Last night my boyfriend was playing on his x box thingy. I was reading a book, dog was curled up on the chair snoozing. Then the boyfrind started to get angry with his game, I think he was near the end and just wanted to finish it but couldn't (sad git I know!) Any way, the bad language and shouting started to get more frequent and Emmy started to get agitated. She got off her chair and came and cuddled up real close to me, I think she thought he was shouting at me. Then the control pad started to fly around the room as the BF started to get even angrier, and Emmy ran off into the kitchen. I followed her and sat outside with her for a while, mean time still lots of shouting, banging and swearing from the front room, god knows what the neighbours thought! I went in and told him to cool it because the dog was getting scared, she followed me in and was literally shaking, tail between her legs and acting real nervous. He switched it off, but Emmy wouldn't go any where near him, and was really upset, lots of heavy breathing and shaking. I told him to leave her, not to try and cuddle her or anything as this might make her worse, was this the right thing to do? My boyfriend hardly ever gets worked up like that, stupid really, only a silly game, but the poor dog was frightened to bits and nothing normally phases her. Any one else ever see such panic in their dogs? and what is the best way to cope? thanks.
By the way, the boyfriend got the silent treatment from me last night as punishment and appologised until he was blue in the face this morning! Damn game consoles... he's such a big kid! silly thing is he works for a computer games company himself, spends all day playing and designing games, then comes home and plays them some more! what an addict!!!!

Did you cuddle her and soothe her?  I'm only a novice and I'm sure more experienced people will be here soon with advice, but one thing I have read is that you shouldn't comfort or soothe - this only confirms to them that there's something to be frightened of, and they'll continue to be afraid - try just acting normal as though this is perfectly acceptable behaviour.  I know you said you got your OH to do this after he turned it off, but maybe you following her out to the kitchen to comfort her may have made it worse.

I always do the silly talk - when we first got Millie and got the hoover out for example, or even just the other week when we went through the car wash, I start rabbiting nonsense, eg

"so the other day, i was walking down the street and there was this man with a lawnmower and he asked me if I wanted to buy it for £50".  I just keep talking complete nonsense, to no one in particular, about nothing in particular, (gets a lot of amusement from guests/OH!) and I take no notice of her whatsoever as though I have no comprehension that she might be worried, and its always worked.  Now when the hoover comes out, she follows me round happily, and after a few initial seconds of panic in the car wash, she just accepted it as a totally normal thing to happen.

I suppose the fact that it was an angry person makes it a little different, but (and I'm just guessing here), she might have thought he was angry at her?  It possibly would have been better if every so often he'd leant over and given her an enthusiastic few seconds of rough and tumble in a cheery voice so that she knew it wasn't her that was being shouted at and that she was still a good girl.

But I know what men are like when they are engrossed in those bliddy fighting computer games!!

Hi Joules,
Best thing you could have done,being that upset, is distract her :-) and when she showed the uncertain behaviour,  was to ignore it. Unfortunately(it is hard for us to understand)  in the dog world, when they start to show ANY behaviour that is out of the blue, our first instinct is to run and comfort. Wrong. If you show ANY reaction to different behaviour you are confirming in their minds that this is the right thing for them to do. Our behaviour, being humans, is to comfort as it helps to reassure our fellow species ie.children, but this doesn't work in the dog world. If you observe dogs together, if one acts out of character to a situation, the others will run up and investigate what is going on and when they realise it is not a threat to their position they will resume their normal composure. I can id exactly what you mean about OH going off in a tangent, as I have one that is similar over things that the female of the species wouldn't bother :D LOL I have 2 dogs, that to start with, were somewhat concerned, but I have realised that I am NEVER going to change him and I think that the dogs, now also realise this, after a bit of education from me :D and completely ignore his antics. The only time they react is if he throws one when their food is due :D Then they question my ability as to how long they have to wait :D :D :D