Dealing with noise reactivity is really hard. George would react to the tiniest noise at home, every single time. His usual reaction was running to the door barking. Often he would continuously pace and bark. He was constantly on high alert and rarely settled.
Sometimes the barking went on and on and on. Despite my best efforts to distract and try to reward calm, there were some days where nothing seemed to help.
I live in the middle of a small block of townhouses in the city suburbs. There are often neighbours coming and going, children playing, dogs barking etc etc. Reducing George's exposure to noise is really difficult.
I bought a white noise machine and played it constantly. It helped slightly. I tried Calming Music for Dogs (Dog TV not an option for us as George reacts to the dogs on the screen). The calming music was lovely for me but it didn't seem to make a difference to George 😆
The stress of worrying about the impact on the neighbours (particularly with nighttime barking) makes it worse. Neither of us were getting enough rest and we were both worn out and constantly stressed.
I remember one evening in particular where he barked and paced for 4 hours straight. I had to remove myself from the situation for a few minutes. I just sat on my bed and cried. I felt like I was losing my mind.
Not long after, we had a follow-up session with our trainer. I was close to tears in the session and felt really overwhelmed and dejected. Our trainer spoke with the VB and the very same day I received a message of support and an option to try a different situational medication.
George was on three different medications at that point. Two were beneficial for pain as research shows that pain is often a contributing factor with noise sensitivity. We started weaning him off those as there had been no impact.
The new medication (once we got the dosage right) has been so helpful. Although situational, George takes it every day. George is still sensitive to noise and will often still react but now I usually have time to intervene. I have time to use our cue word and redirect his attention to me.
I always have kibble in my pocket and reward calm throughout the day. When he does react, it is less intense and he recovers more quickly.
Although the new situational medication is undoubtedly helpful, there could also have been some positive impacts from the original SSRI medication (which George is still taking) which can take time to show effects.
Another incredibly useful benefit of the new medication was improving George's calmness in the car.
It was like a switch had flipped. One day he was constantly on high alert in the car, frantically looking out for the next trigger, barking and lunging at the windows. The next day, he immediately settled in the car and remained calm throughout the journey.
His reactivity to triggers in the car hasn't reduced but he is not constantly looking for them anymore. If he can't see them, they don't exist 😆 He does still react if he sees triggers (basically anything outside the car) so this is something we need to work on. He tends to sit up and look out of the window if we are stationary for too long. But he does re-settle quickly now after a reaction.
Being calmer in the car meant we stopped arriving everywhere completely over-threshold. We both arrive calm rather than stressed and wrung-out.
Reducing the noise reactivity at home and in the car has made a huge difference to my mental health as well as George's. It has given us the emotional and mental space to work on our challenges.
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