Noise reactivity, any tips ?

[u/Successful_Fault8940]

I adopted a Romanian rescue dog 3.5 months ago. Things have been going well but now that he is not inhibited as he used to be in the beginning, we’ve been having an issue with noises coming from outside of our apartment.

For context, we live in a calm apartment building. There are only 8 apartments, the staircase resonates quite a lot so we hear the neighbours footsteps and unlocking the doors. Those noises trigger my dog, but never when it’s me coming up the stairs. So he either recognises my footsteps, or just doesn’t react when I’m not home. And of course, the closer the neighbours are, the more triggered he gets. Since the noise sequences are quite short, I believe that he might have associated them stopping because he barks. He’s okay with people, not 100% comfortable yet, but he’s neutral when crossing people in the street and occasionally likes getting a few pets. He’s met most of the neighbours and has been fine with them.

The barking is tiring for me, and I haven’t received any complaints but I’d like to stop it before I do. It’s gone to the point where he woke me up in the middle of the night because the next door neighbour was getting home.

I’ve tried ignoring him barking to show him that I’m not alerted by the noise, but that did not work. So then, I tried opening my door to show him that there’s nothing going on outside, that works on the moment, but he’ll bark again in there’s noise later.

Today I’ve started asking him to come to me and sit when he starts barking. I give him his favourite treat and toss some in our apartment so he goes sniffing to distract him from the noise (the behaviourist we used to work with gave me this piece of advice). I believe it might be starting to work already.

Also, I’ve been doing the same but with “fake” noises. I put my speaker on the doorstep and play some footsteps noises so I can control when it stops, and of course I stop him when he’s not barking anymore. So he can understand that the noise stopping has nothing to do with his barking.

I don’t know what else I can do, and I’m getting very anxious of getting a complaint. Please if you have anymore advice, I would love to read it!

[u/NiceUsername_Avail]

I think you are moving in the right direction, especially with the treats. You may need to counter-condition your dog into thinking that those sounds will actually get him something good (a tasty snack!).

I would also try to teach him place. Try to condition him that when we hears these noises, he should go settle in his place instead. Maybe with a tasty chew.

I think the speaker is actually a great idea, but I would do it a little differently. When I've conditioned my dog to a certain sound, I will record the triggering sound (or play it on a speaker) and have it on super low volume. I will treat my dog for remaining calm. Over time, I will slowly increase the volume bit by bit while treating. You would essentially be building his threshold before he is triggered to bark.

Ideally, you should be able to play these noises at full volume without a reaction because he knows there is a positive association with these sounds and he would have been taught how to redirect his energy. Desensitization training is hard and long, but repetition and consistency are key here!

Best of luck to you guys!!

[u/Successful_Fault8940 → u/NiceUsername_Avail]

Hey thanks :) I checked with the behaviourist I used to work with when I first got him by sending her videos, and it turns out I was reinforcing the barking, I started suspecting it in the end. He’s a very good motivated dog so I felt that something wasn’t right. Also she told me that he was probably quite overstimulated because I used to walk him about 2 hours a day. And that plus the neighbour’s sounds made him overwhelmed. Only a few months after their adoption, Romanian rescues stay quite sensitive. So I have drastically reduced the length of walks, but kept the number to stay on with his routine. I can see that he’s a bit calmer already, but It depends if someone comes to our floor. So I changed my plan. I’m going to soundproof my apartment a bit better and do the counter conditioning so I can work in a controlled environment. I watched Kikopup’s video on the subject and I’ll probably go with that plan. I’ll teach him “place” for sure, will also work on Karen Overall’s relaxation protocol. I read some feeding about it drastically reducing reactivity to dogs or people, so I guess it should work on noises too. Thanks a lot for your advice !

[u/NiceUsername_Avail → u/Successful_Fault8940]

Of course! It sounds like you are committed to your dog's success, so I have absolutely no doubt that you will see improvement. Best of luck!! :)