I first wrote about Malika’s fear of loud noises about a month ago in the post A Noise Phobic Dog. Since her fear got worse this past September, we have made some positive progress, and then regressed a few times and now it seems we are starting to make progress again…
I’m not going to lie, the roller coaster ride has certainly caused me a fair amount of frustration. Looking at the positive side however, it has also taught me A LOT about patience and A LOT about dog body language, positive training and how to work with a fearful dog. One thing I have really found helpful when I find myself in a pit of frustration and at a loss as to what to do next is to read other people’s experiences. I actually think I have read every blog post, web article and book I could get my hands on about fearful dogs! I am certainly no expert but I thought I could share a bit about our experience, what I have learned, what has worked for us and what hasn’t. Perhaps it could help someone else? Or maybe this post will just be nice to look back on months down the road so I can see how far we’ve come? (fingers crossed!)
Triggers
A trigger is an object/sight/sign/sound that sets off a dog’s fear or aggression. A trigger can be anything from a vacuum cleaner, to the beep of a microwave, to the sight of a dog across the street while out on a walk. Originally, I thought Malika’s triggers were “just” loud noises e.g. thunder, fireworks, noisy construction sites, trains etc., etc., etc. (I use the term “just” very loosely!). However, I soon found that the dark can make her fear worse, which lead into the leash also becoming a trigger. It is not the leash on its own that triggers her fear, it is the combination of me bringing out the leash when it is dark outside and her knowing that it means we are going to go outside in the dark (eek!) where there might be loud noises (double eek!). This has made leaving home when it is dark outside quite difficult, which is the only time that I can take her out these days during the week as the sun doesn’t rise until after I leave for work and is down by the time I get home (she does get taken out for a walk/run in the afternoon or goes to daycare so she isn’t at home alone all day!).
Food is the best tool
Ahh behold the power of cut up hot dogs and steak! The use of high value treats is essential when working with a fearful dog. When dogs are experiencing fear, they stop using their nose and instead rely solely on their eyes and ears. Using yummy food is a great way to bring back that trusty sense of smell and focus their attention away from the scary thing and back on to you. More on how to use high value treats below….
Calming signals
Understanding the calming signals dogs give off when they are stressed and/or uncomfortable helps to better manage their environment and take steps to try to prevent them from going into a fearful state and/or completely shut down. These signals are subtle and can be very hard to spot! When they are, they are often misinterpreted.
Calming signals include:
– Lip licking
– Yawning
– Lifting a paw
– Shake off (like they would if they were wet)
– Excessive shedding
– Shivering
– Whites of the eyes showing
Counter-Conditioning & Desensitization
Once I got a handle on all of the above, we could really start working on rehabilitation, which involves counter-conditioning and desensitization. Keeping in mind Malika’s triggers that I pointed out above, this is what we are working on:
Leash Trigger
I have began clipping Malika’s leash on at various times throughout the day, putting on my shoes and coat, but instead of going outside, I will go sit-down on the couch or make dinner. This helps her to become desensitized to the leash meaning “we are going outside”. I try to do this more often when it is dark outside as that is the time when the leash trigger is worse (when it is light out, she doesn’t seem to have a problem leaving the house).
Loud Noises
Counter-conditioning and de-sensitizing a dog to noise is extremely difficult, especially when it is a variety of different loud noises that cause a fear reaction. Adding to this, is the fact that noise is something that is very hard to control and manage. While I do my best to avoid going out at noisy times of the day, like rush hour and going near or around places that I know are noisy, like construction sites, there is no way to control all noise when we are going through our CC and DS rehabilitation. There have been countless times where we have been making amazing progress and then a kid with a firecracker or a tree branch falling nearby will cause a major setback. This, as you can imagine, is extremely frustrating as it causes us to have revert back a few steps. But of course, we can’t just not go outside for months so we do our best to manage as best we can.
CC and DS indoors is a lot easier to manage of course, but I have found that trying to replicate the noises that Malika hears outdoors isn’t that easy and my clever little girl knows the difference between a recording of thunder and the actual thing, same goes for train whistles and firecrackers! She just doesn’t have the same fear reaction to the recordings as she would outdoors, even when played a fairly high level. That being said, it doesn’t mean that this doesn’t have any positive effect and isn’t worth trying! I play a high quality recording of thunderstorms from the Through a Dog’s Ear Noise Phobia Series, when Malika is eating her breakfast and dinner and when we are playing around at home. I started at a low-level and have gradually increased the volume as she got more used to it. By playing the music while she is eating, it not only creates a positive association to the sound but also increases her food drive when she hears loud noises. This may help her be redirected away from loud noises by food when we are out in the real world and decrease her fear reaction.
