Noise Phobias

So one of the other big challenges we face regarding our dogs is fear of loud noises. Examples of this would include but not limited to thunder, fireworks, garbage trucks, lawn mowers, smoke detectors and even children playing outside.

These signs can vary from mild to very severe. Some of the symptoms we see are wide open eyes, trembling, circling or pacing, panting and yawning. Additionally they may hide under the furniture, crawl onto owners, clawing at doors trying to escape and even tearing through walls.

Many factors can contribute to these fears but typically these problems arise as a result of a negative experience associated with them and thus when they hear the sound again they adversely react to them. Sometimes if our pets were not socialized at an early age this creates a problem. Other times there are underlying health issues, they are sick or painful and feel more vulnerable to scary noises. As with humans, as our pets age they also tend to have changes in brain health and anxieties tend to worsen.

There are variety of therapies that can be tried to address these fears from behavioral modification (ie. desensitizing) to use of certain medications. Sometimes a combination of both we’ll have the best outcome and offer the greatest success in treating fears and phobias.

Some alternative therapies that may be tried are things like compression jackets, species specific pheromones, calming agents, massage therapy and calming music. Feel free to discuss this and other concerns you may have with our team so we can work on an individualized and custom plan for your loved one.