Hi, first time 'poster' as I have a dog problem which I'd like some help with. Two weeks ago my lab x border collie was freaked out by a hot air balloon which came low over us out on a walk and then landed in a field. The dog ran off - first time he's ever done this, never usually goes out of my sight - and we lost him for 8, very stressful, hours. Was found at the other end of our village, but wasn't tired or hot, (would love to have had a GPS collar on him!) so we think he was very traumatised and just hid for most of the time. Since then he has been unsettled, particularly in the house, growling/barking at smoke alarms, ceiling roses, round ceiling lights. We've covered these up now, but he still finds other objects to growl at randomly.. When he goes in a room in the house he keeps looking around at the ceiling. Went to someone else's house and he barked at their round kitchen light. Do you think this behaviour will wear off? Any help gratefully received.
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Trauma-ed dog barking at round objects on ceiling
- Thread starter AliHill
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Oh poor boy- he sounds desperately freaked out by things coming down on him. I don't think that this will wear off without something proactive from you, because he's already taught you to remove ceiling fittings from his sight and that isn't going the direction he needs to go in for him to forget about them. He needs to become less stressed around them, which means that they have to be commonplace, not hidden.
Can I suggest that you uncover one thing on your ceiling (or put a completely new round thing up there just as a temporary thing) then take him for a walk to use up his spare energy, get out your very highest value treats and do a training session in the same room?
Don't draw his attention to it, but ask him to do lots of things which engage his brain- finding a treat, new tricks that ask him to think, anything that will keep him focused. When I need to focus Molly I ask her to balance a round treat on the end of her nose, which means sitting motionless until I tell her she can have the treat. Suddenly I have a very focused dog who isn't thinking about the other dog in the vet waiting room (for instance).
Ignore if he doesn't concentrate very well on tricks but if he tries to react to the ceiling body block him away from it with the most wonderful treat held over the end of his nose, in a way that he can't help but smell it but can't reach for it (closed hand). It sounds like a very simple thing to do, but the treat over the nose thing will be gradually reducing the amount of thought that he can put into reaction. Dogs have a ridiculous amount of scent receptors in their nose, which means that if you engage all of them their brain is so busy being flooded with all of the pleasant smell receptor messages that there's less of his brain that he can put into panicking.
When you've done your training session, take the thing down from the ceiling and allow him back into the room to chill, but then in a few hours do another training session, again with the thing in the room. All training is now done concentrating around the scary thing being visible, and when he's comfortable with that one thing, you uncover another one, then another until they're all uncovered again.
One thing that you do need to be aware of is that border collies fall into the risk category for OCD-type behaviour because they're at the very intelligent end of the dog spectrum. If he REALLY doesn't start to come around with selective exposure as described above then please don't feel that you're wasting your vet's time by discussing it with them. Dogs with OCD or obsessive behaviours often need a course of anxiety medication to use alongside the exposure just to help them turn the corner.
Good luck
Can I suggest that you uncover one thing on your ceiling (or put a completely new round thing up there just as a temporary thing) then take him for a walk to use up his spare energy, get out your very highest value treats and do a training session in the same room?
Don't draw his attention to it, but ask him to do lots of things which engage his brain- finding a treat, new tricks that ask him to think, anything that will keep him focused. When I need to focus Molly I ask her to balance a round treat on the end of her nose, which means sitting motionless until I tell her she can have the treat. Suddenly I have a very focused dog who isn't thinking about the other dog in the vet waiting room (for instance).
Ignore if he doesn't concentrate very well on tricks but if he tries to react to the ceiling body block him away from it with the most wonderful treat held over the end of his nose, in a way that he can't help but smell it but can't reach for it (closed hand). It sounds like a very simple thing to do, but the treat over the nose thing will be gradually reducing the amount of thought that he can put into reaction. Dogs have a ridiculous amount of scent receptors in their nose, which means that if you engage all of them their brain is so busy being flooded with all of the pleasant smell receptor messages that there's less of his brain that he can put into panicking.
When you've done your training session, take the thing down from the ceiling and allow him back into the room to chill, but then in a few hours do another training session, again with the thing in the room. All training is now done concentrating around the scary thing being visible, and when he's comfortable with that one thing, you uncover another one, then another until they're all uncovered again.
One thing that you do need to be aware of is that border collies fall into the risk category for OCD-type behaviour because they're at the very intelligent end of the dog spectrum. If he REALLY doesn't start to come around with selective exposure as described above then please don't feel that you're wasting your vet's time by discussing it with them. Dogs with OCD or obsessive behaviours often need a course of anxiety medication to use alongside the exposure just to help them turn the corner.
Good luck
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