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Name
Noise Phobias, Canine
Short Description
Noise phobia
Affected Animals: Any breed of dog of either sex may be affected.
In one report, the age at which dogs were presented for this problem
ranged from one to 11 years. However, 78 percent of the cases
presented were between the ages of one and five years.
Overview: A very common problem in dogs, noise phobia is an
excessive fear of a sound that results in the dog attempting to
avoid or escape from the sound. As a result of its phobia, a dog may
injure itself and damage or destroy property. Sounds that
noise-phobic dogs commonly fear are thunder, firecrackers and
gunshots.
Clinical Signs: The most consistent signs seen with noise phobias
are panting and trembling. Other fear-related behaviors that
frequently occur include drooling, whining, house soiling, chewing,
digging, pacing, hiding, and seeking constant contact with the
owner. The intensity of the fear behaviors depends on the severity
of the dog's phobia and the loudness of the sound.
Symptoms:
See clinical signs.
Description:When a dog is afraid, it reacts by
trying to escape, hiding, acting aggressively, or becoming immobile.
Dogs with a particular phobia to noise usually try to escape or
hide. In this process, they may injure themselves or damage property
by digging and chewing. Dogs that succeed in escaping may run long
distances and become lost. Some dogs have become stuck within their
hiding places as a result of wedging themselves in so tightly.
Noise phobias range in severity from mild to severe. Dogs that are
mildly afraid may only pace and pant. Dogs that are severely phobic
literally panic. Such dogs have chewed through walls, ripped up
furniture and automobile upholstery, and even jumped through
second-story plate glass windows.
Dogs that are afraid of thunder often begin acting fearful before
the owner is aware of the impending storm. Perhaps this is because
the dog can hear the thunder sooner than the owner can or because it
has learned to associate other weather changes, such as an overcast
sky or rain, with the sound of thunder.
Dogs do not outgrow noise phobias; in fact, the phobia gets worse
with time, with each exposure to the sound leading to increasing
fear. Additionally, the fear tends progress so that it encompasses
other similar sounds. For example, a dog that is initially afraid of
gunshots may eventually become fearful of the sound of backfiring
automobiles.
Diagnosis: Whenever there is a change in behavior, a dog
should be seen by veterinarian for a health check-up. Medical
conditions such as endocrine disorders, pain, canine cognitive
dysfunction, and certain medications may exaggerate a dog's fear.
Once medical problems have been excluded as a cause of the dog's
behavior, a diagnosis of noise phobia usually is easy. When fear
occurs consistently in response to a particular sound, the diagnosis
of a noise phobia can be assumed. The problem may be missed,
however, in situations in which the dog hears a noise that the owner
does not. In addition, because dogs are more fearful when they are
alone than when with they are with their owners, "sporadic"
destructive behavior or house-soiling that occurs in during the
owners' absence may not be recognized as evidence of a noise phobia.
Prognosis: Noise phobias can be managed most successfully
through a combination of behavior modification, environmental
control, and medication. The prognosis depends on the severity and
length of time the dog has had the noise phobia, as well as the
amount of time the owner is able to devote to training and
environmental management.
Transmission or Cause:There have been no studies to investigate the
cause of noise phobias in dogs. However, studies of fear and
clinical cases of noise phobias suggest a genetic predisposition.
In some instances, owners can identify a particular incident that
appears to have triggered the onset of the dog's phobia, such as one
particular severe storm that was very close to home and may have
resulted in lightening striking a nearby tree. In other cases, the
owners are not able to identify a particular event that triggered
the fear; rather, they report that their dogs developed the fear
gradually.
Treatment:Treating a noise phobia requires
reducing a dog's fear. Punishment is both inhumane and ineffective.
There are a number of different approaches for the treatment of
noise phobia; unfortunately, none of them are consistently or
completely effective. Treatment approaches include behavior
modification, environmental controls, training aids, and drug
therapy.
Behavior modification techniques use learning principles to teach
the dog to stop being afraid of the phobic sounds. Desensitization
and counter-conditioning are techniques that expose the dog to very
low levels of the fear-evoking sound on a slowly increasing scale of
intensity. The dog is rewarded when it does not react fearfully.
Because treatment of thunder phobia with these techniques alone is
rarely, if ever, successful, desensitization and
counter-conditioning usually are used in conjunction with other
methods of treatment.
Head halters, such as the Gentle Leader or the Snoot Loop, in
combination with obedience commands such as "down-stay," may limit
pacing and help reduce fear in some dogs. It may be possible to
teach dogs with mild to moderate noise phobias to associate play
with the fear-evoking sound by engaging the animal in a favorite
type of play each time the noise is heard.
There are a variety of methods that try to "insulate" the dog from
the sound. Providing a crate that is covered with a heavy blanket
and placed in a room that is away from windows is especially helpful
for noise-phobic dogs that attempt to hide. Playing a recording of
music that contains deep, percussive tones may mask the fear-evoking
sound. Some dogs can actually be taught, using desensitization
techniques, to wear earplugs.
Drug therapy almost always is included in the treatment of dogs with
moderate to severe fears. Medication by itself, however, is much
less effective than medication that is used in combination with
behavioral training and environmental changes. A variety of drugs
within several different classes have been prescribed. For mild to
moderately fearful dogs, anti-anxiety drugs, such as alprazolam,
marketed as Xanax, and buspirone, marketed as Buspar, and
antidepressants such as amitriptyline, marketed as Elavil, have been
relied upon the most. Major tranquilizers, such as acetylpromazine,
marketed as Acepromazine, often are required to treat severe noise
phobias. Recently, melatonin was reported to be effective in the
treatment of one case of noise phobia. The decision to use drugs
should be made on the advice of a veterinarian.
Prevention: It is unknown whether noise phobias can be
prevented through early training and management. In general, it is
wise to expose a puppy in a positive and controlled way to a variety
of stimuli and environments during its socialization period to
increase the likelihood that the animal will be comfortable in a
variety of situations when it is an adult.
