Six Effective Tips to Desensitize your Dog from Loud Noises

Today is Singapore’s 41st birthday. There will be a celebration with plenty of costume parades, afterburner fly-past by F-16 fighting falcons, cannon and gun firing, and our all time favorite – fireworks.

Since pets are not allowed into our National Stadium where it’ll held, but no worries, my dogs are just as happy to watch fireworks in the comfort of our living room. Being less than two miles away and staying on the highest floor – 18th, with no buildings obstruction and wonderful ocean front, we get excellent view and sound effect.

Eight years ago, my dogs would detest the notion of any slightest noise. Back then, life in the suburb was pretty easy for my dogs; everything seemed to be moving at a slower pace and had less environmental commotions. We hardly experienced any extraordinary events like festival parades and Chinese lion dance near our residential area. The loudest noise we ever got was the garbage truck that came every morning. Due to our long drive way, that noise was very much muffled hence my dogs didn’t think it would pose any threat to them – Maltese, like many terriers and toy dogs, are very suspicious of strangers.

So when we moved into this apartment, my dogs would bark and act hysterically to any unfamiliar loud noises and even voices from our security intercom. I remember I had to shut all my windows and doors whenever there were any festival celebrations or thunder storms around our area. Like most dog owners would do, is to comfort and sooth them out of their fear. This is one big mistake I made as I was reinforcing their “good” behavior – fear.

A few months had passed and I became very exhausted of coaxing my seven dogs. There were a few occasions I contemplated of moving back to the suburb. Though I love my dogs dearly but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to scarify that much and certainty I didn’t enjoy running amok in my home whenever there was a loud noise, especially not in the middle of the night. Only then I realized I had to retrain them. Yes, even old dogs can be trained to desensitize from loud noise. Snowball and Snowie were 8 years old when I retrained them.

6 effective tips to desensitize your dog during loud noises

1. Never to reward your dog for his fear reaction. Yes, you heard me right, no soothing nor hugging your dog. The most effective method is to ignore him as you carry on with your task. That way, when the situation arises again, he knows he will be alright when he is alone.
2. Should your dog need to hide, make sure his comfort spot is accessible to him. Don’t worry of creating a comfort spot for him; he will know where the best spot is. Since the noises from thunder or fireworks can’t hurt him, he will soon relate this comfort spot with safety.
3. Should your dog pester you for comfort instead of going to his safety spot, don’t pick him up to calm him down. If your dog has been trained for obedience commands, this is the right time to exercise with firmness. Use the “come” and “sit” command to get him stay next to you as you would do so in any situation. Once he acted out your command, your dog will soon realize that by obeying he will be safe in returns releases his stress and build his confidence.
4. Ignoring his fear for loud noise is no doubt a great method, however you can take one step further is to distract him with positive experience. For example, get him his favorite toy to play with him. Use food treats with caution as you don’t want to reward for his fear. Give only when his tail is wagging (during his playtime) not between his hind legs or hiding in his comfort spot.
5. Never to punish your dog for his fear of loud noises, not only are you doing more harm, you inevitably create more stress for both you and your dog.
6. Never to hide yourself under blanket during loud noise, nor show any sign of fear. Dogs are great sensor; they can detect the slightest stress in you without having you on the other end of the leash. Remember, you as the Alpha dog have to demonstrate good role model.

Conditioning Positive Experiences

Having done the above methods in desensitizing your dog’s fear during loud noises, you need to further condition these behaviors after the events. Like all motivational speakers would advise, positive experiences have to be conditioned over a period of time for their effectiveness; hence dog behaviors are no difference. No, you don’t have to drum your dog’s chest, like Anthony Robbins does, for it to work. =P

• Record loud noises into individual tape – thunder, fireworks, lion dance and flying airplanes. Movie videos do work sometimes but may not be as “real” as those he experienced prior to.
• Recreate the screens. For a start, let the volume be soft as a background noise. Gradually increase the volume as you reinforce the obedience commands and positive playtime stated in method 3 and 4.
• For thunder noise, you may like to use torches or strobe lights to add more visual effect.
• As for lion dance, get a miniature lion head and act it out as a puppet. Please don’t try on the Buddha mask while recreating the scene. You might unwittingly scared your dog. Well, not at least for the first few attempts. My dogs came to like this lion dance routine very much as I’d hum and giggle at the same time. We would dance crazily at home during Lunar New Year.

So you see, a change of environment is a good thing for my dogs. Of course, I’m included. Or I wouldn’t have given you tips on how to desensitize your dog from loud noises.

[tags]desensitize, fireworks, loud noises, behaviors[/tags]