# What to do when your dog is scared and shaking?



## pandakins (Dec 9, 2009)

I suspect Crea has some anxiety issues due to her past. (We adopted her from the pound, and I suspect she was abused in some way).

She hates loud noises, especially high pitched noises. If the smoke detector is low on batteries and is beeping every few minutes, she'll dart out of the room and shake quite a bit and show signs of extreme nervousness.

I never know what to do when she gets nervous. I call her up into my lap and embrace her, pet her and talk to her in a calming voice. I try to play with her to get her mind off of it but she doesn't want to play until she's calmed down.

Am I doing it right, or are there other calming techniques that I can use to help her relax when she gets nervous? Thanks!


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## Tavi (May 21, 2010)

Oooh so many variations...hehe Dia is my pride and joy of an example in terms of dealing with scared dogs. Honestly...I feel bad sometimes for Buddy not getting used. Hehe Anyway I have a couple of ways I deal with fears...one is exposure to said fear. Most dogs don't like certain loud noises or high pitched ones that may hurt their ears, things like that I don't worry about too much unless my dog is actually going to injure itself through its fear of the noise. But for more normal things like scared of a door bell, I believe in exposure to the sound or effect in low steady doses. I know some people do the cuddling up while this is going on, I sometimes do that, but often I won't handle Dia when she's scared. Since she'll go completely shutdown I don't want her to associate my touch with her fear, I just stay near by and as her fear passes she'll come up to me and cuddle. Thats when I give her love and attention and treats and such. I find over time she gets more use to things and comes out of the shocked state easier. But of course this is a long term project. Dia was raised on the streets and I find that some of the most normal things in life can freak her out. She use to absolutely freak out when the timer on the oven went off...now she comes running...Food! LoL


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

I find I acknowledge the fear, but I try not to feed it. When Tag first attempted the teeter, he did so cautiously. I was spotting him on one side. The goal was to back-chain the whole mess (we started with a contact, then moved up to walking up 2 steps, turning around and walking back down, etc). Before I knew what was happening, he barreled up the teeter and hit the fulcrum, making the thing move quickly under his feet and make a loud SLAM noise right under him. He did a fly off and was hesitant to try again. I didn't pick him up and cuddle him, telling him he was OK, nor did I tell him to get over it and force him up...it was more or less trying to let him know that I knew he was afraid, but that teeter thing wasn't a huge deal and we could over come it. (Hot Dogs Conquer ) The teeter is really the only time I can ever remember Tag acting like he was fearful of a "thing".


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