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My Dog Has Noise Aversion

Tony Page

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 22, 2025
Messages
214
My dog Tia suffers from noise aversion. She'll get high anxiety and nervousness when she hears noise like firecrackers, thunder, and alarms.

Last night, a strong lightning and thunderstorm passed through the area, Tia came into our bedroom and woke me and my wife up she was in the beginning of a panic. My wife and I are familiar with this scenario. We immediately held her and made her comfortable. We are not looking forward to the fireworks on the 4th.

Our last visit to the vet we explain how she reacts to noise, and he prescribed a pill that is supposed to calm her. We have to give her the pill 2 hours before the noise event. My wife and I understood that giving her the pill once she gets anxiety, the pill may not be effective. So the timing for giving her a pill is very important. In cases like an unexpected thunderstorm, they may not work. We decided to play it by ear on the 4th and give her the pill as early as necessary.

I have purchased I think it's called the Thunder jacket, or coat it does help but not entirely. I also purchased a headband that goes over the ears to reduce the sound.

Last year, on the 4th, we didn't have the pill, so I spent most of the night when the firecrackers were most and loudest, laying down holding her.

Hopefully, the pill this year will keep her calm throughout the loudest noise.
 
My dog, Marco Poodle is the same way, but was way worse when we first got him. Any kind of loud noise had him shaking and terrified, and I did the same thing as you are doing, I held him, petted him, and reassured him that he was safe.
Gradually he stopped shaking as much, but still needed to be held, and eventually he got to where just laying beside me wherever i was sitting was mostly fine.

Then, this spring, I got a survey to test a calming dog food and I have been feeding that to Poodle, and it really seems to be helping. He still wants to be somewhere near me when we have a thunderstorm, but he is not panicked at all.
I discovered it was a Purina dog food that I was testing, and looked though their brands to see what he was getting since it is working so well.
And they have a food supplement called “Calming Care”, which has probiotics in it. I think the dog food is probably similar. You might try giving your dog the purina Calming Care supplement and see if that helps her, @Tony Page .

I have been reading about kefir, and how it ads a tremendous amount of good probiotics to our gut, which make lots of the B vitamins, it is known for calming anxiety, and helping with depression, among many other benefits.
I am making kefir now and also adding a little for the dogs and cats to eat, since it is so healthy. I am using the fresh kefir to make our ice cream with, so we are getting lots of good probiotics every time we have ice cream.
 
I'm not trying to be mean, but I wonder if this is another of the genetic problems that developed as breeders and puppy mills have tried to "refine" or just in-breed dog breeds too much? Or perhaps they've lost the will to cull (or at least not breed) animals for factors aside from appearance, like stability and a moderate disposition?
 
I think its a perfectly natural reaction to the noise of fireworks or thunder. The main thing is that they are kept secure in the house around the 4th of July fireworks. Some years back, on the morning after the Fourth, we discovered a small young black poodle that had been run over. It had tried to dig under the garage door in the gravel, but couldn't. It had a collar, without a phone number, so we kept the collar and buried the little pup. We have seen parents who bring small infants to fireworks displays. What could they have been thinking? I think even adults should have ear protection.
 
I'm not trying to be mean, but I wonder if this is another of the genetic problems that developed as breeders and puppy mills have tried to "refine" or just in-breed dog breeds too much? Or perhaps they've lost the will to cull (or at least not breed) animals for factors aside from appearance, like stability and a moderate disposition?

Ours are always mutts, well mow that people are giving up breeds like these last two I got from pound we have two non mutts.
We needed a dog that would bark at strangers instead of run and hide. '
We were not disappointed in these two we've had now for 7 months.
 
I'm not trying to be mean, but I wonder if this is another of the genetic problems that developed as breeders and puppy mills have tried to "refine" or just in-breed dog breeds too much? Or perhaps they've lost the will to cull (or at least not breed) animals for factors aside from appearance, like stability and a moderate disposition?
Could be, However, my dog is a mutt also, the heinz Variety.
I'm eighty one years old and I've had dogs since I'm eight years old, All but one we're mutts. I've seen this reaction to noise before when in my teens, back in the 50's.
 
Could be, However, my dog is a mutt also, the heinz Variety.
I'm eighty one years old and I've had dogs since I'm eight years old, All but one we're mutts. I've seen this reaction to noise before when in my teens, back in the 50's.

Somebody has to love the mutts, Tony I've had dogs and other animals all my life too, now just dogs. I love cats too but afraid these dogs would kill one., plus I'm allergic to cats now but still would have one if no dogs. Leo the neurotic 'from horrible abuse before we rescued him and his sister' has already killed 2 of our hens.
 
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