Treating Dog Anxiety | 3 Proven Treatments for Fear of Thunderstorms and Fireworks

Canine Health Info canine learning dog anxiety dog anxiety symptoms dog training melatonin for dogs Thundershirt for dogs ttouch thrapy for dogs

Treating Dog Anxiety | 3 Proven Treatments for Fear of Thunderstorms and Fireworks

Comment  

How Prevalent is Dog Anxiety for Thunder

Typical dog fear stance: ears back, whites of the 
eyes showing, head lowered and back hunched.

A dog anxiety survey of 2000 dog owners found that approximately 13% of dogs suffer from noise phobias, defined as a persistent, irrational fear response. 

Yet of those surveyed, only one third of the respondents whose dogs exhibited  symptoms had sought any treatment or professional advice to manage their dog's condition.

Furthermore the Bristol survey found that 50% of owners did not recognize that behaviors they reported in response to loud noises were in fact fear related symptoms.

Here are three effective treatments for reducing canine anxiety caused by fireworks, gunshots and thunderstorms.

Causes of Noise Phobias and Anxiety

Some dogs exhibit fear of loud noises from an early age while others display a sudden or slowly increasing fear of loud noises over time.

Certain breeds, such as the gun dogs, (labs and spaniels) tend to have a higher tolerance for loud noises, while other breeds, such as the border collie, have a high incidence of noise phobia, suggesting there is a genetic component to noise sensitivity.  

As dogs age, their sensitivity to noise may increase, and negative experiences such as being outdoors during a severe thunderstorm can create new phobias where one never before existed.

Once a phobia has developed, particularly regarding thunderstorms, dogs may associate atmospheric changes with the noise. Changes in barometric pressure, increased static in the air and rain alone can trigger the fear response.

Dog Anxiety Symptoms

Dogs with noise phobias may manifest a variety of dog anxiety symptoms.  Symptoms may be obvious, such as panting, pacing, barking, trembling or shaking, seeking human company or hiding under beds, in bathtubs and behind furniture or toileting in the home.

 

Less obvious anxiety symptoms that are often misread include increased salivation, licking, urinating or defecating indoors, and in some cases destructive behavior including; carpet and upholstered furniture digging and scratching at doors or walls. In severe cases of noise phobia, dogs may become aggressive resulting growling and biting behavior. It is important to realize that these behaviors are born out of real terror; the dogs are not "acting out."

While we can’t control thunderstorms, random gunshots or fireworks, we can take steps to manage our dog’s reaction to the noise stimuli and reduce their anxiety level.  These steps can include removing the dog from the stimuli, natural anti-anxiety medications with desensitization therapy and easy massage therapy. Any combination of these approaches can be applied.

#1 Quick Fix: Remove the Dog From The Stimulus

In instances where we can predict the dog will react to a threatening sound, such as Fourth of July fireworks, we can insulate the dog from the sound.  Basements without windows are the best area of the house to contain the dog.  If the room you select does have windows, close the blinds so he can’t see the bursts of fireworks or lightning which he will have already associated with a corresponding explosion. Turn on music loud enough to drown out the sound of fireworks.

Some dogs may have a preference for hiding in a bathroom, which should be respected. The porcelain and tile in these areas may help dissipate static electricity in the air, and help reduce some of the fear stimulus.

Crate training can also provide a dog with a safe go-to area.  If your dog has been properly crate trained and seeks out his crate as a comfortable rest spot, then the crate should be added to the basement or bathroom for an additional sense of safety.

This is a short term fix; for a long term solution you will need to employ counter conditioning, teaching the dog to be okay with the noises they fear.

#2 Homeopathic Remedy: Melatonin for Dogs with Fear of Thunder and Loud Noises

Melatonin has produced dramatic results for some dogs with fear of thunder.  Melatonin is available over the counter; it is a naturally occurring neuro-hormone, with a number of veterinary uses because of its sedative properties.

Melatonin has been shown to help regulate sleep disorders for older dogs, and can help dogs adjust to stressful situations including separation anxiety and noise phobias. Dogs treated with melatonin prior to a thunderstorm remain awake, alert and relaxed.  They do not appear to be reactive to thunderstorms at all. 

Some dogs can actually permanently overcome their noise phobias with treatment on Melatonin. As dogs remain calm while experiencing the stimulus, they can become desensitized to the sounds and atmospheric changes associated with a thunderstorm.

Proper dosage for a 40-50 pound dog is 3 mg (that is the human adult dose). For small dogs under 30 pounds 1.5 mg and for large dogs over 100 pounds up to 6 mg. These doses may be administered 3 times daily as necessary.

Flower essences such as Rescue Remedy have been shown to be effective in reducing anxiety for nervous show dogs, and can be safely used in conjunction with the melatonin treatment.  The most effective, Rescue Remedy, is the form that is added to their drinking water.

