An excerpt from 'Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, Or Reactive Dog', by Zazie Todd.
01 October 2024
Some years ago, when we still had both of our previous dogs, Ghost and Bodger, we went for a walk on a sunny afternoon. We ambled at dog pace, letting them sniff here and there and, in Ghost's case, listen for mice in the long, dry grass, cocking his head from side to side. We were partway up the hill on our way home when we heard a distant rumble of thunder. It was still bright sunshine, and the storm was way off on the other side of the valley. Even so, we decided to pick up the pace. Just two minutes later, big drops of rain began to fall, slowly at first, but quickly becoming heavy. The storm had jumped many kilometers all at once. We were hurrying now – not easy, as Ghost's health issues meant he was slow. I was already soaked to the skin when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickle and stand up. Just as we approached the top of the hill, there was a blinding flash of light and simultaneously one of the loudest noises I've ever heard.
Time seemed to slow right down. I was aware of light in the sky, approaching fast, and then a finger of blue stretched out to touch the transformer at the top of the hydro pole just meters away. In front of me, Bodger levitated several feet in the air and then landed on the road again. His coat was dripping, and he was pulling hard on the leash, desperate to get home. Behind me, my husband was doing what you're supposed to do when you sense that a storm is so close – get down to the ground. Ghost was standing still, staring at me. Even he looked startled.
"We have to get home," I said.
And then we set off, not at a full run, because Ghost couldn't manage it, but moving as fast as we could towards home. The road was running with water. I held on to Bodger's leash for dear life because I didn't want him to escape in the middle of a storm. Holding Bodger back, splashing through what was now a stream, encouraging Ghost to move faster, I was afraid of another bolt of lightning. The last two hundred meters felt like ten kilometers. Finally, we were home safe, scared, and sodden.
The next few times I left the house on foot, it felt like the sky could no longer be trusted and might smite me at any moment. Bodger seemed to feel the same, only worse. Over the next few days, he was reluctant to go outside in the dark. It took patience and many, many pieces of deli meats to get him to go out and pee at night. For weeks after, if it was even slightly cloudy, he was not interested in a walk. I can't say I blame him. Being almost hit by lightning was one of the most terrifying moments of my life.
Recognising a fear of loud noises
Fear of loud noises is the most common fear in pet dogs, affecting between a quarter and half of dogs, depending on the study. The sounds of thunder, fireworks, and gunshots are upsetting for many dogs, but any loud sound – even routine domestic noises like the vacuum cleaner – can upset some dogs. In one study, 25 percent of dog guardians said their dog was afraid of loud noises. But in follow-up interviews with a subset of the participants, it turned out that half of the dogs were afraid of loud noises. The most common responses to noises were trembling or shaking (43%), barking (38%), and seeking out people (35%). Perhaps surprisingly, some people who said their dogs trembled when there were fireworks, or sought out people in response to a sudden noise, nonetheless said their dog was not afraid of loud noises. This suggests that some people don't recognize the signs of their dog's fear, which is a problem because it means they don't do anything about it. In fact, less than a third of dog guardians had sought advice for their dog's fears. Unfortunately, fear of loud noises does not go away on its own.
A study of over 13,700 pet dogs in Finland puts the prevalence of sound sensitivities at 32 percent, and fear of fireworks in particular at 26 percent. The scientists suggest that genetics are one factor, and that breeders could help by not breeding from animals with known fears and anxieties. At the same time, they stress the importance of socialization. Positive early experiences can go a long way towards helping dogs cope with loud noises. This is also the finding of a study that has similar ballpark figures of 20.5 percent of dogs afraid of fireworks and 30.9 percent afraid of storms. Dogs who had been to a dog training class were less likely to be afraid of fireworks. However, it's not known if this is because people who take their dog to training class are more likely to be clued up on dog behavior, or if the classes included prevention exercises. Similarly, another study found that dogs who had been to puppy class were less likely to be afraid of noises; however, it also found that gradual exposure to sounds was one of the things least likely to be included in the puppy class curriculum.
