Helping Your Animal Feel Safe During Noisy and Stressful Events

Written by: Beverley McKee, BA CDBC CPDT-KA

Some pets are happy-go-lucky and seem to take everything in stride, while others can experience noise aversion that may escalate to phobic levels of fear, anxiety, and stress during noisy events.

Some examples of stressful events are firework shows, thunderstorms, or other loud occurrences, and if we don’t take measures to make them feel safe, we may be encouraging fear or anxiety.

It’s not unreasonable or uncommon for any animal, including humans, to feel jumpy or fearful when there are sudden, loud noises. Pets, with their heightened hearing ability, may be even more sensitive to sudden loud sounds.

A process called sensitization, which occurs when an animal’s fear escalates or increases dramatically from repeated exposure to a fear eliciting stimulus, can result in very poor welfare for that animal. Additionally, animals that are panicking can be at risk of bolting and getting lost. Thankfully, we can prevent this in a way that is both helpful to their safety and to ours.

Here are a few things you can try to help them feel safe during any stressful event.

Familiarize Yourself with Signs of Stress: Prevent Before it Persists

If you can identify body language cues that indicate that your pet is stressed, you can take measures to prevent their fear from escalating.

Signs of stress in cats can include:

• Hiding

• Large pupils

• Ears to the side or back

• Tail tucked or tight to body

• Hissing, growling, or yowling

• Hair standing on end

• Leaning away, crouching, or tense body posture

• Rolling on back with their feet ready to strike, or feet tucked under with paws on the ground, ready to flee

In dogs, signs of stress may include:

• Excessive panting

• Pupil dilation

• Ears pinned back and tail tucked

• Trembling and hiding

• Clinging to their pet parent

• Digging or chewing, including attempted escape from confinement

• Urination or defecation

• Excessive drooling

• Aggression

• Barking or howling

The second step in making our pets feel safe is to manage the environment during stressful events as much as we can to limit exposure.

Pet parents may be tempted to simply expose the animal to the things that scare them at full intensity, thinking that they will get over it, but this can have the reverse effect and cause the animal to panic and injure themselves in frantic attempts to escape. This approach can also cause the animal to develop phobias.

Instead, create a safe space in your home for the animal where you can limit their exposure to noise and other stressful triggers. Play soothing music or use a white noise machine to further block or minimize scary sounds.

You may worry that comforting your pet will reinforce the fearful behaviour, but because fear is a reflex or an instinctual response that is beyond the animal’s control, the benefits of providing comfort to try to soothe the animal and to create more pleasant associations outweigh the potential for creating a behaviour or consequence that may cause the animal to willfully exhibit fear in the future.

When an animal becomes stressed or fearful from certain stimulus in the environment, a method of training called systematic desensitization and counter conditioning is employed. This helps to change the animal’s conditioned emotional response to the eliciting stimulus from a fearful response to a neutral or happy response instead.

For example, if an animal becomes frightened during thunderstorms, in a desensitization and counter conditioning training plan, the sound of a thunderstorm is introduced at low volume from a recording. This low intensity presentation is played at a level where the animal does not feel fear, and then pair this with a high value food reward.

Over time, the volume level turns up as the animal gains confidence, while the pairing with high value food continues.

Throughout the process, the animal’s body language should be closely monitored to ensure that the volume is not increased at a pace that makes the animal fearful.

The ultimate objective is for the animal to perceive the loud sound, link it to a desirable outcome, and subsequently eliminate its fear response. This kind of training can also be conducted proactively and is often a part of puppy socialization plans which are geared towards familiarizing puppies during their critical socialization periods to common sights and sounds that they may encounter as they navigate the world.

If your pet displays fear or panic from loud noises or other stressful events, consult with your veterinarian who will provide situational medication if need be so that your pet can remain calm. Your animal will also benefit from a behaviour and training consultation with a certified animal trainer, who will identify your animal’s triggers, advise on how to manage the environment during stressful events, and help you work through a carefully constructed desensitization and counter conditioning training plan.

We want to see all animals succeed to the best of their ability. Certified animal trainers at Toronto Humane Society can help. For more information on behaviour and training services available visit www.torontohumanesociety.com/training.

Certified Dog Behavior Consultant and Business Development Associate

Beverley McKee is a Certified Dog Behaviour Consultant through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer –Knowledge Assessed through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers.

She is a Fear Free Shelter Graduate, and a Living and Learning With Animals Graduate under Dr. Susan Friedman. Beverley has published articles on dog behavior and has presented on various animal behaviour topics at national and international conferences.

She currently works with the Public Training Services department at Toronto Humane Society as a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant and Business Development Associate.