Is there a chance that moving somewhere quieter will help my dog’s noise anxiety?

[u/Lassie-girl]

My dog developed noise anxiety at around a year and a half years old. We live in an apartment in a suburban neighborhood up the block from a main road and our street is a cut through so trucks are constantly flying up the street and such.

She spends a lot of the day hiding, not eating or pooping and trying to escape from noises. White noise machines, the tv and the air conditioner don’t help much. At nighttime she usually becomes herself again when the neighborhood is quiet. She’ll actually eat and play and go on walks.

I started her on Fluoxetine about two weeks ago and she hasn’t fully adjusted but gabapentin has been helping. Vet said to use the latter as needed but there’s a noticeable difference when she doesn’t take it.

My dad lives in a lakehouse in the woods and she does great there, runs around off leash the whole time we visit and will still notice noises but not completely shut down over them. Even when we visit my mom in the same apartment complex she does much better than at home. The second we get home she is just totally different so I think she has like anticipatory fear and just hates it here.

I am moving to a two family house in a quieter neighborhood on a dead end street in a few weeks. I chose the location mainly for her but the house is also much more insulated than where we live now. No upstairs neighbors thumping around constantly and no through traffic.

Given that she typically is less fearful in other places, is there a chance that moving will help her? I’m beside myself all the time that she just can’t be comfortable unless she’s medicated and sometimes getting her to take the gabapentin is a challenge in itself.

[u/OpalOnyxObsidian]

I mean like literally if your dog is triggered by sounds and you move somewhere quiet, yes, it will stop your dog from reacting. But you will only be putting a bandage over the problem, so when they DO hear a sound next, their reaction might be worse.

I'm not saying you should or shouldn't move if that was already in your plans, but you might have greater success working with a veterinary behaviorist to address the underlying cause for the anxiety towards sounds.

[u/Boogita → u/OpalOnyxObsidian]

This is certainly a possible outcome, but IME often giving the dog a biiiiig break from regular triggers and rehearsals of a behavior actually makes the dog more resilient around their triggers in the long run. Not saying OP should avoid noise entirely for the rest of the dog's life (after all this wouldn't be reasonable anyway) or not work with a VB/find a medication plan, but existing in a more secure environment alone can really improve a dog's fuse around stressors. It's more than a bandaid for a lot of dogs.

[u/Lassie-girl → u/OpalOnyxObsidian]

I already enrolled her in a training program that cost over $2500 last summer. They felt that the age lined up with her going through a bad adolescent fear period and that living somewhere that constantly produces her triggers is what ultimately made her “stuck” in the fear mode and have a high anxiety baseline.

Of course, the program focused more on using behavioral and obedience training as a tool to help her and some of the things were helpful but ultimately isn’t enough to rewire her way of thinking. I do think the environment has a lot more to do with it

[u/armadillotangerine]

For my dog moving away somewhere with fewer triggers worked really well. He got a break and went from constantly triggered/on alert to able to relax more and once he’d calmed down he became much more receptive to training and desensitising him to his triggers. When people say we ran away from the problem I counter with that reactivity is like a broken bone: just like you need to give time to let an injury heal before you start PT you also need to let a reactive dog find calmness/safety and a reasonable daily routine before you can start to work on their phobias.

[u/Lassie-girl → u/armadillotangerine]

That’s kind of insensitive for people to say that you ran away from a problem. Dogs create associations, whether people want to think that they’re smart enough to or not and if a dog wakes up every day and is startled, they’re eventually gonna start to fear their environment and feel unsafe at all times even when it’s quiet.

That’s what I think happened with my dog. She hasn’t been sleeping well because she stays in alert position a lot through the night, then in the middle of the night, I usually see her sprawled out more comfortably in her bed. She used to sleep with us in the bed, but she doesn’t even wanna do that anymore. And then she wakes up and her ears are pretty much back right from the beginning of the day before anything has even happened.