Taken together, these studies show that if your dog is afraid of loud noises, you are definitely not alone. A number of approaches can help. The sooner these techniques are implemented, the easier it will be to make a difference, as every time the dog is subjected to the experience can make things worse. If your dog has spent many years cowering every time they hear fireworks, expect it to take some time to resolve the issue. When a fear of loud noises develops in an older dog, see your vet to rule out any medical issues.
One study looked for signs that might distinguish a dog simply being afraid of loud noises, from a dog being afraid of loud noises because they were in pain. Later onset of the fear was one sign, as dogs in pain were typically four years older than the fearful dogs without pain. Another sign was that the fear quickly generalized, so that, for example, the dog also became afraid of the situation in which the loud noises had occurred, no longer wanted to go out in the car, or became afraid of other dogs. The dogs in the study were examined for musculoskeletal issues such as hip dysplasia. When the dog was in pain, they were prescribed painkillers, and the dog's guardian was given advice on how to manage the dog to avoid making the pain worse. An individual behavior-modification plan was given for all dogs, and all improved—with the exception of one dog deemed to be in pain whose owner declined pain meds.
Another reason to see your vet about fear of loud noises is that in many cases psychoactive medication can help. Your vet may prescribe long-term medication. Or, if an event known to include fireworks is approaching – a national holiday like the Fourth of July, Halloween, or Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes) – they may prescribe short-term medication to help your dog get through. I asked Dr. Rachel Szumel, a small-animal veterinarian in South Lake Tahoe, California, when to consider seeing your vet about medications if your dog is afraid of loud noises.
"Now. Yesterday. Right away," she said. "Because we know that noise phobias are notoriously difficult to treat with behavioral modification alone. So, if they're showing any signs of fear, you should be talking to your veterinarian about medications that help lower their sensitivity to noise so that you can start the behavioral modification part of things. If the dog is over threshold, no amount of chicken is going to make them love thunderstorms. But if they are on [a medication like] Xanax, that chicken actually does make those thunderstorms a little bit better. You can get a lot further with medications onboard."
Dr. Szumel also stressed that there can be times when pain is a contributing factor in fear, and that's another reason to see your veterinarian.
Training dogs not to fear noises
It was a hot and humid evening after another sunny day. Bodger and I set out for a short walk. But we only got halfway up the drive when we heard two loud bangs from a neighbor's property. It sounded like bear bangers set off to make a black bear go away. But it didn't matter what it was. Bodger immediately turned to run home, and I, as the one holding the leash, had no choice but to be dragged along by him. He was a big, strong dog, and so scared that nothing would stop him. I would have liked to offer him a treat, but it wasn't an option until we got back in the house. Then I gave him some of his favorite treats and put his leash back in the drawer, hoping to try the walk again in half an hour or so.
The approach I was using was counterconditioning: teaching Bodger to associate the loud bang with something great. I carried his favorite sausage treats in my bait bag and reserved them for when there was a bang. Research on what helps dogs with fear of loud noises shows how important it is to do something, rather than to wait and see, because doing nothing is associated with the problem getting worse. This research also shows that the approach I was taking with Bodger – known as ad hoc counterconditioning, because I was responding to sounds as they happened to occur, rather than arranging for them to happen – can be very successful. In fact, 70.8 percent of people who used it said that it helped. This is good to know, because, traditionally, approaches to fear of loud noises have focused on desensitization, a gradual exposure training. Desensitization works too, but it relies on a controlled environment. In real life, it's easy to suddenly find yourself in a situation where loud noises are unexpected and unpredictable. In those situations, if you don't do counterconditioning, you are undermining the desensitization process you had so carefully planned.
According to this research, relaxation training and preventive exercises also help dogs with sound sensitivity. Overall, this study showed that both puppies and adult dogs benefited from some kind of training. And given that dogs who were or were not being trained were equally likely to be on medication for their fear of noises, the research suggests that training, not just medication, does benefit dogs.
In fact, less than half of the people in the study (43%) had done any training to either prevent or resolve their dog's fear of loud noises. But amongst people whose dogs were afraid of fireworks, 70 percent had sought help, commonly from a trainer, veterinarian, the internet, or a book. And most people said their dog recovered from the fright within half an hour or an hour, or even right away, although some dogs took several days.
