Howling Dog

[Suebears]

My dog Cindy is a 13 month old German Shepherd. She is learning well, but I have one problem I would lke to get her out of.
She does not like the sirens form ambulances or any emergencies vehicles and will howl and whine at them. If I am in the back yard with her, I have tried diverting her attention to her toys but she still gets upset and wants to jump over me. She will do the same if in the house. I have tried diverting her attention , ignoring her like all is ok and even shouting at her to be quiet. Nothing seems to work.
We back onto a main street so will always have the noise. She has only become more anxious about the noise in the last six weeks or so. As a puppy she did not even worry about the noise.
Obviously the noise is hurting her ears but i dont know what to do to help her as have never had a dog that re-acted like this before.

Does any one have a way to help my little girl.?

Thankyou
Sue

[Kate Jacobz]

Teach her "speak" and "quiet" commands.

Get a recording of sirens to replay to her. Use this recording to desensitise her and when she reacts calmly to the siren recording or live siren reward and praise her.

When she reacts calmly to the sound teach her to follow other commands whilst the siren is sounding - sit, drop, stay... This will help you control her if you are ever in the situation where an emergency vehicle is speeding past you and your little girl with their siren turned on.

You might want to work on this for fifteen minutes two times a day until she becomes really good at coping with the sound.

[KOPcaroline]

Hey Sue,

Exposing Cindy to the noise as much as possible is a good way to go about it. TV shows, recording of sirens are a great way to introduce the sound in your home. Is it possible to walk her near to the emergency station?

In the meantime, as said above, teaching dogs to bark on command is usually a pretty effective way of cutting down on extra barking and noisemaking. They learn that they only bark when its asked of them, and that they get rewarded for doing it correctly.

Have you ever tried startling her when she gets going about the sirens? Spraying her with water, or rattling something loud with rocks in it at her; these startle methods might be just enough to make her pause even for a minute, and allow you to get her focused on something else.

Hopefully some of these tips work, let us know how Cindy progresses

[Suebears]

To all ,

Thanks for your replies. I will try a tape of the sirens and hope this will help my little girl

Thanks Sue