First and foremost, many dog owners are not recognizing the stress they are causing their dogs who are repeatedly exposed to what are to us, common household noises. While most of us understand that things like backfiring cars or fireworks are anxiety triggers for dogs, we often overlook more common and daily occurrences like beeping smoke detectors, the sound of the microwave, the baseline sound emitted by the Alexa home assistant, or other smart appliances like thermostats and security devices. While we might think the vacuum cleaner is driving our dogs nuts, truth be told, that's less stressful than the nice, new thermostat you bought for the sake of energy efficiency. And if your neighbors are using ultrasonic frequency devices to control or deter pests in their yard, or to deter your barking dog, they are actually making the situation must worse.
High frequency, intermittent noises are more likely to cause anxiety and stress than lower frequency, continuous noise; so a beeping smoke detector causes more stress than your vacuum cleaner. While dog owners in the study were able to recognize their dog leaving the room or avoiding contact as a sign of discomfort, they actually missed a lot of the other cues that their dogs were stressed. Behavioral signs such as being very clingy, lip licking, looking away, tail tucking, and panting actually got missed. While most dog owners knew that a dog was stressed when they tremble, shake, or howl, many missed the more subtle, but nonetheless significant, signs of anxiety.
In the recent study, researchers found that high frequency, intermittent sounds (think smoke detector beeping) resulted in dogs showing intense signs of fear and anxiety like trembling and shaking. Conversely, low frequency constant sounds (think vacuum cleaner) resulted in behaviors associated with agitation, reactivity, and even aggression. There are certainly dogs who display fear in the form of lip licking and tail tucking with sounds like vacuum cleaning, but these behaviors are even more prevalent with the high frequency intermittent sounds.
Dogs who are stressed have both physiological and behavioral responses to their fear. When those sounds are high frequency and intermittent, for example from the pest deterrent devices or anti-bark devices, a dog processes those sounds as being unpredictable and outside their control, thus creating undue stress. This is also why a baby crying can be very distressing to a dog. That's a high frequency sound that they can't control and they hope we can! Because dogs naturally have better hearing than us, particularly in the 1000-8000 Hz range, this means they will be more sensitive to these types of sounds than humans are in general, and even more so if the dog's owner is an older person with hearing deficits associated with the aging process.
The bottom line is this: All dog owners need to better understand dog body language so as not to misinterpret that clingy behavior, for example, as something cute or happy, but rather as a sign of stress and anxiety. Eliminating pest deterrent devices, not using anti-bark devices, being aware of the low battery in a smoke detector, and continuing to use fewer "smart home" devices means less baseline anxiety and stress for dogs in those homes period. And if your neighbor is using pest deterrent devices on wild animals in their yard, or against your barking dog, have a frank conversation with your neighbor. There are better ways to discourage pests AND you can correct your dog's barking yourself (I've blogged solutions for barking many times here!), no need for those high frequency devices. Those high frequency devices are causing both physical and psychological distress and that's something we can get better at controlling and managing.
As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.
Westley is noise-sensitive, particularly to sounds like garbage trucks and buses. He has no problem with fireworks, interestingly enough. He is definitely sensitive to the smoke detector beeps, as are my other collies. Always important to know your own dog, watch for the signs, and find ways to relieve the stress they feel, and the potential pain to their more sensitive ears.
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