Originally Posted by Teresa Ford  OPPS sorry, that was to scare crows. Is it possible to contact your neighbor and arrange a time for the bangs ? You could then set up for a successful reaction. Our instinct is to pick up and reassure our Yorkie. This works great with human kids, but not dogs. The best thing to do is to ignore the fearful reaction. Keep a conversation, the walk, the ball playing etc. going. They will see you react calmly and feel reassured that nothing bad is going to happen. You may have to do step by step desensitizing exercises. Have some one bang a pan out of sight and so on. This is important, when you hear the sound at first, let your dog see you actively listening. By this, I mean stop, tilt your head and listen you can even turn your head toward the sound and show the dog you heard the sound too. Then visibly relax and continue what ever you were doing. Younger dogs will usually take their cues from you and learn that sound, is not a threat. They do not have to fight or run and hide. If you are not afraid, they will assume it is ok too. It is normal and desirable for children and dogs to have a self preservation startle reflex to loud noises or new things. They learn from us what is safe and what is not.
We set up all kinds of noisy and visual things to expose puppies to. It takes time, planning, practice, love and a calm attitude to train therapy dogs. We have people out of the dogs sight, knock on the door, slam a car door, ring a bell, stomp feet, blow a horn, sing, play the radio loud, shake a can full of rocks, bang a pan, turn on a appliances and we use recordings of storms, (gun shots for hunting and police dogs) other dogs barking, lawn mower, leaf blower, and children screaming and playing etc.. Visually we use all kinds of people walking by, people in wheel chairs, with a cane, walker, leg brace and crutches. Joggers, runners, bike riders, children running, skate boards.
Some dogs do not stay calm all the time. But even the most reactive dogs can learn. When working on behavior modification be patient start out with small things. Hope this helps. |