My 11 year old bitch has decided she is suddenly afraid of certain noises. She has been bomb proof (or should that be gun proof) all her life but in the last week certain noises have triggered her to slink away, head down and anxious 'looks' back over her shoulder at us. The first time it happened, I was opening a cardboard box. Since then, she has reacted to packets of biscuits being opened, a crisp packet being scrunched up, the opening a cereal packet and this morning, opening the post! Each time this has happened, we have called her to us and shown her the offending article. She comes reluctantly but is quite happy once she see/smells what it is and trots off happy as larry. She is a very fit and active bitch and appears to be fine with other noises, including thunder and even when I dropped a saucepan on the floor behind her! I am thinking it is 'age' but is there anything else I have forgotten about that may be the cause?

Might sound a daft question, but did you accidentally tread on her when you may have made one of these types of noises (they do appear to be of a similar type), or something else that may have caused a bit of pain, hence creating an association with that noise? It can and does happen!

Have you checked her ears as could it be an infection maybe as that can causes sensitivity to touch and maybe noises ?

Thanks for your replies. Not a daft question at all and as you say, the 'sounds' are very similar. We have racked our brains and tried to remember if anything has happened along those lines, but have drawn a blank. It is odd that it is all the same type (pitch) of sound though. We checked her ears after the second time it happened and as far as we can see, they appear fine. She always has freezing cold ears and they are still ice blocks! She has always had excellent hearing and I can say I have not noticed any reduction but obviously (at her age) I guess it is to be expected..

As you say the sounds all seem to be a similar pitch I'd really investigate hearing loss.  It's common in people to lose a certain pitch but not another.  Just look at hearing assist telephones, one pitch is boosted to help those with the most common type of loss.  Can dogs be the same?  I don't know but your Vet might.

Her symptoms are similar to Jet's.  Jet would startle easily at certain sounds.  It's like she didn't hear the lead up to the noise, the tred of our feet and the opening of the cupboard door say, and then BOOM a sound she could hear.  Then she would, to anthropomorphize, seem embarassed.

You might remember I posted a while ago about Bramble (14+) suddenly becoming afraid of the fire crackling ?? He has always been fine with noises (apart from my OH sneezing ) and so we were very upset about this as he now won't come in the room when the fire is on :( It is not just the fire tho', on odd occasions he is also frightened by other noises, His hearing is definitely not as good as it was and we think that certain sounds are now accentuated by his deafness - if that makes sense :)

Many old dogs become sound sensitive, often just as their hearing begins to fail. They hear things 'differently' somehow.
My nearly 13 yo boxer is now very anxious about many things whereas she once was bomb proof. She is having anxiety incidents when there is any change in the house.

I had similar but regarding my girls eye sight.  If you put your hand close she would fall backwards and the same if she saw the flash of a camera.  Spoke to Peter regarding it and he said it was normal as the sight failed.  She still seemed to see really well at 15 though so was only affected by these two things.  I've noticed my girl who will be 13 this year is also starting to do the same but on a lesser scale.