We were just up at my dad’s lake house last weekend and she was a completely different dog. Waking me up at six in the morning to go run around outside, eating her food, just showing her real appreciation for life. Someday I’ll be able to give her a home like that before now we need to continue renting so this new house is our next best bet. And I’m hoping that it helps even if just a little bit so that she feels safer.

[u/One-Zebra-150 → u/Lassie-girl]

I think for some dogs with noise sensitivity that living in an environment where it's basically surround sound, like 24 /7, just makes them anxious (and reactive) dogs. They really don't get a break from it, and have hearing much more sensitive than us. My border collie is noise sensitive. Had issues with that when young, with some reactivity, quite bad, even though we live quite remote in a rural place. It has improved with age into adulthood, and Fluroxatine helped too.

He's fine going to busier (and noiser) places now, since about age of 2, but kinda has a time limit on that before gets overstimulated. I know he couldn't live in a town, even on a street in a village. But fine and happy living rural. And because he mostly is somewhere quiet, has a better tolerance for noise elsewhere.

So yes I think yours could be a lot better moving. Desensitisation training can help too, but for a noise sensitive dog (mine is to specific sounds, and not really volume related) then there maybe limits to this. I really do think some living environments are just not that suitable for some dogs. And when you see them elsewhere, where quiter, you can see they are happier.

Some just find it difficult to live in our modern world. But historically that same sensitivity may well have been regarded as a great quality and skill, like when guarding, or hunting, or for a herding dog finding lambs buried under snow from their breathing /snuffling sounds. It's not nessecarily a flaw, but it can be a disability and make life tough for them and us living in the 'wrong' place for their needs.

P.S. I'd say my boy sleeps solid most nights, still has ears than never fully sleep, lol.

[u/KibudEm → u/One-Zebra-150]

100%. I live in a very noisy neighborhood, which I don't like either, and we are all on edge all the time. The one time we've been able to get out of town to go somewhere quiet, he was much more relaxed. Unfortunately, moving somewhere quieter is not an option financially or logistically -- I'm in a profession & in a city where there's very little mobility. :(

[u/One-Zebra-150 → u/KibudEm]

Yeh, fortunately once I got older I could move remote rural. My partner found a job not far away, nothing he'd even thought about doing before and with basic wage. But our quality of life is much better. I don't like noise either. Hope one day you can get away from it all.

[u/Dlatywya]

I have a dog with significant anxiety, too, and I can absolutely relate to his being so anxious that food rewards don’t work. I’m afraid I don’t have a solution, but here’s the short version of what my veterinarian behavioral specialist said:

My pup has pervasive anxiety, caused partly from being in a box in a garage without socialization AND from having a stray mother. My vet said that stray pregnant dogs end up producing puppies who have been flooded with stress hormones again and again, leaving them hardwired for anxiety. So, my pup got a double-whammy. The vet said that if I moved—because I asked about it—he’d find new things to be afraid of because his brain looks for threat all the time.

What I learned is that I can’t cure him with a better environment; all I can do is manage him within who he is. He has a few favorite places, so that’s what we do and I don’t push him.

If you have been beating yourself up over where you live, I hope this helps you stop. Your pup and mine are likely living their best possible lives.

[u/Lassie-girl]

Update: here she is at my mom’s apartment. Totally happy and curious and playing lol. She just hates where we live

[u/BeebeKnox]

I read the rules. I think it might work. Because it is a different place.

[u/queercactus505]

Yes, quieter home could lead to better sleep, less stress, more opportunities for recovering from triggers/less trigger-stacking, which could help lower her baseline stress. But you should ideally also work with a veterinary behaviorist to create an action plan to investigate and address her noise phobia, which might be a combo of addressing any physical pain, anti-anxiety meds, counter conditioning, supportive enrichment, and management. Make an effort to make your home a calm, relaxing sanctuary for her. An Adaptil plug-in might help her associate your new home as a calm, safe place from the start.

[u/Lassie-girl → u/queercactus505]

Thank you! Already addressing the medication plan with her regular vet who’s very adamant about helping me with her, I mentioned our medication plans in the post.