If you want to do desensitization, be sure to set it up very carefully. There are plenty of apps, CDs, and YouTube videos designed to help with this kind of training. Expect it to work better for things like fireworks and the sound of a car backfiring than for thunder, which is accompanied by atmospheric changes that you can't re-create. Listen to the sounds on a headset first (so your dog can't hear them), so you know what to expect. Set the volume super, super low. The aim is to have the volume so low that your dog barely even notices it – a volume much lower than you'd expect. As well, you should be prepared to do counterconditioning to those super quiet noises. This means setting up your treats well in advance. Once you start to play the sound, you can run to the fridge or the dog's cookie jar to get the treats. The open bar–closed bar technique is great here: once the noises start happening, so do the treats, but once the noises stop, treats stop too.
While it may be tempting to do this training at the same time each day say, 5 p.m., when you happen to be around and preparing dinner it works better if it happens at random times. You don't want to associate a specific time of day with the noises. You want to make it really clear that the (now very quiet) noises predict the treats, and nothing else predicts the treats. Over time, you can very gradually increase the volume of the recording.
But unfortunately, while training helps, many people make mistakes. I've been guilty of these training mistakes too. If you notice even the slightest sign of stress from your dog while attempting desensitization, stop the noises right away. And still offer food to the dog, because even if the desensitization part went wrong, you still want to get the counterconditioning part right. It's very common for people to play the sounds too loud and accidentally terrify their dog.
A common mistake with counterconditioning is to get the order of events wrong. If you know that sounds are going to happen and you reach for your treat before they occur, your training is not going to work the way you intend it to. This situation is called "backwards conditioning," and dog trainer Kate LaSala of Rescued by Training sees it often with her clients.
"Instead of teaching that fireworks predict chicken, we're getting chicken predicts fireworks, because you're doing it backwards," she says. Another time she sees this happen is when people are using a pressure wrap, such as the ThunderShirt, with their dog, to help calm them by applying gentle, constant pressure. "As humans, we have the benefit of knowing it's the Fourth of July or it's New Year's Eve. I know at 10 o'clock people are going to start shooting off fireworks. So we anticipate that this is going to happen and we prepare and say, 'Oh, I'd better put the ThunderShirt on the dog because I know they're about to shoot off fireworks.' That can actually backfire, because then the ThunderShirt becomes a tip-off to the dog that fireworks are about to happen, and the shirt itself can become panic-inducing for the dog."
Like Dr. Szumel, LaSala stresses the importance of seeing a vet in case your dog is in pain, or in case medication is recommended. One of the times when clients especially struggle, she says, is when the dog is too anxious to take food. "If you have a dog who's really over threshold and they just are so anxious and over threshold that they won't even consider taking food, it's really difficult to make progress in training, because they've got bigger fish to fry. They're just so panicked. The world is exploding around them, and the last thing they want to think about is your chicken and cheese. So getting that anxiety down to a manageable level where they don't think the world is ending around them is not just the most humane thing to do, it's the best thing to do for training."
One thing is certain: as with so many other fears and anxieties, seeking help from a professional is a sensible idea.
Coping in the short term
In some summers, many bears ambled through the neighborhood where we live, and therefore many bear bangers were set off to frighten them away. This wasn't good for Bodger's nerves, but it did provide lots of training opportunities. It became a recurring theme on sultry summer nights. Bodger and I would set out on a walk. Sometimes we would get halfway down the street, sometimes we would not even leave the driveway. Then we'd hear a loud bang. Bodger would turn to run and I'd follow, offering treats that he would not eat till we got safely indoors. But there was progress, of sorts; he was not running quite so fast, and I no longer felt like he was going to pull me over. It was encouraging, and showed the training was working even though it was only ad-hoc, whenever loud noises occurred.
After a while, something interesting happened. He would hear the bang, I would grab some treats from my bait bag, and he would eat them hurriedly. Then we'd run home.
