Thursday 30 January 2020

Gryffin getting used to household noises


We continue to work with little Foxy Gryffin who needs either a foster or a new home. Little Gryffin is sensitive to noises and needs to slowly get used to everyday sounds that he might experience in a home.

When he is stressed or worried, in the past he has become quite bouncy, jumping up on people and furniture - including window sills. This looks like excitement - it isn't! Dogs will often appear "hyperactive" but in reality they are stressed.

His lovely rescue lady sets up the room with lots of interesting things for him to investigate - setting him up to succeed.
Today, we had the washing machine, tumble dryer and the television on. He didn't once attempt to jump on on furniture!

Whenever we work with dogs we ensure we manage our own behaviour. However, Gryffin needs to get used to many things and learn to cope as not everyone is calm around dogs! When I arrived I was quite loud and "excited". He handled it like a star and carried on with his enrichment. A quick sniff of me and back to searching! What a clever boy.

We had the television up really loud - even myself and his lovely rescue lady were struggling as we like calm and quiet! 


Gryffin does really well and ignores the television sounds. We kept the volume at the same level and carried on chatting away.



In the second video, you can see his ears twitch at the television sounds but he is still coping and interacting with all the enrichment.

Gryffin was an absolute star today, coping with so many things (but always kept under threshold as we don't want to cause stress). 
  • Excited person arriving
  • Washing machine
  • Tumble dryer
  • Television
  • Telephone ringing
  • Visitor arriving
  • Excited behaviour from me

We now turn up the volume a little. In the next video you will see he has taken himself to his "safe space". Watch for the lip lick and his ears held back and he actually looks at the screen at one point. Warning - swear word on the TV at the end!

Gryffin coped with screaming, music and motorbike noises on the television. Dogs hear so much better than we do. We were struggling with the volume today - but it is so much harder for dogs. Humans have learned to ignore many household sounds and have got used to them. Take a moment to think how difficult it must be for our dogs with all the environmental noise.

In this last video you will see Gryffin take himself to the door - he wants to leave as it has all become too much to cope with. Look at the shape of his tail as he walks over to the door - about 10 seconds into the video - he has quite a lot of tension in his tail. He then comes to me to seeking help. We decided he had done enough for the day - we don't want these sessions to turn into something negative. 



Gryffin was exhausted at the end and ready for a nice long nap.
We turned off all appliances and let him snooze before he headed back to kennels.



On our next session we will use a sound cd to desensitise him to a number of other noises.
Such a quick learner, well done Gryffin. It is lovely to see his progress.

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