Treating a noise phobia requires reducing a dog's fear. Punishment is both inhumane and ineffective. There are a number of different approaches for the treatment of noise phobia; unfortunately, none of them are consistently or completely effective. Treatment approaches include behavior modification, environmental controls, training aids, and drug therapy.
Behavior modification techniques use learning principles to teach the dog to stop being afraid of the phobic sounds. Desensitization and counter-conditioning are techniques that expose the dog to very low levels of the fear-evoking sound on a slowly increasing scale of intensity. The dog is rewarded when it does not react fearfully. Because treatment of thunder phobia with these techniques alone is rarely, if ever, successful, desensitization and counter-conditioning usually are used in conjunction with other methods of treatment.
Head halters, such as the Gentle Leader or the Snoot Loop, in combination with obedience commands such as "down-stay," may limit pacing and help reduce fear in some dogs. It may be possible to teach dogs with mild to moderate noise phobias to associate play with the fear-evoking sound by engaging the animal in a favorite type of play each time the noise is heard.
There are a variety of methods that try to "insulate" the dog from the sound. Providing a crate that is covered with a heavy blanket and placed in a room that is away from windows is especially helpful for noise-phobic dogs that attempt to hide. Playing a recording of music that contains deep, percussive tones may mask the fear-evoking sound. Some dogs can actually be taught, using desensitization techniques, to wear earplugs.
Drug therapy almost always is included in the treatment of dogs with moderate to severe fears. Medication by itself, however, is much less effective than medication that is used in combination with behavioral training and environmental changes. A variety of drugs within several different classes have been prescribed. For mild to moderately fearful dogs, anti-anxiety drugs, such as alprazolam, marketed as Xanax, and buspirone, marketed as Buspar, and antidepressants such as amitriptyline, marketed as Elavil, have been relied upon the most. Major tranquilizers, such as acetylpromazine, marketed as Acepromazine, often are required to treat severe noise phobias. Recently, melatonin was reported to be effective in the treatment of one case of noise phobia. The decision to use drugs should be made on the advice of a veterinarian.