                                                                                                                         

Melatonin Pros:

• Effective anti-anxiety medication for canine separation anxiety and noise phobias
• Antioxidant properties may control free radicals
• May help in controlling epileptic seizures
• May aid in the treatment of Canine Cushings Disease.
• Balances sleep disorders, and allows dogs to sleep through the night

Melatonin Side effects

• May affect female reproductive cycle or make her unreceptive to males
• Possible drug interactions can occur with medications which the dog is already taking such as sedatives, steroids and monoamine oxidase inhibitors
• In rare cases some dogs may become excessively lethargic or increasingly nervous

#3 TTouch Massage and The Thunder Shirt for Anxiety

The Thunder Shirt has been proven to reduce the anxiety of many dogs.  Its technology is based on the work of Linda Tellington-Jones and her T Touch Therapy.

The Tellington TTouch  is a method based on circular movements of the fingers and hands on areas all over the dog’s body. The intent of the TTouch is to change the brain waves of the dog by activating “cellular intelligence.”  Additionally, endorphins are believed to be released by the massage technique. Awakening cellular intelligence sounds like hocus pocus, but the therapy does work to help adjust behavioral problems and calm cats, dogs and horses.

According to the TTouch website, “Using a combination of specific touches, lifts, and movement exercises, TTouch helps to release tension and increase body awareness. Allowing the animal to be handled without provoking typical fear responses. The animal can then more easily learn new and more appropriate behaviors.” 

If nothing else, TTouch builds a better rapport between owner and pet, ultimately increasing trust and building self-confidence in the animal.

TTouch can help in cases of:

• Chewing
• Excessive Barking
• Jumping Up
• Leash Pulling
• Extreme Fear or Shyness
• Aggressive Behavior

The ThunderShirt does come with a 45 day guarantee. If the shirt does not produce results, you can return it for your full money back.

ThunderShirts can now be purchased in a variety of fashion colors and patterns.  Consider combining them with Melatonin treatments to desensitize your dog to thunderstorms and fireworks.

How Dogs Learn The Meaning Of Words

animal behaviorist canine learning canine research dog experiments dog information dog learning dog toy dog training dog training tips dog vocabulary research dogs

How Dogs Learn The Meaning Of Words

Comment  

The average dog can learn as many as 150 words, a fairly substantial vocabulary beyond sit, stay and come. Research with several border collies has brought those vocabulary numbers up beyond 400 words, and a border collie named Chaser has learned the names of 1022 objects, which he can differentiate and fetch on command.  There appears to be no upper limit in Chaser's vocabulary lessons, as he continues to add words to his lexicon.

In the wake of such impressive results, researchers Emile van der Zee, Helen Zulch and Daniel Mills sought to determine the presence of a key feature of human word comprehension in canine learning. In the research article, Word Generalization by a Dog (Canis familiaris): Is Shape Important?, the researchers sought to determine if shape bias existed in dogs as it does in humans.

Experiments with human 2 year olds, have shown a "shape bias" exists in the learning of new words.  Simply put, once the child associates a name with an object, it then generalizes the shape of that object to other objects with the same shape.  For example, a child taught the word ball, when presented with a group of new objects, will seek other spherical shapes regardless of their size and texture.  Children associate ball with round; do dogs learn the same way?


Using a 5 year old border collie named Gable, the researchers used random words, such as DAX or GNARK to create a word association with an object.  Once the word-object association was made, researchers began to replace the familiar object with new object choices.  When presented with new objects to retrieve, Gable sought objects that were similar in size to the original object, without regard to the shape of the object.  As Gable became more familiar with the word-object mapping, he replaced the size preference with an association of similar texture of the object. As Gable better understood the word-object relationship, he relied on how the object felt in his mouth to determine the best choice for retrieval.

I am reminded of a scene in the film, Best In Show, when the toy, Busy Bee, goes missing.  The pet shop owner offers up a toy similar in size and shape to the panicked dog owner.  She rejects the new toy as it is obviously not a bee, but is instead a fish.  The pet shop owner tries to convince her to purchase the toy stating, "I think the dog is responding to the shape and strips on the toy."  Yes and no. The dog would respond to the similar size and plush material, but not the stripes or shape of the toy.

As a practical application of the research, those of you needing to replace a treasured toy should seek toys of similar size, texture and firmness.  Ultimately, the dog is responding to how the toy feels in his mouth.

How this research applies to dog training is an interesting question.  Vision is the primary sense of humans.  Therefore it makes sense that we would rely on object shape in determining associations.  Scent is the primary sense of dogs, hearing is secondary and sight tertiary; scent and sound were not presented as  differentiating factors for Gable.

In real world dog training, scent and sound are both factors in our dog's learning.  The smell and sound of treats and objects are likely to be confounding factors for our dogs, unnoticed by humans in our sight driven world.  If you find yourself experiencing a brick wall in your training, if your dog seems to be stubbornly missing the point, consider that he may be responding to another aspect of the situation.  He may have made an association that seems correct to him based on scent or sound.  When you seem not to be on the same page, take a broader view of the situation, and perhaps change objects or locations.

Click here to review the research article Word Generalization by a Dog (Canis familiaris): Is Shape Important?  The online article at PLOS One also includes videos of Gable's training sessions.  Enjoy!