This is how a couple of vets/animal workers I've spoken to have described dogs belonging to homeless people who spend pretty much their whole lives outdoors - as compared to overweight, undersocialized, bored house dogs who develop allergies brought on by or exacerbated by central heating, carpet deodorizers etc and behavioral problems/depression due to being left locked up alone indoors for hours on end.

As Smutbucket says, they are not naturally domestic, we have made them that way. The way some people (who perhaps aren't necessarily in a position to be judgemental themselves) go on it's a wonder the poor fragile little darlings survived the evolutionary process without the intervention of man and nice warm radiators.

As for howling like a banshee who's trapped it's finger in a drawer while being left outside shops for a mere 30 seconds - tell me about it

Mounty, if your dog is getting stressed by something in the air you might try a game my dogs love to desensitize him. Tie a toy or chew onto the end of a long piece of string, tie the other end onto a stick and dance it just out of reach above his head/whirl it around your head with him chasing, all the time giving encouragement. It's a game mine love, lots of energetic jumping and running and you don't even have to leave your settee

Thanks for the replies and concerns guy Good to see so many animal lovers around.

So anyway, my bro didn't start his shift until this afternoon and was home in the morning, and he told me a couple of fighter jets screamed over around midday which scared the dickens out of our little fella.

So I suppose that may have been what scared him earlier in the week. We used to have fighters go over us frequently several years ago, but the flight path was changed after some complaints about the noise. I hope they aren't changing it back over our heads as those military jets are extremely loud (as in, can't hear someone talking right next to you while indoors loud!).

Anyone ever had to desensitise their dog (or any other animal) to loud noises like this?

Hi

Well, the good thing is that it's highly likely you've now found out the cause of the problem. Here's where the real work starts...!!

Desensitising him will take a while BUT it is possible. My dog was terribly firework phobic for many years thanks to some pillock setting off the loudest rockety-type thingy during February when the dog was in the garden, thereby scaring the sh1t out of all of us ! However, he is considerably better now;

You can purchase CDs with loud noises on, which you start playing really really quietly and gradually increase the volume so they become accustomed to the noise over a period of time.

Your vet may sell a DAP collar (dog appeasing pheromone) - it releases hormones along the lines of those produced by the mother dog when its pups are young, so is also supposed to have a calming effect (although from personal experience online vet companies such as vet-medic may be much cheaper than your vet!!).

Daft as it sounds, are you able to put a radio (you know, one of those shower radio type thingies) in his kennel? It might make him feel as though he is safer.

I'd second the poster above who suggested 'whirly'games - your boy needs to be aware that fun things can be over his head, as well as loud nasty ones!!

And, as has also been said, don't fuss him when he displays the scared behaviour as you are basically confirmign to him that he is behaving in the correct manner.

If I can help any further, please feel free to PM me and I'd be happy to talk things over with you if you like. It's no fun seeing him so scared, I know, but take it from someone who's been there - you can help him!!!

All the best, and fingers crossed for you.

For your information I pop home at lunch to take her out for a walk for a shit and piss. Well to me it sounds like your dogs are very bored if all they do is sleep all day.

Maybe you should take them out for a walk during the day. Wrestling? So you allow them to fight each other?? Battersea would be at that.

Have you checked in his mouth, if he likes to case insects there may be a sting in there, also, his eyebrows. (Try putting a bit of fluff on yours, you look upwards at it) I had to cut out a burr from my dog's eyebrow.

Could be simple.

I live literally 30 seconds from one of the biggest parks in London. I waited 5 years to get this place, specifically for the benefit of my dogs who sleep most of the day because they're out at 5am every single morning to walk and swim usually for about one and a half hours, again during the day, and again late at night.

Anyone who owns more than one dog will tell you that playful wrestling is a favorite game.

I'm not taking issue per se with people needing to leave their dogs safely locked up indoors, I've had to do so myself when I worked away from home, and yes I understand about dog theft and, in some areas, the dangers of leaving them outside (I used to live on a hideous estate where I continually worried that some git would take potshots at my dogs with an airgun) - what I am taking issue with is the hostile, holier-than-thou attitude some posters on this thread (including you RitaRavioli) took towards the op who was clearly concerned about his dog.

As I said, it's not an ideal world. Don't dish it out if you can't take it.

Hiya, great ideas - we'll try and get hold of some sound effects cd's this weekend. He's been much better tonight though, probably realised those flying boogermen are going right on by



He's had a good ol' brush down but we didn't find anything other than the usual twigs, leaves, dirt etc

It's always good to have nearby parks and such for urban dogs, do you let them go swimming in a lake or stream? Ours is quite afraid of water!

Lakes and ponds depending where I take them. They're off like rockets into the lake (one of the two reasons they'll run off and leave me, the other being foxes) even in mid-December. They have to be kept on leads as we walk past the lake when it's frozen over, and then they sulk at me for several hours.

The only tip I could give to someone who's dog isn't keen is to always make sure you're at a part that is easy to climb out of. But some dogs just never take to it. My old lad who died a couple of years ago stepped onto the canal evidently thinking it was a particulary shiney road for his first experience of water. He never got over the shock and never would venture further than wading up to his shoulders in the lake from then on.

I've resigned myself to the fact that my home permanently smells of warm wet dog

My dog stays in when Im at work.He goes in the garden but likes being indoors which I find a bit suprising because he spent the first 3 years of his life in a small compound outside at a dog refuge in Spain. My fault he's so spoilt he lays all over the sofa. I suppose I over compensated for the life he had before. I took him to the beach when I first got him, all the other dogs were swimming and chasing stones and he didn't know what to do bless him.

