A friend and I were IMing each other. Every time her message arrived my laptop beeps. I like that as I don’t have to stay on the page but can follow my ADD (which isn’t on the prompt, by the way) and click on whichever tab I want to peruse.
But Kali goes nuts. She starts shaking and panting and won’t eat or drink. All those little noises the phone or laptop make to tell me someone wants my attention terrify her. Have any of you dealt with this? It’s been there since she moved in with us and I think my daughter had to deal with it also. I do remember when visiting my daughter that they couldn’t put on the oven because it made small ticking sounds. The would send Kali into a huge shaking fit. You have to cook so they just tried to ignore it and get the meal finished.
Our stove here doesn’t make a noise and the microwave doesn’t seem to upset her. So at least there’s that. But I miss many texts and IMs on my phone and laptop because I try to keep the sound down.
She looks calm but she’s blurry because of the shaking. At least she isn’t panting anymore. The IM conversation was a half hour ago.
She was a rescue way back when. It was her nervousness that ended her life at my daughters as she couldn’t be left alone without destroying the place. My daughter has to go out in the world and work, ya know. We took her in because we are home all the time, so…
We wanted to try her as an assistant dog for me but my anxiety gets way worse when I take her out with me into the busy world. We are only good for each other at home or out in the yard. Even walks make me more nervous because she wants to attack other dogs. She thinks she’s the alpha when the other dogs could eat her for lunch. So I have to be careful where I take her so we don’t have those encounters.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining about her. I love her dearly and in our days she sits connected to me nearly 24/7. I’m just concerned about how to deal with her ‘sound anxiety’. Any ideas?
Well, I didn’t exactly meet the prompt requirement but I did follow my stream. Thanks, Linda!
I think everyone’s pets (like their people) have their issues. My dog would be hyper excited to see your dog and make your dog nervous and maybe aggressive and my friend’s dog would run from your dog, afraid of any other animal… They need their safe spaces just like us.
One of the things I love about my dog is that when I am anxious about going out into the world (driving lots, taxiing kids –mine and others’) I can often take her along and I am comforted.
For the noises, you might try a thundervest, or try desensitizing her by giving her a massage or a belly rub or what she likes and then having the sound start, at small intervals leading to larger. I taught my dog to redirect her rushing the door to her getting her bone. It took me five days and half the neighborhood kids ringing the bell, etc, but it’s been 6 years and when someone comes home, she gets her bone instead of leaping and scratching at the door.
She doesn’t do well with thundershirt. But hugs and rubs is all we can do as she pants and shakes. We figure at least she feels our love even if it is scary. Not sure how to make just that noise so as to acclimate her to it. I’ll have to see if my friends and I can come up with a chat a day to let her be a part of it. She loves the face to face ones FB, though she still doesn’t know where the recognized voices are coming from. She’s not a TV dog either. Funny how some see it and are interested and some not. Maybe she needs glasses? Good ideas, though.
My girl cat has no idea what the tv is about. She’s the only one I’ve had who is like that — and she doesn’t eat ANY people food, ever. The only one.
Crazy how they are like that, huh? As for food, we don’t share our food with the cats or dog. If something falls, Kali is the only one that may eat it, or not. So much for furry vacuum cleaners!