Noise Phobias

I am wondering if Nigel has a noise phobia. He is afraid of the dryer at the groomers and she has to use the cage dryer on him instead. He also barks whenever anyone sneezes or makes any kind of unusual noise. He is getting a little better with the canister vacuum, but the upright gets him going. Anyone have any experience with this in our breed. He will be 1 yr old on Friday...never had one quite as neurotic. He also pitches a fit whenever anyone goes out the door, but gets over it fairly quickly. No bad behavior...just overly excited barking.

I am hoping he will grow out of this. I have been trying to distract him with treats. :?
Respond to this topic here on forum.oes.org  
My 9 month old only creates in a scared spooked manner with big trucks or buses passing by when we are on a walk.
Yes, some can be quite noise sensitive. It's up to you to desensitize them least they get worse.

Have him in a calm state, turn on the noise maker and then gently correct his fear or barking. Do not say, "It's OK." They don't understand, they just hear calm voice while his is neurotic so they think, "good I'm being a good boy." When he is good, reward with praise.

Mine no longer carry on, they just get up and leave the room or the house.

Jack still barks when I go thru to the gate to the mail box. I haven't been able to stop this. He wants to come but I don't want him learning it's ok to go thru an open gate even when leashed to me.
Don't know if this will help at all nor am I 100% positive this is the right way to go about it (if it's wildly wrong-headed hopefully someone round these parts with more experience will set the story straight), but my Basil developed this issue fairly recently-- his groomer told me that he didn't like the blow dryer, but not the extent to which it scared him. I didn't see it first hand until I took him in for a self-wash the week before Sheepiepalooza. He went berzerk, biting at the air nozzle... pretty frightening as I'd never seen him act like that toward anything.

Anyhow, I started using a regular hair dryer on low heat... turning it on and getting him to sit near it while I gave him treats, slowly moving it closer until the air would blow on him... but never going so fast that he would get spooked enough to stop listening and never doing it for more than a few minutes at a time.

It seems to be working relatively quickly as he would bite at it if it got close to him at first, but tonight I got him to ignore it blowing directly on him as long as there was a treat in my hand for him to focus on. I'm going to use a vacuum in close proximity as part of this training as well.

I don't know how this will translate to the dryer at the groomer, but once he's ok with both the dryer and the vacuum I'll ask the groomer if I can see if it will work in getting him used to their equipment. In any case, I wanted to get right on it because I don't want someone getting hurt if he catches the hand that's holding the dryer.

[p.s.: If at any point he starts showing signs of being bothered by the dryer the treats go away until he calms down again. I'll update with whether this approach ultimately solves the problem as well.]
I have tried this with a small hand held dryer...and he is ok. My groomer could even use a small hand held pet dryer on him. The force dryer she has scares the poop out of him. He literally gets the runs every time she tries to use it on him. I may have to end up grooming him myself eventually...but we are still trying to get him over this. This has been going on since he was 4 months old...or shortly after. He is 1 now and still behaves this way.
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
Counter

[Home] [Get A Sheepdog] [Community] [Memories]
[OES Links] [OES Photos] [Grooming] [Merchandise] [Search]

Identifying Ticks info Greenies Info Interceptor info Glucosamine Info
Rimadyl info Heartgard info ProHeart Info Frontline info
Revolution Info Dog Allergies info Heartworm info Dog Wormer info
Pet Insurance info Dog Supplements info Vitamins Info Bach's Rescue Remedy
Dog Bite info Dog Aggression info Boarding Kennel info Pet Sitting Info
Dog Smells Pet Smells Get Rid of Fleas Hip Displasia info
Diarrhea Info Diarrhea Rice Water AIHA Info
Sheepdog Grooming Grooming-Supplies Oster A5 info Slicker Brush info
Dog Listener Dog's Mind Dog Whisperer

Please contact our Webmaster with questions or comments.
  Please read our PRIVACY statement and Terms of Use

 

Copyright 2000 - 2012 by OES.org. All rights reserved.