It's an intersting debate as to whether a dog should be left indoors or outdoors. I think if you start off leaving it outdoors and it doesn't know any better it's not a problem as long as it doesn't bark all day and has soewhere dry to go if it rains eg. a kennel or shed.

However my dog has been used to living inside so it would be cruel to then start keeping it outdoors. I also think it depends on the breed, mine is a lap dog so would be very unhappy outdoors!

It's sad when they haven't had chance to learn normality isn't it. My old lad was a year old when I got him. He'd never been further than a small back garden. The first time he was allowed to run he was ecstatic, but it quickly became evident that he didn't know how to stop (massive dog - a lot of momentum) so for the first few weeks he improvised 'brakes' by heading towards a bush or a wall when he needed to stop running - which was tragic but very funny. Same with jumping, he'd leap ridiculously high over tiny things and then you'd see the panic spread over his face as he remembered he hadn't learned how to land yet.

He spent the next eleven and a half years happily making up for his bad start though. Dog in a million.

No one knows your dog better than you and you have obviously discovered that it may be the noise of the planes that is bothering him, that’s because dogs are extra sensitive too noise, what is scary to us is 100 times louder to them so you can do something hopefully to change that’s now...
but what is important is that if you keep it in the garden all day make sure the garden is safe and secure as people get to know your habits and get to know the dog is kept outside, if he is lively some sad people tease him and as the dog cannot escape he will be tormented by that.
If the dog is outside all day make sure he is well protected from the hot weather or heavy rain as this can effect them also. As well boredom can make them seem unhappy so supply them with treats and toys/water. Food to amuse themselves....
Make sure he is taken on regular walks as being in the garden all the time cant be the most exciting thing in the world...

Aww, bless

Our greyhound had to be taught all sorts of stuff when she came to stay with us - she didn't know how to play and at first, if we threw a squeaky toy for her, she'd just grab it, lie down and tear at it till it was in bits...It took her a long time to realise that if she brought it back, we'd throw it for her again and again and again, but now it's like she's been doing it forever

She also had to be taught not to try to eat the hoover, that just because a dog was small it didn't mean it was a puppy, that other dogs tails weren't lures for her to chase after () and how to climb stairs and get back down again without jumping from halfway

'Not eating hedgehogs' is still a work in progress, sadly...

Aww, I said I wouldn't get another one after I lost my boy last year. He was 17 when he died.I got toby the Spanish one last year. When I bought him home he wet himself when I put the telly on, wasn,t sure of the stairs, he didn't know anything.He's a big boy but a bit of a scaredy cat.His brother is still over there, I might get him aswell because its like Ive left one in the orphanage so to speak. It doesn't seem fair.

Mounty - glad to know you may have found out the problem. I hope you are able to deal with it effectively

hehe. Our greyhound is petrified of most things. We've only had in four or five months and he still jumps up and legs it if someone drops so much as pen. Most dogs chase balls. Ours? No. He runs away. When he's out for a walk and I stop and chat to someone else with a dog he wedges himself between my legs. Cats and foxes however, he'd kill in a heartbeat.

Our girl will still only chase or play with stuffed toys that have squeakers inside them. She's not interested in balls or plastic or rubber anything, her favourite at the minute is a weird blue stuffed pair of teeth.

I think greys take a little while to adjust to the life we're accustomed to as well, they've been so used to tall skinny dogs that seeing all these different shapes and sizes of dogs is just alien to them. Mine took a while to become comfortable with other dogs - she's fine now and will sniff them as they sniff her but isn't interested in playing with them AT ALL. One thing that did help was taking her out on walks with other dogs so they could all walk and be doggy together.

Speaking from experience, for heaven's sake don't let her anywhere near the neighbour's tortoise then. (edit: and if ever she does get the neighbour's tortoise remember not to say "Let go of that!!!" if she's standing on concrete.)


Oh do if you can! Where abouts are you Meeru? I'm not sure but I think it's the Mayhew Animal Home (London) who help people with the cost/logistics of bringing at risk dogs abroad to this country. There are no doubt other animal charities who do this too.

Im in Essex.A lady in Brighton raises funds all year and when she has enough she goes over and gets the ones who are ready to travel from the refuge. They are all neutred, microchipped, blood tested, fleaed, de ticked, had rabies jabs and got a passport. Kate the lady who does this has a daughter who lives near the refuge and she goes in twice a week to drop stuff off etc. A husband and wife run it and an English woman works there.
Don't get me wrong, they love them but they haven't got anything.I went there last August and they are in a field, with wire fences seperating them with a kennel and a bowl of water. I took 100 tennis balls and 100 cat balls for them and Kate is dropping off 1500 dog chews I donated when she next goes.I feel sorry for them, if it rains they get wet, but they do what they can for them. A local hotel helps with left over food and a group of Germans go over alot and bath them and take them to the vets if needed etc. They take alot to Germany but they mainly want the puppies and the larger dogs get left behind. Roy, a German Shepard has been there 12 years

Doll Feet if you click on the link and scroll down to 'Another Toby' story, thats him at his dog training class. http://www.europeananimalwelfare.com/

Thanks for the link Meeru. Toby looks lovely . I'm going to go back and have a longer look at the site later, but I did get a warning coming up saying it might be a phishing site and not to give bank details.

Don't worry its Debbies site and very secure as far as Im aware. How odd, I have never had that.

We have a sheep dog who has a real fear of Hot air ballons. When they come over our house he cowers in his kennell. hes okay after a few hours though