General Care and Nursing

Conditioning to noise

Conditioning to noise

You walk along the street-pop goes the exhaust as a car goes whizzing by. The puppy shies. He is not only frightened; his eardrums actually bother him. Stoop down reassure him, and if the noise continues put your hands over his ears to deaden the sound. He will undoubtedly have already learned that the world is not the quietest place. We cannot stop the noises but we can introduce the puppy to them gradually. 

Make some sort of racket at home; for instance, just before you feed the dog, rattle his pan unnecessarily. Because he so enjoys his food, he will be less disturbed by the noise that goes with something pleasant. When he has learned to heel fairly well on leash, walk him down a street where traffic is heavy. Have a treat or two in your pocket, and if fire engines roar past, offer him the tidbit then and there. All this noise, he begins to think, is not so bad after all.