I have a problem with my lab that is becoming quite bothersome. She is afraid of loud noises. Particularly thunder and lawn mowers. As I type this my yard is being cut. My dog is laying in the small space behind my computer chair, panting heavily, and trembling badly.
She is perfectly house trained, but when there is either a thunderstorm or a mower within hearing distance, she seems to lose control of her facilities. If I come home from work and see that my neighbor has cut his grass, I know I am going to find a mess in my kitchen when I go in the house. I have tried leaving her in her crate during the day, but she has even gone in her crate.
I feel bad for her being so scared, especially when she is home alone. What can I do to help her get over this fear?
You are right to be crating her during these periods of panic.
While she may soil herself in there, she cannot whip herself into nearly the frenetic mess, and is less liable to injure herself.
There are many, MANY threads addressing these problems, you are not alone by FAR.
Using the search feature on the left side of the page, search for terms like "desensitization" "thunder" "fearful".
There are some sprays that some members have found moderately successful in addressing these fear issues.
Like anything, desensitizing her to these loud noises will take time and patience. Read up on some of the other threads, and I'm sure some of the folks that have more direct experience with this issue will chime in (Connie?)
Desensitization is basically a process of finding the lowest level at which a dog can tolerate the stressful stimulus.
For example, playing a recording of thunder.
Start at the lowest volume which doesn't seem to stress the dog, and work up from there.
(This process can take months, BTW)
Be careful not to provide reinforcement for the fearful behavior by fawning or worrying over a frightened dog. You may feel you're providing reassurance, but you're actually providing reinforcement for the fear.
A better approach is to remain neutral during the ordeal. Neither avoid the dog, nor encourage the dog. A quick pat, or perhaps trying to distract the dog in play, is the preferred approach.
I agree with Alyssa. You can start by playing recordings of cars, thunderstorms, lawnmowers etc. very low while placing your dog in a command. (This only works if your dog is very well trained in obedience and has been proofed for the command.) Then try to act as naturally as possible, maybe do the dishes with the dog in the same room but not directly beside you,while you listen to the tape. Don't feed into his fear by coddling and act as calm and assertive as possible so that your dog can feed off that energy. Let him adjust on his own and do not give any affection until he is calm. Even after you finish a session, release him from the command but do not pet or touch him until you are sure that he has calmed down. When he does settle, then share affection to reiterate that being calm is a good way of being.
Eventually have someone you know use a lawn mower at the farthest possible place from the house and over a period of time move closer until the noise becomes almost a background noise to the dog.
Working on the thunderstorms will be a little harder because you can't just order one up!
. . .She is afraid of loud noises. Particularly thunder and lawn mowers. . .
Do you mean that other loud noises also cause a similar reaction? How long have you had her, and how long has this been going on?
I pretty much agree with the posts from Alyssa and Niomi. When I got my current GSD from rescue, she was 18 mos and scared sh!tle$$ of most everything. On walks, she'd freak out at rustling bushes, cars passing by, me stepping on manhole covers, etc. On a fear scale of 1 - 10, she was about a 2. I worked with her a long time, probably well over a year, with very controlled and gradual increases in exposure. Being a new rescue, I think a big part of it was her gaining confidence in me as pack leader.
Using cars/traffic as an example, I started on quiet residential streets, made sure that I was between her and the passing cars, that she knew they were approaching, then let her react and didn't force her through it - if she froze for a few seconds, I'd stop too, and then we'd continue on without any conversation or touching. As I noticed improvement, I'd carefully ramp up the exposure - use a busier street, nosier traffic, and work up to where she'd "get through it" without breaking stride. It probably took a couple years to get to where she was pretty much unfazed by big noisy things like buses, semis, fire trucks, etc, passing real close by. She went from a 2 to about a 9.
I would add that in her case, I think it's mainly genetics. I've recently seen her backslide, some subtle changes I didn't really pickup on at first when they started. So she's slipped back to about a 6 - buses and big trucks are a problem again. So now I've backed up to repeat part of the desensitizing process again. I think the process itself is easy, it's just a matter of maintaining good control over the distance and intensity of the stimulus.
Sorry, can't help you with the thunder issue, tho.
. . .She is afraid of loud noises. Particularly thunder and lawn mowers. . .
Do you mean that other loud noises also cause a similar reaction? How long have you had her, and how long has this been going on?....
There will be the occasional 'other' loud noise that will scare her such as my neighbor driving by on his Harley, but it is mainly thunderstorms and lawn mowers.
I have recorded a mower driving in front of my house, and am going to start playing it to try to desensitize her to that particular noise.
I'm not sure how to handle the thunderstorm one though. I guess I could try to find some thunder recordings on the interwebs to play.
Oh, also to answer your question Mike, I have had her since she was 8 weeks old. She will be 3 in November.
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