Noise Phobia

[chase69]

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would really appreciate any advice from someone who has had experience with a whippet with a noise phobia. Chase is nearly 5 years old and has nearly always been afraid of very loud noises but over the last year it has got much worse especially in the last 4 weeks or so where he has bolted from us when out on walksHe listens for every little noise and is afraid of them all. He has always been on the nervous side but we have never had any trouble with him when off the lead. He also seems very anxious all the time to the point now where he doesnt want to even go out . He has been to the vet and I am awaiting the results of bloodtests to ensure there is not an underlying medical problem,for the last few days he has been taking zylkene which has definately taken the edge off his anxiety. He has gone from a happy boy who loved his walks and run around in the local field every night to a nervous wreck who doesnt even want to go out ! Really do not know whats caused this change in but its heartbreaking to see. Any advice from someone who is or has experienced this sort of behaviour would be much appreciated .

 

[eve]

Very sad. poor dog. I am sorry I cannot offer any advice but hope that perhaps the vet finds a hormone imbalance that can be treated. X

 

[chase69]

Test results are back nothing found everything seems normal. Going to see the vet who deals with behavioural issues to see what she advises hopefully she will give me some hope of getting my happy little boy back xx

 

[jeffmack]

I have the exact same problem with one of mine but Zylkene didnt seem to help. Please let me know how you get on.

 

[gypsysmum]

Hopefully the vet you see will be qualifed in behaviour and not just "interested" in it. You really need a qualified behaviourist from either COAPE or APBC.

General advice is to not reassure a fearful dog and to allow them to go to a "bolt hole" of their choice and leave them alone. This only stops matters getting worse though. To improve things you really need professional help. Firework season is the worst time to start treatment. You really need to start months and months before.

Hope the vet comes up trumps for you - it is the most horrible condition.

Puppies need to be exposed to lots of noises while they are still with their mother and during the first months in their new home if they are to be able to cope in later life. I gave my breeder a cd with all sorts of noises on it to be played to the whole litter.

 

[hanneroon]

have you thought about getting an eye test? my boy Dude has problems with his eyesight, and can be very reactive to noises, he has also had periods of not wanting to go outside, and is often on high alert with his ears scanning for danger. i often have to stop and ignore him and everything else until he calms down, it can be very difficult to work out what it is that is spooking him..

Hope you are having more success with him now, i see this is an old post. x

 

[Strix]

That's an interesting point hanneroon - we often miss the less obvious causes and concentrate too hard on the symptoms

If it is 'only' behavioural, tellington touch may help with his nerves

 

[chase69]

Chase has been on zylkene tablets since sept and these have definitely helped take the edge off a little . I was lucky enough to get permission to use a field ( fully fenced and safe ) on a farm close to us which is close to a very noisy road . At first he only wanted to be in the field for about 10 mins or so and then would hear a noise usually a motorbike or lorry and then want to go home. He now wants to go out and I can't get him to leave the field after an hour because he wants to stay and play . He is still on full alert for any noises ( motorbikes , building sites , fireworks and any general banging ) the few weeks around firework night were horrendous he was so terrified . To be honest the behaviourist vet didn't tell me anything I didn't already know and I seemed to be doing everything she suggesting already . She recommended the dap collar but it didn't make any difference . Overall I would say his walks have improved but the way he reacts to loud noises hasn't . He is on high alert for any noises most of the time and it doesn't take much to scare him , the pulling of Christmas crackers , car door slamming , wheelie bin lid slamming etc

She recommended the desensitising CDs but I'm not sure ? Has anyone used these successfully ? His eyesight is fine he can spot a squirrel or cat from miles away ! Lol x

 

[hanneroon]

ooh, very glad to hear he is doing better, i haven't had any experience of the cd's but have done a lot of work with Dude around loud noises.

I followed the dog whisperers advice, when trying to get him past, say, a building site. It is a bit like trying to land a shark, lots of wriggling and trying to back up. But i would basically lead him up to the point, that he refused to go any further then just wait for however long it took for him to stop wriggling, then take a step, and repeat. Once a builder came over and offered to turn off his generator (very sweet of him) but after a few repeats of this he was much better. I do not let him get up speed as he is passing, we have to go slowly. For loud engine noises, traffic etc. I would follow the bin or recycling lorry on its rounds, with lots of treats, and fusses from the bin men, he now loves bin lorries, i knew he would they smell so awful . I also used to stand around at traffic lights, and bus stops, eventually he realised they weren't so bad and tried to get on one... I live in a marina so there are lots of noisy winches, compressors etc. to practise on. I also bang on my metal wheelbarrow at work, to call all the dogs to me for a treat, copying the other dogs definitley gave him a bit of confidence..

