My 12 yr old golden retriever has recently become extreamly insecure and
will not go out side alone. This started when the farmer's bird scarers started
to go off. My dog has never liked loud bangs but now he becomes very stressed
and shakes and cries. He then runs back to the house. It is now a real job
to get him outside, even if we go with him and even if he is bursting!
He is still happy in himself and healthy although he has lost a lot of weight
through getting stressed and now hates being alone. I realise this is partly
due to old age and the fact that he is epileptic, however, I am at a loss at
to what to do to reassure him and get him going outside again. He is not
even interested in chasing rabbits which was his favourite pass time!
The bangs have since stopped but my dog still refuses to go out.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Hi Guest,
Since your GR is 12 years old and has epilepsy, you might want to consult your vet about this problem. It is very difficult to desensitize an animal after the fear has turned into such a bad physical reaction as it has in your dog, especially with his age. Perhaps your vet might have an idea along with a general checkup to make sure your GR isn't responding to something internal.

You're caught in a difficult position. If you force your dog outside, he'll be anxious...but if you let him get away with hiding, he'll never come out again. Perhaps you might take him on a drive and exercise him in a different area from where you live. Give him a week or so to settle down and focus on something else and then work up to your usual patterns. It's an idea.

I haven't had any luck with my terrier in recent years with anything that goes pop-pop either (cars backfiring, firecrackers, gunshots, etc..) The only thing that I've been able to do is to teach her not to go running around in the house frantically panting... she now finds her "dark quiet spot" and is tolerable until the sounds are over. I don't make any soothing sounds because to her doggy brain.... this tells her that I'm scared or I'm telling her its ok to be afraid.

If we're out on the trail, I've managed to teach her to come back to me, instead of racing home. I'll hook her back up and we'll calmly continue. I won't walk directly back home because it's a bad precedent, but we head back and she gets much calmer when we safely arrive home.

Fear is contagious. If Samma starts freaking out, she'll infect my other dog with her paranoia. They feed off of each other's emotions, just like babies. I can't get upset either because that will just encourage both of them to react. That's why its so important to keep everyone, including myself calm. My other dog has a history of seizures when stressed out...so, I completely sympathize with you and the difficulty you're experiencing.

I wish you all of the best with your Goldie. Good luck.
toodles

I'm sorry to hear of your problems. One of the problems with epileptic dogs is that they do tend to get character changes as they get older, particularly when approaching a fit. I know my old Bethany would be a lot less "Secure" at around that time, almost as if she knew a fit was imminent and felt herself to be rather more vulnerable. Certainly in her younger days she was totally "Bomb Proof" but not so in old age.

As for what to do about it, In working gundog circles, with a dog who is gun nervous we would try to fire a gun at such times as "Happy" things were happening such as at feeding times. However hard it might be, try not to take too much notice of it. The minute you acknowledge the noises you give your dog the impression that there is something to get worried about.

It's a difficult problem for you to do anything about because you are not in control of the noise but really, playing it down is the way to go.

Regards, John

Hi John,
I agree with your suggestions. Unfortunately, "Happy dog" time would be quickly stopped in favor of "run & hide" time in our household. :D I think Samma has just reached her saturation point for poppy sounds after what happened three years ago to us. I guess being the older dog now, she just doesn't bounce back like she used to :(

My husband, myself and both dogs hiked up on a sunny day to the Saltzburg Fortress in Austria. Halfway up, canons started blasting overhead every 30 seconds to herald the opening of a folk festival. Needless to say, they were loud for us humans. I hate to hear what the dogs did. We were all wrecks by the time we reached the top. I think there had been about 40 shots by then. Of course, they stopped as soon as we made it inside.

My husband had severe scratches from carrying and stopping Samma from going over the cliff from fear. Chienne was fine during the hike except for being startled, but she had a severe seizure about an hour and a half later.....whilst my hubby was in the loo and I was loaded down with both dogs & hiking equipment. Not the vision of a dream vacation, eh? :rolleyes:

Chienne used to be so "bomb proof" that I could take her to firework festivals and she'd loll around in the grass. She'll still tolerate them, but if Samma's around...no chance of that. Yep, I agree, though, downplaying & ignoring is the best way to go.
Tchuss!