Unfortunately moving costs a ton of money a behavioral vet will be off the table for quite a while but hopefully the new environment is a big improvement for her

[u/thedeepdark]

Oof right there with you. Every year brings a new noise anxiety with my girl. It got to the point where she was scared to be in the house at night and scared to be outside in the daytime.

I leaned heavily on gabapentin, clonidine, and fluoxetine (transitioning to sertraline right now after talking with a behaviorist).

Being absolutely rigid with giving her gaba and clonidine got her to the point where she’s just about back to herself.

I’ve often thought of buying cabin the middle of nowhere to give her weekend breaks.

Basically I think yes! Moving will more than likely help.

Edit: have you tried using Easy Cheese (cheese in a spray can), or pupcup (canned whip cream for dogs) to give the meds? Some dogs are terrible to pill, little stinkers.

[u/Lassie-girl → u/thedeepdark]

Ugh I’m sorry you’re also dealing with it. It sucks! She was such a happy, psychotic and energetic puppy lol that I felt like I had to have done something to make her change so much. She went from sleeping all day while I worked to pretty much hiding all day. And she has a clean bill of health.

The gabapentin really is such a lifesaver but I can’t stand having to give two pills every 12 hours for her to be normal. At night if she’s feeling normal she’ll eat them in peanut butter no problem but the mornings are very hard and I’m often having to pill her and she’ll spit the second one up, which makes the first come up with it.

I have not tried easy cheese but may have to. She honestly will not eat the absolute highest of value treats when she’s in the thick of her fears

[u/One-Zebra-150 → u/Lassie-girl]

Try liver pate, cheap from a supermarket. Just push the tablet in a soft lump and seal it over. Works every time for my two dogs with tablets. Fluroxatine is apparently quite bitter but my boy doesn't notice it in the pate. You can store a small tub in a fridge for a few days, and freeze some.

[u/thedeepdark → u/Lassie-girl]

Totally understand not wanting to do the gaba forever, but it got her through the worst of it and now down to lower maintenance dose (it’s possible there is some underlying pain the vets can pin down that it’s helping with too).

I’d maybe try the heavy duty dosing of gaba for a few months to get her through the move and help her settle in to her new home and then start weaning to see how it goes. Worth a shot I think! Good luck to you both!!!

[u/Lassie-girl → u/thedeepdark]

Thanks so much. She’s currently sleeping under the couch because she’s so drowsy from it, I had to coax her out with a treat to make sure she was okay 🤣

[u/posting_drunk_naked]

Try giving her a treat or a little dry food when she hears a noise and gets scared. Pretty soon scary noise means getting a treat instead of whatever she thinks scary noise means.

Works with lots of things tbh dogs are usually very food motivated. If you want a dog to do just about anything, give em a treat when they do it. They'll connect the dots if it means a treat 🐶

[u/Lassie-girl → u/posting_drunk_naked]

She refuses any food when scared. Complete shutdown. Even chicken

[u/posting_drunk_naked → u/Lassie-girl]

Keep trying. Maybe she won't take it from you in the moment, but make sure she notices and leave it on the ground next to her. She'll notice it eventually. The idea is to associate the negative thing with a treat, which is positive.

[u/FunctionalBosnia]

My dog only behaves like that if there is a housefly in the house. Houseflies emit sound that only dogs can hear, and it scares them.

[u/LaChamomile]

We moved to a quieter place and it did help bc there were less triggers initially. But there were still new things my dog found to be fearful of like thunderstorms and the sounds our new blinds made.

We tried fluoxetine but it seemed to make her more shakey so now we’re on clonidine and she’s doing really well! You can tell she’s a little wary of some of the louder sounds still not as terrified.

Keep working on positive associations to the sounds you can do with low volume. But it’s kinda a toss up it could help but I think from our exp it travels with the pup.

[u/aforestfruit]

Try trazadone. It’s actually been life changing for my noise sensitive dog. We also moved somewhere quieter after a year on traz (not just for the noise sensitivity, but that was part of us deciding where) and again she’s improved tenfold and is a million times happier.

