Hey Reader,

“Work below threshold.”

Sounds simple, right? Play some sounds, and make sure the dog never shows any signs of stress.

You’re probably an expert in reading canine body language, and you’ll stop with the smallest lip lick. Just to make sure everything stays positive so that the dog learns that sounds are not that scary after all.

Because we would not want to expose a dog to a sound level at which they experience stress. This is every force-free trainer's life’s mission.

And it’s a good one, not arguing that 🙂.

What I am arguing though is that if the dog is to learn that sounds are not scary, there actually needs to be a learning process.

And a dog that is completely relaxed doesn't have his brain activated enough to learn anything.

You could be playing loads of firework crackers in the background and massaging the dog to sleep, which, again, is incredibly peaceful, but this dog isn’t learning anything. It's actually quite logical that the next time there are real fireworks sounds, this dog is just as scared as before.

So should we just expose the dog to as many loud sounds as possible? No, of course not. We don't want the dog to be flooded with stress either, because stress hormones do put a brake on the learning centers in the brain. An extremely stressed dog is not capable of learning anything either.

So the threshold is actually a narrow zone between too much and too little. And crossing it on both sides leads to a dog that doesn't learn anything. And therefore, the fear will stay as it is. No matter how many sound recordings you play

On top of that, the threshold isn’t stable. It moves because it isn't set by the sound alone. A dog that's had a poor night's sleep, is stressed due to visitors, or other dogs on walks, may have a lower threshold that day. Even though he was fine with the sound on Tuesday, today’s threshold may be lower due to the higher stress levels that day.

The threshold is one of four places where I see noise cases get stuck most often. The others are the dog’s overall stress load, resilience, how the learning itself is set up,

And when you're fully immersed in the case, it can sometimes be difficult to know exactly which one of these it is

That’s why I made the Stuck Case Check. It’s a short quiz that takes a few minutes, and it will help you to figure out where your case may be stuck at this moment, and it will give you a first step forward into resolving it.

<<< Take the Stuck Case Check >>>

Cheers, Dr. Else

P.S. My course Noise Phobias in Dogs opens on 16 November. In the course, you’ll learn how the environment, emotions and stress influence how noise fear develops and why it continues, how to support dogs in the short term with management and nutraceuticals, and how to set up exposure therapy for the long term, so you can improve the welfare of the dogs you work with. People on the waitlist get early access from 9 to 13 November, and a special early bird price + an extra bonus. If you’d like that, you can join the waitlist here.

Best,

Dr. Else

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