Young dog scared of street noise.

[al shookup]

My dog Frankie is now 18 month old and since bonfire night has been scared of noises. However for the last two week or so he has got much worse and is difficult to take for a walk and has a scared look on his face all the time whilst he is out and he wants to get home. Is there a remedy for this behaviour without relying on sedation please?

[Dawnspell]

If he's got worse in the last 2 weeks then it sounds as though there is something else going on as well as the initial firework incident.

Does he have any problems interacting with other dogs, separation issues, some building or road works that have been going on, anything changed in the house. It doesn't have to be a noise related thing that could have caused him to be more noise reactive. He could be getting stressed out by something so when a noise happens hes quicker to react because hes already feeling stressed by the something else if that makes sense.

Has he got worse at home as well or just on walks?

[al shookup]

No problem when mixing with other dogs, in fact he lives with my other Schnauzer who is nearly fourteen. Nothing changed at home and he is not too bad in the house. Been out for a walk this morning and it is dustbin collection day so we had the additional noise of bin lorry which froze him to the spot. Same with motorbikes
as he was frightened by a local nutjob revving his bike up recently.
Not much fun going for walks anymore.

[zeta1454]

As Alison said there could be something else underlying his anxiety outside. If you cannot trace any trigger other than the fireworks it may be that over time this has set up a kind of phobia in Frankie’s mind which means he is constantly on alert for any strange noises as he doesn’t feel as safe as he used to outside of the house. He may still have been going through his ‘fear period’ in adolescence last November which may have made it worse.

Some years ago we had a young male dog come into our family from a home where he had been very little or not at all exposed to traffic and he was very anxious on walks and would lunge at every car that came by on the road. He too was extremely nervous on bin collection day especially the glass recycling which was very noisy. With him, I initially avoided taking him out on the days / the times that I knew the bins were being collected which was only one day a week and no real loss to him in terms of exercise. I worked on getting him to focus on me randomly throughout the walk and rewarded him for looking and walking calmly and I would look out for any car or dog or anything that might spook him to be ready to call his attention and reward with treats. Scattering a few tiny pieces of kibble around my feet at ‘scary’ times also helped distract him. A favourite toy could be an alternative distraction if he is not food motivated. Although with your Frankie this seems to be only a noise related issue, you could try something similar. Over time I did take our boy out on days when the bins were being collected and used the same tactics to keep his attention on me and also tried to be upbeat and bright talking to him as dogs do sense if their human companion is getting stressed or tense which is easy to do if you are frustrated or anxious yourself about how your dog is going to react.

Does your older schnauzer walk with Frankie? If he is calm and unfazed by noises, it could be helpful to walk both dogs together although definitely not if your older dog might react to noises too.

I would maybe try short walks only, initially avoiding days you know the bins are collected and maybe take him somewhere new and not busy where he can wander and sniff out scents. If you can get Frankie to enjoy a relatively quiet walk with plenty of input from you to get his focus with rewards, he may begin to forget his anxiety about strange noises outside. You could also see if there are any dog fields near where you live that you could hire for an hour or half hour and let Frankie and your other schnauzer enjoy some off lead exercise. We have done that successfully with another of our little dogs who has no interest in walking through the village and prefers playing in the garden at home. As we have plenty of outside space we have accommodated her wishes but she does really love the dog field with our other dogs

If things really don’t improve over time I would consider finding a qualified canine behaviourist who may be able to help with a personalised plan of action after seeing Frankie and how he behaves on walks.

[Dawnspell]

I agree with Leigh, about the walks you could even stop the walks for a short time.

You could also play some games at home where he controls the noise to boost his confidence and make him realise not all noises are scary.

Putting kibble in a plastic bottle so he knocks it about and makes a noise to get the kibble.

Get a big box and put items in that will make a noise when they are moved then throw his food in so he has to move the items and make a noise to get the food.

Hang plastic bottles from a pole with sting so they bang together together as he walks through and/or put something in them so they make more noise if he bashes them together.

With all of these it depends how is as to where you start. It may just be knocking an empty bottle over, one item in the box, just walking past a hanging bottle. All of them will increase his confidence with the world and you can keep increasing the difficulty as it grows. When hes happy inside do the games in the garden where there are other noises. This can help in that he hears the noise hes confident with alongside the noise hes not and the confidence can transfer over to the bad noise.

You could try some natural calming remedies, things that contain L'tryptophan, L'theanine, GABA (not gabapentin) skullcap, valerian and CBD oil have all helped Jasper with his anxiety. There are more but it is trial and error which works best for an individual and all except the CBD oil need to be taken for a few weeks before they kick in, CBD oil is within an hour. They do not sedate him in any way just help him cope with the world.

[al shookup]

Thanks for all advice.