About animal types and noise phobia

(From page 23 of the book)

Why are million and millions of dogs burdened by unnecessary fear?

It is not a small number of dogs, that suffer from unnecessary fear of noises. These are sounds and noises that they aren’t used to hearing, or they don’t know what kind of phenomena creates these sounds.

How many are there? The sad fact is that there are millions and millions of dogs and pets, which this applies to! Literally.

The fear is entirely unnecessary. They think they may be in danger, but they are not.

This fear may mean that the lives of these dogs is never completely worry free – they are very often insecure to some extent. It may even rob them completely of their happiness and quality of life, making them a walking nervous wreck. They give little enjoyment to their owners, but instead bring constant concerns. It may even lead to a chain of events with disastrous consequences for the dogs, and their loving families, like what happened to Cassius on that night of fireworks.

How can they be helped better?

Much more common than many common dog diseases

Let us put this into perspective with some of the diseases that dogs may get. These are diseases that are commonly dealt with by giving them preventive medication or vaccinations. Many well-known diseases have a commonality of perhaps 2%, perhaps 5%.

Among these common diseases are parvo or canine parvovirus, Lyme disease, canine distemper, rabies, H3N8 canine influenza, leptospirosis, and heartworm.

In some cases, other preventive measures are advised, to lessen the chance of the dog contracting these diseases, but it is beyond the focus of this book to deal further with that. If you have questions about these diseases, there is a lot of information easily found on the Internet. And your vet will also be able to answer your questions.

So let’s continue with the issue, which is fear of common noises, or noise phobia.

In comparison, it is estimated that around one in five dogs, or around 20%, will suffer seriously from fear of noises, at some point in their lives. As said before, the consequences can be tragic.

Since we are talking about varied levels of seriousness, we can conclude that another 20% are uneasy when they hear some unknown sounds. There is an itsy-bitsy bit of fear there, they are a little bit anxious, although not very seriously as is the case for the first 20%. You can commonly see them quite composed, but their tail is still towards being between their legs, rather than wagging it joyously...

Perhaps another 10-20% don’t enjoy these sounds very much, or not at all, although they don’t react with fear or anxiety, and you would generally don’t call it a problem. This proportion of dogs simply isn’t very amused by the sounds.

Now, the good news is that the remaining can we say around 40-50%? of dogs are okay with these sounds. They don’t care, and there is no problem.

Up to or even more than 50% of dogs may experience from time to time some reduction of their joy of life

However. While the 20% that will deal with serious problems is very much, in some breed groups, these problems are even more common than the standard 20%. These are the so-called herding and working dogs’ groups. The breeds include the German Shepherd and Border Collie and other collies, Golden Retriever and the terrier dog breeds. The numbers that have been mentioned have been as high as 49%. So, a greater proportion of owners of these breeds are facing a greater probability of noise fear related situations.

Research findings have presented some more accurate numbers: In 2013, Blackwell et al. conducted a research study to determine the prevalence of noise phobias in pet dogs. Almost half of the owners in the study reported that their dog showed at least one behavioral sign typical of fear when exposed to noises. An estimated of 29% of pet dogs showed signs of anxiety-related behaviors (Denenberg et al., 2013), and 17% to 49% of all dogs have been estimated to demonstrate an aversion to noise (Blackwell et al., 2013).

Research has also shown that female dogs are 30% more likely to be more fearful of noises then are male dogs. The difference between males and females is hormonal, but also genetic. And on top of that, neutered dogs were found to be 72% more likely to be fearful of noises, compared to dogs who had not been neutered.

The problem becomes more likely with higher age

Age can also be a factor. The researchers found that there was a 3.4% increase in the likelihood that a dog would show strong or very strong signs of fear of loud noises, for every year that a dog became older, (Storengen and Lingaas, 2014).

This last data shows that although most dogs who become fearful of noises have started to show such signs during puppyhood, then these symptoms do also come in later years, and don’t necessarily decrease with age for the dogs who have become fearful. That can be seen in the fact that the frequency of these problems gradually increases with higher age of the dogs, rather than decreasing with increased age.

This means that about 50% of the whole, general population of all dogs will experience a lower quality of living at various levels, at some point in their lives, because of sounds they don’t know.

50%? That is not a probability. That is a fact. With 20-49% having serious problems, and some additional proportion of dogs being less than pleased, although not seriously troubled. This is compared to perhaps 2-5% that might catch some common disease, where veterinarians and dog owners agree that there is a reason to vaccinate or do other kinds of precautions for dogs in general.

Please realize that there is no clean cut of measuring this. We are talking a ballpark range here. Some generalities that may also be different between times in the dogs’ lives, and the situation each time.

The dog owners are not doing something “wrong“

The important thing to note is that these dogs are not maltreated by their owners. There is nothing the dog owners are doing blatantly wrong. These dogs may enjoy complete security, physically, in their lives. Their owners provide a safe haven in their homes, with a crate, toys, enough food, exercise, visits to the vet, training sessions, and a loving owner or family who is there on a daily basis. There are no problems with this. 

But still, the dogs aren’t enjoying their secure comfort. Too often, they don’t FEEL secure, and that is the problem.