BH160 Sound Advice: Conquering Noise Sensitivity

This class will consist of general lectures on the topic of noise sensitivity, plus the skills both you and your dog need to be able to best support him through the times when noises happen. This will be a forum rich class, with lectures being informative but more general, and the details coming through from the gold spots and what those dogs bring. Auditors should plan to follow along with at least one gold to get the most out of the class. Since rehabilitation of behavior problems is distinctly different in approach from the learning of skills, there isn't a step by step recipe for this class to follow.

Topics that will be discussed in the lecture:

Signs of stress, and early signs that noise may be becoming an issue

Classical conditioning and the power it has to change the way your dog feels

How to throw the best noise party!

Proper therapeutic pairing of Good Things and Bad Things, and what "The Ratio" means

Teaching them to make sounds themselves!

When you should be discussing behavioral pharmacology with your veterinarian

Fireworks, thunderstorms, and the big over-threshold events

Thundershirts, earmuffs, and ways to help them cope

Prediction and prevention of new noises getting added to the list

Feeding for barking: Does that reinforce the behavior?

Topics added by request

None, but it's helpful if your dog knows how to touch things with their nose and/or their feet, to assist with getting them to move things that might make noise.

We'll also be using your dog's most valuable and exciting items to throw our big celebrations, so it's best if your dog has things they love, whether it's food, toys, or anything else you can control. Dogs who struggle with enjoying interacting with you even without any noise present may not be the best fit. Contact the instructor if there is any question.

Classical Conditioning: working with sound

Helping a dog with sound sensitivities is all about connecting those scary sounds to a variety of Good Things for Dogs. Right now, they think that noise is a problem (for whatever historical reason) instead of a neutral event, and so to counteract that opinion we need to show them that the noise is actually a good thing rather than a bad thing. How? By showing them that it is the thing that happens right before the Good Things for Dogs shows up. Over time perhaps that sound can become neutral like it is for most people and dogs, but during rehab, we need to counteract those already-negative opinions with a push of that pendulum that moves those opinions in the positive direction!

We need a lot of power to push that pendulum, though. After all the noise is taking root, right? The opinion is pretty far into the negative side of things? To get all the way where we need to go, we need some power.

For those of you who have tried to follow noises with Good Things, and have failed to make any change in your dog, there are a few likely culprits getting in the way. One is that the Good Things aren't strong enough to push the full weight of the pendulum all the way over, resulting in no movement. The other is that the pendulum is just too heavy in the time you're trying to push it, resulting in no movement. Or both! Still resulting in no movement.

Now, we can keep pushing at it, straining with all our might, trying hard, but still that heavy pendulum is going to stay there. Until we change the forces affecting this movement, we're not likely to get very far.

One way to address this power imbalance is to beef up the strength of our Good Thing. This is what you are doing right now with the parties. Your parties are your Good Thing, and the more fun they are, the more power they have to move opinions. Will they be strong enough to move the pendulum? Not at first, or maybe only a notch or two. But in time, with repetition, that power grows. You'll get better at including the best elements into those parties, the factors with the highest value, and you'll add as much of your own excitement and connection as you can so that it continues to grow in strength. On its own, though, it'll have limits.

The other way to address this power imbalance is to lighten the weight of the pendulum! Come join us in class to find out how, and to get the tools you need to really make this shift for your dog!