“Look” and “Touch” Cues
My main goal when working with Malika out in the real world and we hear a noise that frightens her is to re-focus her attention away from the “scary” noise and back on to me. To do this we have worked on strong “look” and “touch” cues. When we hear a noise and/or I start to notice her giving off one of the calming signals noted above, I give her a “look” cue (look me in the eyes) or a “touch” cue (touch my hand with your nose), I then give her a few delicious high value treats and tons of praise in hopes of redirecting her. We will continue this a few times and when I see her becoming calm, we will continue on. Sometimes it is too late or the noise is too far above her threshold and she will start to “shut down” and just lay down and refuse to walk any further or pull on the leash to get back home. When she does this, I remain calm and wait a little bit and try to bring her back with one of the two cues and treats. Sometimes this works and she will recover and other times, I can see she is too far gone and we will just head home.
Holistic Remedies
I have tried most of the pet products designed to have calming effects on dogs, including the Thundershirt, a D.A.P. collar, “calming” treats and Rescue Remedy. Unfortunately, I didn’t find great results with any of these. I think the Thundershirt did provide some comfort, but it was certainly not a miracle solution but I do continue to put it on Malika periodically. I didn’t notice a positive difference with the other products at all, but every dog is different so what didn’t work for us might work for another dog!
When we visited the vet to rule out anything physical was wrong that was contributing to Malika’s fear (this was ruled out), she suggested that we try Zylkene. Zylkene is an over-the-counter supplement that is derived from a milk protein that is supposed to calm and reduce stress in pets. After giving it to her for a month, I didn’t notice a difference and contacted the vet to let her know this and she said that Malika’s noise fear/anxiety was likely too strong for it to help. This was really unfortunate as I so hopeful it would work.
In the last few weeks I have started giving her HomeoCalm at the advice of this great pharmacist I found that has a background in veterinary and holistic medicine. I haven’t seen a significant change with it so far, but he did say that holistic remedies can take some time to work for chronic conditions… so here’s hoping!
Medication
Before Malika developed this fear, I was totally against giving a dog drugs for anxiety or behavioral issues. However, in doing research about fearful dogs and reading the various views on the subject, I have really changed my thinking. I think what really changed my mind about the issue was thinking about it from the perspective that if my dog was physically sick, I wouldn’t really think twice about giving her medication, so if her mind is sick, why wouldn’t I consider giving her something to help? In addition, the stress caused by anxiety can have negative impacts on their health so it is really about weighing the pros and cons for your particular dog and situation. However, I do believe that medication should be used as a last resort, after trying holistic remedies and behavioral modification. Medication is certainly not going to be the miracle answer either, and training and behavioral modification (CS and DD) are still required.
The vet gave us a prescription for Xanax, which I did give to Malika for the week of Halloween as I was worried all the fireworks and commotion would cause her to go into a total meltdown. I did see positive improvement with her being on it and noticed that it did take some of the edge off and increase her threshold to noise. I did have to play around with the dosage amount as what the vet had originally told me to give Malika made her really clumsy and I was worried she would end up hurting herself as we are quite active together. I reduced the dosage and found that we still saw positive improvement, without the clumsy side effect. I stopped giving her Xanax when I started on the HomeoCalm as I wanted to try one last homeopathic remedy, in hopes that it would work or at least so I can say that I did try (most) everything else. I will see how this goes over the next couple months and if I don’t see improvement, I will introduce the medication again.
When in doubt…smile!
This may be one of the most difficult things, but is arguably the most important factor in having success when working with a fearful dog. For me, not only has it been frustrating to see my dog become quite fearful but it also just flat-out breaks my heart to see her in a terrified state. But… I know I can’t let my emotions get in the way, as hard as that is sometimes. I try my best to remember that she needs me to be strong and the worst thing I can do is send her negative, frustrated energy. Instead, I try to just smile!
Happy Girl!
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for the love of dog. 