Dude is alright now around loud bangs, fireworks etc, i imagine these would be hard to replicate out of firework season, so maybe the cd's would be worth a bash. I think to be useful you might need to find a way to play the cd as you were on a walk, as it is one thing to be scared in the house where he is safe, but another entirely for him to get scared while off lead in the open. Maybe taking a cd player to the safe field, or banging something loud while you are out with lots of treats on hand. Or try walking him repeatedly past something that bangs loudly, it is true that they cannot remain scared for ever if nothing bad happens, and just being hard and making them go through it, rather than giving in and letting them run away, definitley helps. Having said that i understand that if a dog is completley panicking then making them confront that fear at that time is not going to work and would just be cruel, so maybe start with the least threatening thing and work up to firework bangs..

At the moment i am trying to desensitise Dude to jingly noises, as he gets very worked up thinking it is a dog or a cat, when someone walks past with a bunch of keys or something... this is a blimmin nightmare, and each time it seems i am back to square one.

As to the eyesight thing, he is down to about half of one eye, but can still (sometimes) spot a cat or squirrel moving, a mile off. He also hunts using his ears, and is brilliant at catching voles, mice, bees and wasps, etc, he definitley makes up for his eyes with his ears and nose!

Good luck with Chase, poor lad, xx

 

[chase69]

Thank you for your advice hanneroon I will definitely try some of the strategies you have suggested . I'm glad they worked for your dog Dude , it's so difficult sometimes to know if Im doing all the right things because like people, dogs respond in different ways . Chase is a beautiful boy very sensitive but hopefully with a lot of patience and hard work he will improve even further .

 

[eingana]

It's great to hear that you've been able to have some success in reducing Chase's panic chase69, and I think that finding a field that you can use that means that he's exposed to the noise in a kind of background constant way is a great strategy. Sensitivity and sweetness of nature are so often the flip side to poorly nerves.

We had a similar level of panic when we first got Molly because she clearly hadn't been near trams before we got her and we live very close to a tram line, meaning that there is no way of going out for a walk without crossing or walking along the tram line. The trams we have here are really quite huge things, weighing nearly 70 tonnes, and as well as the noise and whooshing that they create as they go past, the ground does rumble as they pass. We drove to where we could stand and watch the trams go by and then just stood calmly watching them from about 50 metres away, then 40 metres away and closer, doing little training sessions for treats as we got closer until she was walking alongside them as they passed.

We were very lucky with fireworks though. We worked out that if she'd been alive on the Bonfire Night before we got her then she'd have been less than 4 weeks old, so if her mum was calm with the fireworks then that would have meant that she probably didn't even notice them. When it came to having fireworks near the house I grabbed the bull by the horns and took her out for a walk outside whilst the fireworks were going off, armed with lots of treats and we did a training session literally 50 yards from where the fireworks were going off.

By the time I'd done this for her first Bonfire Night season she has never had a problem since and has been to several firework displays and sits calmly watching the pretty lights

I hope that you have as much success as Hanneroon has had with Dude

 

[hanneroon]

ha! I must just say in response, that any success i have had with Dude, i am sure, is down to his nature. He was very reactive around noises and traffic etc. But I think this was a result of the complete lack of exposure to to them, and perhaps his blindness, rather than a sensitive nature. He is in fact quite a brave chap really, and tends to confront things as a kind of hair-trigger response to danger, rather than shut down or hide.

He would sometimes rush at a noise of a bus or whatever, quickly reach the end of his lead and then leap around in a bit of a panic then perhaps try and back away. Loud bangs, or continuous loud noises etc he would try and back away from as a kind of stubbornness as it clearly worked and i walked him around things for ages, before deciding to work on it.

I must just say he has never had a total meltdown as the result of just a noise, i know dogs that do, and i can see the difficulty in making their absolute terror go away. I also take him outside on bonfire night, as it gives him ( and me) something else to think about rather than sitting and getting worked up.

I hope things are improving with you and Chase still, i just wanted to agree with your point, that each dog is different, and only its owner can really tell where its limits are or what the best course of action is. I have been trying clicker training with dude, but he still visibly flinches when the click goes off, and today he really barked at a lady with bells on her handbag definitely not feeling that successful making him 'calm' around noises.