing loudly back to him, i made up a song about him to the tune of yankee doodle dandy! Almost like sticking my fingers in my ears and going lalalalala, it did work tho, and if he gets worried now, i do the same. He does calm down.

I think that dogs read the whole atmosphere in a place, so if he gets worried, obviously this will stress you out, you wont be able to help it. But doing something else that your dog recgnises as you having fun, will make them think, well hey, they're not worried, so they can reassess they're own feelings.

Good luck :)
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I think this is a very good point actually.

They are very good at reading us, and we as humans in comparison don't read dogs as well.

I hope he improves as it sounds he has a lovely home with people who care :)
 
I love my dogs soooooo much and i try so hard not to react to his distress as i know they feed off us. The poor lad is exhausted as hes constantly listening out. I do try to distract him with a game of toys but nothing. I am waiting for my vet to call me back and i will take it from there.

I think you have all been so kind in trying to help and offer advice.
 
We're all here because we love our dogs. I think it's fantastic your doing everything you can to help.

He is a very lucky dog because sad as it sounds a lot of people would not spend the time or money to help.

I hope your vet has some answers. If not don't get too down as there are other things you can try etc.
 
I've just skimmed through but has anyone recommended a DAP (now called aDAPtil) diffuser. It's a plug in pheremone diffuser that puts calming pheremones into the environment (the same the mother dogs give off to pups). This really can make a difference.
 
Hi Wendy, Yes i have a DAP plugged in but to no avail sadly x
 
Hi everyone, My vet got back to me yesterday evening and we are going to try ZYLKENE tablets. A natural calming product that seems to have good results. We have a good relationship with our vet and trust him so when he said if these dont work and the only other option would be tranquillisers i wasnt happy but he is a vet that genuinely cares about his patients so that would be the route we would go down. Fingers crossed the former work. x
 
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