hutch1cor1013
New member
TLDR - Our noise-phobic girl went through the area where she had her traumatic event and would always cause her to get pretty close to/over threshold but today it ended up being a 9 out of 10 outing!
14-month old golden with very specific noise fears and general anxiety. She is fearful of construction and metal-clanging noises, as well as revving muscle bike/car engines due to a traumatic event during her first fear period. She has been on fluoxetine for 4 months, increased to 40mg 3 weeks ago.
Today we needed to take her to the vet, which usually is quite a stressful journey where she encounters multiple triggers. For context, we don’t have a car and have to use public transport to get there.
In the first 10 mins she seemed to get quite stressed, very hesitant to come along. She lagged behind every few feet and stopped for a bit, but would then choose to follow us repeatedly until we got to our station. That was normally the easiest part of this routine so we thought, “Oh no, her sink is full and it’s just downhill from here.”
We got out a new stop that recently reopened and was closer to our vet, which meant that it was unfamiliar but we thought at least we bypassed the usual walk to the vet that was particularly triggering for her because it passed by the location of where she had the traumatic event. So honestly, we didn’t know what to expect.
She did okay. Some stressed body language as some large rattle-y construction trucks went by, but the vet was literally a block away so she stayed well below threshold. So, some hope.
(Vet visit went fine, routine, this wasn’t a trigger for her, it was just the getting there and getting home.)
On the way back we decided to walk to the old stop we used to get out at. Further walk, passes the scene of The Event, lots of traffic, but going that way means we can detour to her favourite park (her usual post-vet treat) before going home.
OMG. It was like a different dog, or a different place or both. She walked right by us close to a proper heel most of the way through. Didn’t clock the noisy cars that we thought she would (they have become triggering to us humans as well at this point!). Lots of check-ins. And it’s like instead of triggers stacking, by the time we left the vet it’s like her sink was empty and starting from 0!
On the way to the park and on the way home, she didn’t rush through any parts she used to pull like mad through. Reacted to only one very loud motorbike but recovered so quickly. Got home and she just went to sleep, like she was pretty pleased with her outing today!
Thought I’d share because when I was lurking around here I really appreciated the success stories, they gave me hope. We really thought we would be stuck or trapped for good by the limitations of her fears and anxieties but the training, behaviour plan and medication have taken us further than we had thought possible. Hang in there! And thank you to this community for the support.
14-month old golden with very specific noise fears and general anxiety. She is fearful of construction and metal-clanging noises, as well as revving muscle bike/car engines due to a traumatic event during her first fear period. She has been on fluoxetine for 4 months, increased to 40mg 3 weeks ago.
Today we needed to take her to the vet, which usually is quite a stressful journey where she encounters multiple triggers. For context, we don’t have a car and have to use public transport to get there.
In the first 10 mins she seemed to get quite stressed, very hesitant to come along. She lagged behind every few feet and stopped for a bit, but would then choose to follow us repeatedly until we got to our station. That was normally the easiest part of this routine so we thought, “Oh no, her sink is full and it’s just downhill from here.”
We got out a new stop that recently reopened and was closer to our vet, which meant that it was unfamiliar but we thought at least we bypassed the usual walk to the vet that was particularly triggering for her because it passed by the location of where she had the traumatic event. So honestly, we didn’t know what to expect.
She did okay. Some stressed body language as some large rattle-y construction trucks went by, but the vet was literally a block away so she stayed well below threshold. So, some hope.
(Vet visit went fine, routine, this wasn’t a trigger for her, it was just the getting there and getting home.)
On the way back we decided to walk to the old stop we used to get out at. Further walk, passes the scene of The Event, lots of traffic, but going that way means we can detour to her favourite park (her usual post-vet treat) before going home.
OMG. It was like a different dog, or a different place or both. She walked right by us close to a proper heel most of the way through. Didn’t clock the noisy cars that we thought she would (they have become triggering to us humans as well at this point!). Lots of check-ins. And it’s like instead of triggers stacking, by the time we left the vet it’s like her sink was empty and starting from 0!
On the way to the park and on the way home, she didn’t rush through any parts she used to pull like mad through. Reacted to only one very loud motorbike but recovered so quickly. Got home and she just went to sleep, like she was pretty pleased with her outing today!
Thought I’d share because when I was lurking around here I really appreciated the success stories, they gave me hope. We really thought we would be stuck or trapped for good by the limitations of her fears and anxieties but the training, behaviour plan and medication have taken us further than we had thought possible. Hang in there! And thank you to this community for the support.