Where/How Did she learn this behavior? (*This has stumped Dog Professionals!*)

Kali_Kalika

Ok - here's a good puzzle for all the API Fans out there. This one has stumped a dog trainer .... a vet .... and a teacher of a dog psychology class .... So, thinking caps on?

Appologies for the length of this as well!

My dog reacts to doorbells. Wow big suprise there - ok, here's the twist. She reacts to "Ding Dong" type doorbells (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROsymjaJ3OY) she has never lived in a house with this type of doorbell. She has not visited a house with this type or been with dogs in an environment where she could have learned this reaction. She hears it on tv and reacts as if it were our own house, runs to the door and tries to look out and when she cannot see anyone runs into the kitchen for a better view and a slightly different angle. This is exactly how she reacts if our REAL doorbell is rung. Our doorbell (no youtube sound for it unfortunately) is the BZZZZZTTTTTT - really loud, horrible, irritating typical Irish buzzer doorbell.

My dog is now 2 years old. She was a rescue dog that I got at 9 weeks old. The rescue had her for approx 2 weeks. I've been in contact with her foster family where she spent her time waiting to be adopted (around 2 weeks) to see if they had the Ding Dong doorbell type. No, they also have the buzzer type doorbell and when asked why I wanted to know (naturally they had to ask why such a weird question!) they also thought back and they cannot think of a time when she might have been around one enough to pick up this learned behaviour. As I know, and all professionals have confirmed - this is a learned behaviour - but WHERE and HOW did she learn about it. Her first very few weeks of life are unknown and all have said and confirmed that those experiences would have been so brief and early and mixed in with other big changes that exposure to the Ding Dong type of doorbell at that early age and stage most likely would not have an impact on this behaviour.

The professionals and I have literally thought of every angle, aspect and possibility we can. I've had 1am emails from the Vet I asked who had to email me and ask me if neighbours a few houses or anywhere near by have the Ding Dong doorbell type - and since there are so few around us it was easy to listen or ask and confirm - no they are all also buzzers.

The most "solid" theory is that she has picked up a copy of the book "My First Dog" and is reading and learning about herself and acting accordingly! :rolleyes:

So if anyone can put out any ideas or suggestions there certainly are a few professionals out there who'd love to figure this one out! I've even had (many) suggestions to email or facebook this question to Cesar (Dog Whisperer) or Victoria Stilwell (Its me or the Dog) and see what their take on it might be. This is not a problem in anyones life - just a bit of a funny mystery that my curiosity cannot leave alone! So, no one is suffering or anything like it, this is not a plea for help - just an idle mind wondering if I have some type of Einstein or Stephen Hawking dog on my hands here or if we're all just missing something totally obvious. We've gone over her whole life as closely as possible and I cannot think of or research into any way she could have learned this - so just wondering if a few more minds added into this will come up with any solutions!

zef

Hi , You said she hears it on TV and reacts to it, maybe she picked it up from there? What age did she start doing it at?

TooManyDogs

I would suggest she picked up an association of the noise with wherever she was born, there's an amazing amount of behaviours are defined before they even get to your house at 8 or 9 weeks old which is why if people are choosing a dog from a breeder they need to see the environment they were reared in. I wonder if where she was born had that door bell that was associated with something good?

Magenta

I'm assuming you mention "someone at the door" or similar when your buzzer sounds. Is it possible that when she hears that ding dong noise on TV, whoever is on TV (I assume she hears it from soaps etc) says something about getting the door as well, and she's learned to associate the ding dong noise with someone mentioning the door?

DBB

I'd think TMD's and Magenta's suggestions are two strong contenders for why your dog reacts to the doorbell: I don't accept at all that she could not have learned it as a young pup, as you had been told!
It is possible to strongly condition a noise quite easily, and often without knowing it's even happening: look at thunder as an example: one big roll of thunder is enough to start conditioning a fear response. Another example: I reared a litter of pups a few years ago, and used a certain verbal code to tell them their dinner was ready:o. Months after they were rehomed, I met them all again: they barely recognised me, but the second I spoke that old verbal code, I was instantly mugged by all of them!

Is your dog a fast learner generally? Is she very receptive to new sounds? Curious about anything new in the environment? Have you ever seen her reacting reasonably dramatically to any other sharp, startling sort of sounds?

Could it be that a ding-dong doorbell happened on the TV, and she reacted to it simply because it is a piercing, attention-grabbing sound, and that either the actor's reaction to it generalised her own doorbell reaction from the buzzzzz to the ding-dong sound (as already suggested), or could someone in your home possibly have reacted to your dog's startled reaction (e.g. "What's THAT?", or "Who's THAT?" or the like), thus reinforcing it, and it grew from there? So, in other words, the sound that grabbed her attention happened to be a doorbell sound, but it was the actions of the humans (either on the TV or in "real life" that reinforced the excited behaviour?
Could a ding-dong sound have come from somewhere else in her life? A you tube video? A child's toy? And as above, her reaction to it got her attention from a nearby human, thus reinforcing it?

Another thing not to discount is the frequency of the sound coming from doorbells or the like: dogs' hearing range is far superior to ours. Could it be that all doorbells kinda sound the same? Or have that same startle effect to get such a reaction going in the first place? This is one that is difficult to dismiss. All animals have an inbuilt set of "alarm" sounds which cause them to become jumpy, watchful, or generally more vigilant of the surroundings. Could it be that doorbell noises are of the same/similar frequency to such alarm noises?
The interesting thing is that yours isn't the only dog I know who reacts to different doorbell sounds, despite no known history of exposure to the different sounds. But it surely is an interesting exercise to try to figure out why they'd do this!

borderlinemeath

My pair react to my phone as we don't have a doorbell. Visitors to the house either ring or text us to let us know they're outside and to open the gates. This means that they know 4 different sounds that could mean visitors -

My message alert
My ringtone
His message alert
His ringtone.

While all of the above get a reaction of various degrees, neither of our email alerts from the same phones get a reaction. Now because it's a phone they tell the difference between somebody outside and a normal phone/text conversation because of our reactions. If the phone beeps for a message, heads are raised up inquisitively. If either of us stand up or pick up the gate fob, to them it means "there's somebody coming!!!" Walk towards the door and all hell breaks loose.
Sometimes due to the their routine they're on high alert as to who might be coming. My neighbour who walks with me every weekend texts when she's at the gate at lunchtime every sat/sun and it sends them into a frenzy.

Phone conversations are along a similar vein. The phone rings and they acknowledge the noise and wait to see what we do. If it's a 1 line conversation along the lines of "I'll open them now" or "be out now" they RUN to the door and start doing donuts. If the conversation continues on then they barely move as they know that by this stage nobody is visiting!

The email alert never results in either of us either standing up, getting keys, heading for the door so when it "bings" then they don't even raise their heads!! It's a similar enough tone to the message tone but they know the difference.

tk123

My dog is the same with my text alert in the afternoon lol! it usually means my friend is texting to meet in the park so he'll look over or stand up - never bothers at other times!