Nearly two months ago I visited Poppy, a five-year-old Labrador who seemed constantly haunted by every sound she heard from loud bangs to things we couldn’t even hear ourselves.
It probably started with a firework a couple of years ago.
Refuse to go out
Often Poppy would refuse to go out at all and when she did get out most often she would go on strike after a very short distance, or else she would refuse to go in a certain direction. She was so scared of bangs she seemed to be imagining them now.
They have worked very hard with Poppy over the past two months, they had faith in me and stuck with it, and today I received this update:
“Just thought I would give you a quick update. We have now done a few walks and Poppy has been so much better….. She has heard several bangs in each walk and barely batted an eyelid!! Amazing! They are not overly loud but enough that she would have spooked before. Yesterday on a track some off road motor bikes and a quad bike passed us and she stopped dead and did not want to carry on (she did not shake though I noted), I played running backwards and forwards and doing recall until she ran past the spot where she had stopped and carried on the walk perfectly happy!
It is so nice being able to walk her again and be quite confident that she will actually complete the walk! I am amazed that such small changes have made such a difference! My neighbour even saw her this evening and said she is a different dog! She does still have a wobble occasionally if she hear something like a neighbour bang their bin lid shut outside but she is still very much a different dog!”
It’s a year later and they wanted me to go and see Poppy again, because once more she was refusing to go beyond the driveway. I arrived to find a transformed dog! She was confident and friendly with no sign of any fear at all. Apparently when out she barely reacts to any bangs now. The reluctance to go beyond the driveway is unlikely to be fear. I asked what the lady did. She encourages and entices and gives Poppy a lot of fuss which also puts on the pressure. As it’s getting worse, then this simply isn’t working so I suggested trying the very opposite. Take away all pressure and persuasion.
She starts off happy and pleased to go. The lady will take her on a longish lead and let her make all the choices – no speaking. As soon as Poppy stops the lady will wait and see what happens. If she starts to walk again the lady will follow but if not she will turn around, bring the dog back home and shut her back indoors. Then she will go off again with her little girl but without Poppy.
They will also work on making sure Poppy’s fear of bangs isn’t rekindled now the firework season is upon us, by doing more desensitisation work.
