I know it is so stressful to see your dog be so upset and not be able to help him. My previous dog had a terrible fear of loud noises. I used to feel so bad when I was at work or away from home and a storm would go through because he always wanted me to hold him during the noise.
When I got Gracie I decided I was not going to give her any reason to react to loud sounds. When a storm would go through I would pretend I did not hear anything. Gracie would look at me when there would be thunder but I would not even look back at her or say anything. I guess she decided that if I was not going to acknowledge the noise that it must not be anything because she has never had any response to loud noises except to look at me and I continue to ignore her and the noise. So far so good. She is two years old now.
I did see an episode of the dog whisperer where he rehabed a dog that had been in Iraq. He put him on a tread mill while playing a recording of loud noises. He says keeping the dog occupied and moving forward gives the brain something else to concentrate on and it gets them past the fear. Eventually the dog was cured and able to return to it's family totally chilled out. |