Training takes time, maybe months or longer. What I was doing in those moments was training, along with giving Bodger a choice the choice to run home, where he felt safer. So what can you do if there isn't time, and you know that a bout of fireworks is just hours or days away—say, that the Fourth of July or Bonfire Night is coming up fast, or that there's a thunderstorm in the weather forecast? One thing is to make sure you know that your dog can't escape. It's not unusual for dogs left in the yard to be so terrified of thunder or fireworks that they find a way out and run away in a complete panic (even though they've never escaped before). So keep them safe by keeping them indoors. And, as always, make sure your dog has both a microchip (that can't be removed) and a collar tag, so that if they do get loose and are found, the finder can identify your dog and call you directly. Also plan ahead by taking your dog out to toilet well ahead of the start of any loud noises.
Make sure your dog has somewhere safe to hide during the noisy event. In a thunderstorm, that's not in the bathroom next to a pipe, even though that may be where they would like to pick because it's the smallest space. Remember that lightning can transmit through the ground, and that if it strikes the house, the electrical current can travel along the plumbing. It's the same reason that you shouldn't take a shower during a thunderstorm. The hiding place should be in a room with the drapes closed to block out the light from fireworks or lightning, or in a basement, which will block some of the noise too. If your dog happens to be cratetrained, their crate might make a good safe space, and you can use blankets to block out the light.
Masking the sound is another good idea, but it can be hard to do a good job of this. Simply turning the TV on does not work so well, according to dog writer Eileen Anderson, who also happens to have a background in acoustics.7 She recommends using something with a low frequency for acoustic masking, because those low frequencies will help drown out the low rumbles. She says the best options are to use a fan or to play random noise (especially something called brown noise) through your speakers; running the dishwasher or washing machine, or putting a pair of sneakers in the dryer, are other good options. The masking noise needs to have some low frequencies to do the best job. At other times – for example, when you want to mask the sound of workers in your house – you can use an audiobook. But it's important to know that the masking sound isn't something your dog is afraid of, so pick something they know and like. In other words, only play loud rock music if you know already that your dog is okay with it!
And remember that it's fine to comfort your dog if that's what they'd like. Some dogs will be too terrified to take food or to want comfort, but if they will take treats, that's great, and if they seem to want to be petted, then you should pet them.
On some of the last summer evenings before Bodger was taken ill, we made real progress with his fear of loud noises. When we heard a bear banger, he'd turn as if to head home, then stop and look at me expectantly. "I'll have my treats, please," he was saying. And so I gave him some of his favorite sausage treats. Then we didn't even have to run home. We could walk, slowly. Sometimes he would even change his mind and we could turn and head back out again. He trusted me that he had the choice to go home, and he was no longer so terrified of the loud bangs. We'd gone from what felt like a near-death experience with thunder to seeing bear bangers as a signal for a snack. Counterconditioning may take time, but it works.
"For us, with dogs, it's often love at first sight. But not all dogs immediately love us back. Fearful dogs need patience, time, and empathy as they encounter new things and people in the world.
I wish that people would prioritize relationship-building over training. This means ensuring your dog feels safe. Put this need over your needs to cuddle, walk, or show the dog off to your friends. Help the dog create positive associations with you. These associations are more important than learning to sit or fetch. Show the dog that your presence predicts something wonderful: lots of treats, a game or toy, anything you are sure the dog loves. Be lavish with treats and toys and fun. Be patient as the dog learns to associate you with good stuff, and eventually is happy to see you coming. Use this time to reflect on your dog's needs and commit to meeting those needs. A great relationship with you is your dog's gateway to the rest of the world."
—ELISSA ORLANDO, MPA, CTC, dog trainer at Dog Educated
Zazie Todd, PhD, is an animal behaviour expert and award-winning writer who loves nothing better than helping people resolve issues with their pets. She covers dog training and behaviour, cat behaviour and training, animal welfare, the relationship between people and their pets, and books about companion animals
Adapted with permission of the publisher from the book Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, Or Reactive Dog, written by Zazie Todd and published by Greystone Books in October 2024. Available wherever books are sold.
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