Dog over sensitive to noise?

ISDW

Has anyone got, or ever had a dog that seemed to be hyper sensitive to noise? I know that they generally have good hearing, but one of ours seems to be more sensitive than the others. When he was a pup we wondered at first if he was deaf, but then realised that he could hear very well, and in fact was distracted a lot because of what he could hear that we couldn't. This has continued, he is now doing agility and last night at a practice class, he was really freaking out when other dogs were going through the tunnel, because of the noise.

He also ran in a canicross race with my son, and was great while they were running with other people and dogs, but then overtook a few, and were running by themselves, he froze because of the sound of my son's feet hitting the ground.

Doggy ear plugs?;)

tk123

You can apparently get dog ear muffs from a google search but surely it'd cause probs with his cues in races or agility I'd think? I wonder if a thunder shirt would help at all? My dog is afraid of buses, trucks loud vans etc - we're at the stage now where he'll slow down/stop but not jumping/pulling away from them anymore thank god....when we started walking again after crate rest in December he was terrified and I was worried he'd hurt his new leg jumping/straining to get away from them - the thunder shirt helped a LOT to calm him down and put him at ease.

In the meantime you could try this? :pac::pac::p

ISDW

Lol. Thanks for that, I think he'd kill me if I did that to him.

I have a thundershirt, but too big for him, might try a kids t-shirt on him.

littlebug

Is that a bra:pac:

i think mine is noise sensitive too though it sends her into a tizzy of wound up anxiety and make her want to go to the noise (or something *shrugs*) so she just runs around whining and trying to get to ... somewhere *shrugs again*.
Other dogs barking I suppose is understandable but boy racer car noises and loud trucks are pretty bad, and oh jebus the Church bells:eek:. You'd think that a year and a half of twice a day bells would have muted the reaction but no

When we finally got the garden super secure I thought that the more she was out and used to outside noises she would calm a bit but no she just figured out how escape from alcatraz so we're back to indoor dog now... maybe not so bad as the bells and cars are more muffled.
Thundershirts...hmmmm

Graces7

Collie here is the same. She barks at every small sound. We had to start sleeping the dogs in the shed at the back of the house as the countryside in summer is so noisy that there was no sleep to be had.

Others I spoke with were having the same problem and doing much the same.

I went outside one night and listened. Birds, dogs, cattle, so many sounds.

No cure here; simply adapting her environment.

maybe as the year wanes it will ease?

Also she is very sensitive to atmospheric changes and this year here in West Cork we are having storms and deluges.

Seasonal stuff.

Might that apply here too?

star-pants

ISDW wrote: »

Lol. Thanks for that, I think he'd kill me if I did that to him.

I have a thundershirt, but too big for him, might try a kids t-shirt on him.

If you need a very small t-shirt you could try the baby section, I've doctored baby vests (the ones that fasten below -- but obviously I removed the popper buttons) for my youngest.

Usually only a few euro for a pack of two, bit of plier-ing to remove poppers, bit of sewing to catch up the ends.

FoxyVixen

I read Thundershirt and this image comes to mind :rolleyes:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2IQtcL/memerial.net/2592-superhusky/

ppink

Ear plugs are used a lot for horses now so why not dogs I suppose?