Sound Conditioning
Monday, November 26, 2007 at 9:11PM We condition our dogs by playing realistic sound bytes that simulate anything from a roaring thunderstorm, to rain to street noise, to traffic and much more.
Tonight we are concentrating on the sounds of storms. We will change the sounds and vary the level of the sound throughout this process. This way when your puppy hears his first real noisy traffic or a roaring storm, they will be less apt to react to noise as it will be familiar.
Each day, from now until they go to their new homes, they will experience sound conditioning in a place - their xpen next to my desk where they feel secure. At times Wasabi (Havanese mom) may be feeding them, others we will be playing with them and at times they will just be sleeping or playing with the guys. By associating sounds with various 'good memories' we attempt to minimize the startling effect that we all have from a loud sound.
Our oldest golden retreiver was a rescue and a prisoner of her fear till we did slow conditioning with her. No one and nothing should be a prisoner of their fears.
By practicing positive slow conditioning, we hope to eliminate these common fears that occur with loud noises in 'some' dogs.
We fear what we don't know.
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