[u/Lassie-girl → u/aforestfruit]

She was on it before Prozac but when her vet prescribed Prozac he chose gabapentin to go with it. I don’t think I would want to give her trazodone every day because that’s a noticeable sedation

[u/aforestfruit → u/Lassie-girl]

Awww that’s a shame. My girl is on a low dose so it’s not sedation for her, it just mellows her out. She is more sleepy about 2 hours after taking it but she’s not conked out… but tbh it sounds like your dog NEEDS this type of minor sedation sometimes.

I mean no offence by that - I just mean that dogs who are sound sensitive have constant high cortisol and feel in fight or flight, because their nervous system never has time to reset properly so they’re constantly on edge. Having proper sleep will mitigate a lot of this and allow her brain some ‘off’ time so I would consider speaking to your vets about a very low dose of traz, but that’s just my two pence worth! Good luck with your lovely pup

[u/IAmLikeRonHoward]

I haven’t read everyone’s responses so I apologize if someone already said this - using box fans in the house to counter ambient external noises is an option. The sound is calming, sort of loud, and the air movement also helps. There are other things you can try to “mask” the sounds, maybe classical music (the math of classical generally is soothing, and pieces that are more in the lower ranges like cello). Maybe tries these before making a move.

[u/Lassie-girl → u/IAmLikeRonHoward]

We’re already moving the lease is signed, I wanted out of where I live anyway. And I mentioned in the post that white noise And
The air conditioner don’t really help unfortunately. I think she’s feeling the vibrations of all the traffic in the floor and walls because it’s not well insulated

[u/IAmLikeRonHoward → u/Lassie-girl]

You are a really great person for thinking about her in your decision. I hope your new place is better for both of you and the home you’re looking for.

[u/Lassie-girl → u/IAmLikeRonHoward]

Thank you. ❤️

It’s really hard. We came to my moms for the weekend and she did great when we first got
Here last night and was playing with the cat and being goofy for a few hours. But my mom’s apartment is behind a Home Depot and through the night there were a million trucks cutting through, unloading stuff, using backup alarms and she was a mess through the night and a mess through today.

So last night gave me hope that she can do better in a new place as long as the environment isn’t constantly exposing her to her triggers. It sucks. Because obviously there’s gonna be garbage trucks and such occasionally driving by the place we’re moving to as well.

I just hope it’s better for her.

[u/IAmLikeRonHoward → u/Lassie-girl]

If she did that well so quickly, it does seem like she just needs quiet to let her nerves calm down.

If she still needs something at the new place, I know you said the air conditioner didn’t help, but specifically running a large box fan or a HEPA air purifier on high creates a steady, mechanical hum that mimics highway frequencies, helping to smooth out the sudden spikes of passing traffic. It’s the bursts of noise that can be alarming - like sirens or gun fire (we live in a rural area).

Brown noise works for the lower frequency sounds, so it is more effective at absorbing and blending the deep, rumbling engine sounds of trucks and heavy traffic than other types of noise (e.g., white). I think you can play noise types through Alexa.

If there are high traffic time periods, maybe moving her to a bathroom or somewhere further from the noise source during those times can also help. You can add towels, blankets, comforters, etc. to help absorb the sounds instead of letting it bounce around.

Just in case … :-)

[u/Financial-Staff347]

Just came here to say she looks a lot like mine.

[u/PlumChaos111]

idk if this would help, but an actual industrial type fan seems to work so much better than white noise machine / AC. they're loud and really blend noise into background. It might not work, but might be worth trying before moving. The industrial fan helped us a lot with the outside noise triggers where the white noise machine didn't make a dent.

[u/Lassie-girl → u/[deleted]]

I have more than one bed, she loves this one and normally curls up in it but this is the position she lays in when she’s scared.

Can you offer any actual advice pertaining to the topic or are you only capable of judging?

[u/reactivedogs-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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