Beeping. I have been to something similar before. The cause had been previous use of an electric shock collar.
Panics at beeping sounds.
Golden Labrador Indy panics at beeping sounds and sounds of a certain similar frequency.
A notification on a mobile phone at home sends him rushing upstairs to hide in the bedroom. If the door is shut he will dig at the door.
They have a new washing machine and the beeping when it finishes washing makes Indy leap high to get away from something – he doesn’t know what. He leaps up onto the side, knocking things off.
The man takes Indy to work with him. Sometimes the dog hears a phone beeping in another office and he goes frantic, trying to escape.
If he hears a reversing lorry when out, he would bolt for home if he could. The lady dare not let him off a long line even when in the fields.
Adopted eighteen months ago
Indy was adopted by the couple at eighteen months old. He is now three. Something was scaring him so much that he had stopped eating (and this is a Labrador!). My educated guess from previous experience is that the people had used an e-collar on him.
The beeping, to Indy, will have been the precursor to a shock. It will have seemed random to him. He won’t have connected it to whatever he was doing at the time.
Going through doors
One other thing that he’s wary of is going through doors – usually when he’s not quite sure what’s the other side. He may hang back and then make a run for it.
Possibly an e-collar was also used to give him boundaries.
We now need to make beeping sounds herald something Indie welcomes – and as a Labrador that will be food.
They will now work on counter-conditioning Indie to beeps.
They can do this with mobile phones from another room. They can do it with the washing machine, with two closed doors between them.
There is a regular similar sound on the radio station the lady has on all day, so they can use this also.
They will use the clicker technique but the word Yes instead. As soon as he hears beeping they say YES and then give food. They will do the same thing if Indy looks suddenly alarmed. His hearing will most likely be a lot better than ours.
Beeping will now herald food
We can’t avoid sudden beeps in real life though they can do things to help. In the office the man could have background sound. This removes the ‘sudden’ aspect. Indy copes find with all noises in a pub, for instance, where it noisy. People in the pub must have phones and notifications.
Indy’s reluctance to go through doors can be treated the same way. Lots of going through doorways with him, “Yes” on the threshold followed by food.
They took him to the vet a couple of weeks ago and he’s on some medication for a few weeks. It’s already taking effect so will be a good back up for the behaviour work.
Conditioning versus counter-conditioning
Indy has been ‘conditioned’ to expect a beep to be followed by a painful and scary shock that comes out of the blue. Now we will ‘counter-condition’ him to expect beeping to be followed by something he loves – food. It could take a while.
We can’t avoid unplanned beeps. However, the response must be exactly the same – “YES” and food – irrespective of Indy’s reaction. Never mind if he doesn’t eat. He can come back to the food when he’s calmed down. The connection will still be there.
Indy is cool with many things that upset dog. He’s very happy with people and other dogs. He’s not a barker. It’s just this one thing.
