Abstract
Sudden, loud noises are one of the most common triggers for fearful behaviors in dogs, and many companion dogs suffer from noise sensitivity. Existing research focuses on dramatic infrequent sounds (e.g., thunderstorms, fireworks). Anecdotally, and based on reports of undesirable behaviors in response to noises in the home, many common household noises may also be causing fear and anxiety in companion dogs. However, these responses have not yet been studied in home environments. We surveyed 386 dog owners about their dogs' responses to household sounds, and recorded dog behaviors and human reactions from 62 videos and compilations available on an online video sharing platform, featuring dogs reacting to common household noises. Numerous signs of canine fear and anxiety were reported by survey respondents and observed in the videos, in response to both daily, and irregular but “normal,” household noises. Responses were significantly stronger to sounds characterized as high frequency intermittent than to sounds characterized as low frequency continuous. Respondents appeared to underestimate their dogs' fearfulness, and the majority of humans in the videos responded to their dogs' behaviors with amusement; welfare concerns were rarely expressed. While these videos cannot be used to calculate actual prevalence of these issues, our data support that some owners are underestimating fearfulness in their dogs in response to household noises, and responding inappropriately to dogs' expressions of fear and anxiety. Better education is required for dog owners to accurately interpret canine body language, to both safeguard dogs' welfare and minimize development of anxiety-related behavior problems.
Highlights
The fear response is a normal, adaptive behavior that helps protect the individual from harm; fear responses can be considered abnormal when they are repeatedly and consistently triggered by non-threatening stimuli, or when the level or duration of response is out of proportion compared to the actual threat level posed by the stimuli [1, 2]
Survey responses were obtained from 386 current dog owners, reporting on dogs of 72 different breeds
Note that human noise/door knocking was not included in the chi-square analysis, because reactions were only reported when the dog’s reaction was intense
Summary
The fear response is a normal, adaptive behavior that helps protect the individual from harm; fear responses can be considered abnormal when they are repeatedly and consistently triggered by non-threatening stimuli, or when the level or duration of response is out of proportion compared to the actual threat level posed by the stimuli [1, 2]. Loud noises are one of the most common triggers for fearful behavior in dogs [1, 3], and considerable research supports the concept that many companion dogs suffer from noise sensitivity and are affected by salient noises. Sudden (and often unexpected) sounds have been used in studies of behavioral and physiological stress responses in dogs [8, 9]. Physiological responses to loud noises can include a dramatic (207%) increase in salivary cortisol, lasting for 40 mins or more [8]; unexpected noises resulted in rapid responses including tachycardia, hypertension, and increased secretion of epinephrine and norepinephrine [14]; and exposure to acute, irregular noises is associated with stimulation of the HPA axis and a rapid (within 15-min) increase in circulating cortisol concentrations [15, 16]. Behavioral responses to loud noises include panting, hiding, pacing, cowering/lowered body posture, shaking/trembling, barking, escape attempts/retreating, and seeking out familiar people [2, 5, 8, 17]
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