My dog is afraid of a sports whistle

[JerryBoettger]

We had an incident in October 2019 (we weren't home).  I got a call from a neighbor that my dog (German Shepherd) was out of my yard.  When we got home, we watched our security camera to see where he got out.  It was so heartbreaking to watch.  He looked like he was frantic and was trying to climb the fence in 3 different places like he was trying to escape what he was scared of in the yard. I have a total of 3 German Shepherds.  The other 2 looked unphased.  We couldn't figure out what had happened.  Well a couple of days later, my neighbor who lives down the hill was training his duck-hunting dog.  We live on 2-acre plots.  We were in the backyard playing with the dogs when he blew his whistle and all of a sudden Kodi freaked out and was trying to find any place to crawl into and be small.  I called the neighbor and asked if he was training his dog on the day that we weren't home and he was.  We figured out that it was the whistle that set him off.  I don't know how or why.  From then on he goes crazy when he hears a whistle.  I asked the neighbor and he uses a sports whistle like coaches do.  So every time we watch sports, football or basketball, he runs and hides in the other room.  I found on YouTube a 10-hour video of just referee whistle blowing.  I am trying desensitization on him.  I have it down low but just so he can hear it.  Has anyone else had this same problem with their dog?  What have you tried?  Does anyone else know of something better?   Here is a pic of him so you can see how sweet he is...  😍

[Adrienne]

Hi Jerry,

Welcome to the forums,

Beautiful dog!

My in-laws had two German shepherds, one of them named Black was an intact male GSD, large and beautiful. It was almost funny that, as big and imposing as he was, he would start shaking in fear the moment my brother-in-law would practice playing the flute. You could see the sheer terror in his face as he would go to a corner and lie down on a small chair curled up in the doggy version of our fetal position, making him look small and insignificant. Fortunately, playing the flute wasn't something my brother-in-law would do that often other than once in a blue moon. 

My female Rottweiler, on the other hand, as she aged, out of nowhere developed a fear of our smoke alarm. We had an over sensitive one which would turn on easily if I burned a bit our meals (which unfortunately happened quite often when I was busy either watching dogs or preparing consults). Every time this sound would start, she would start panting and pacing and wanting to go out.  She would also shake and the shaking would persist for some time even past the sound stopping. By working on the issue though I made it much more manageable to the point where she was starting to look forward to our rewarding "fire drills."

Basically, every time the smoke alarm turned on, I would rush to a room where she was fed tasty treats that were kept on a shelf purposely for this issue. I would therefore feed treats for as long as the smoke alarm was beeping (luckily didn't last long and in this particular room it was less intense) and then stopped when it stopped and then things got boring again. Drill after drill, my dogs learned to look forward to this sound because it meant great things.  I say dogs, because I would allow my other dog to join in too, just to keep him happy and possibly erase any initial fears/awareness that may have been present or starting to present, since dogs can easily feed off other dogs' fears/emotions. 

Now, I understand that you are playing a recording of sport whistles, which is great, but I feel that desensitization on its own may take longer to yield results and may risk leading to sensitization ( which is just the opposite, increasing the fear) when we aren't sure how the dog is exactly feeling when the recording is being played. Is he bothered by it? Can it be he can't wait for it to be done? Will he be OK when we raise the volume a little more? If the dog communicates his unease, will we recognize it promptly so that we can make quick adjustments?  We need to make sure our dog is not over threshold at all times. And even if he seems OK, we will need to factor in, will he be OK when your neighbor will use his whistle at full intensity out of the blue?

In an ideal situation, the dog would get used to the sound sort of how we habituate to the sound of trains or airplanes when moving to a home near a railroad or an airport. However, we must consider that the dog has a fear on top of just simply being annoyed by a sound. This is why I like to power up desensitization by using it with counterconditioning. Counterconditioning aims to change the dog's emotional response. When used with desensitization, the effect is therefore powered up. You can read more about desensitization and counterconditioning here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/

And here is my "hear that" method for dogs fearful of sounds:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/

So you can certainly play the recording at a low volume but I would start with just playing it very briefly at first. For example, play the sound of a whistle blow once, and feed a treat simultaneously at first. Whistle blow-treat, whistle blow -treat. Several reps in a row. Then, start letting him hear the beginning of the sound followed by the treat so that the sound predicts the treat sort of how an alarm bell tells children it's time to grab their school bags as class has ended. Do this again several times until you notice him looking at you upon hearing the sound in expectation of the treat (positive conditioned emotional response). 

You can then gradually increase duration by keeping on playing the recording as your dog is fed something long-lasting (like a safe edible chew or stuffed Kong) that will last the duration and stop the recording the moment your dog is done eating (this makes it clear that the long-lasting treat is given contingent upon when the recording starts, and ends when the recording ends). So to make it clear, turn on the recording, at the first blow, hand the long-lasting treat and then watch him as the recording continues. When dogs are comfortable in their surroundings, they will usually take treats and eat long lasting foods (although there are exceptions to this) so we can use that as a way to gauge his emotional status. 

We can then gradually up the volume, or if we can, we can even start using a sport whistle on our own (start blowing lightly at first) to train our dog that it means a treat is coming or we can even use it to signal  meal time as hunters use gunshots to signal meal time to hunting dogs who are getting gun shy. 

Now, something worth mentioning is that changing a dog's emotions and dealing with fears, falls under behavior modification rather than regular training. In training, we can afford to make a few mistakes here and there and remedy them with no major problems (like correcting a sloppy sit or getting a dog to heel closer to us), but with behavior modification we can risk making fears worse or there may safety issues at play (as in the case of reactive dogs). It goes without saying therefore that it requires a certain level of skill and continuous monitoring to prevent setbacks and knowing what to do should they occur (in most cases, it requires taking a few steps back in the process). 

This is why behavior modification is best done under the in-person guidance of a dog behavior professional, at least for the initial sessions. Also, some dogs may have so much fear, that they may need calming aids or RX meds so to lower those threshold levels as much as needed for the associative learning to take place. Not to mention, there are never guarantees on the outcome of behavior modification, sometimes all we can do is manage things. So you may end up doing a lot of work and all of it may undo and go back to square one if one day you are not home and you neighbor sounds it closer to your home or your dog may be stressed or not feeling well and may therefore perceive it for some reason as aversive and scary again. 

Finally, (this may be quite a stretch)- since all this behavior modification may sound like too much work for the occasional whistle, maybe you can suggest your neighbor  to start using a Silent Whistle instead? A silent whistle is made on purpose for dogs and may be less ear-piercing and perhaps your dog may be more accepting of it (we don't know until we try). If you are up to it, maybe you can buy one for yourself, test how your dog reacts to it (once again using baby steps and positive associations with food) and if your dog comes to appreciate it, gift it to your neighbor or if you like it, get an extra one for him. Win-win!

I hope this helps,

Best,

Adrienne