Need Advice On An Odd New Behaviour

[Little Gifts]

There is a big tree in between my sister and my bedroom windows. Along my other big window is a big vine. Doves love to hang out in both. As it is now warmer weather our windows are open and I am being woken by dove coos at ugly o'clock every morning. I am not a morning person so it drives me a bit crazy.

About three weeks ago I got woken by a dove love in. I got out of bed and whacked the fly screen with my little pillow to make the doves fly away and collapsed back in to bed. For some reason Stussy (my sbt) thought she was in trouble and got very worked up. The next day it was the same thing when the doves started (even though I didn't do anything about it). She was panting and shaking and crawling all over me (and the other dogs) trying to appease me like she had done something wrong. This continued for almost two weeks and she stopped even sleeping with me at night. Some mornings we would get up and do breakfast and go back to bed for a sleep in and it would be even worse and she would be moving between my room and my sister's room doing her panting and scrambling routine, upsetting both the other dogs. We both tried to reassure her she wasn't in trouble for anything and tried cuddles and yawning at her (which usually works if she is over excited) without success. She wouldn't even let me do her morning massage and once out of bed was clingy but wouldn't engage for quite some time.

I thought in more detail about how to deal with this and thought it was linked to us going back to bed for a sleep in. So I lay in bed (but fully awake) and I massaged her and cuddled her and talked to her in a high pitched voice giving her lots of praise. It took about 20 minutes but she settled. That night she returned to my bed and has stayed there ever since. The mornings since then I did the cuddles and massages and praise routine (even though she wasn't acting stressed) and I thought I had resolved the problem and she was no longer scared of sleeping in my bed, particularly in the mornings. NOPE!

This morning she was at it with a vengeance - running between both our rooms shaking and panting and jumping on and off of us and crawling over us, licking our faces and just not being able to stay still. I realised there was a dove carrying on outside my window. I'm now thinking it is the dove sound that is triggering her panic 'in case' I get upset at it. I was able to calm her down quicker than previously but what do I do if she has developed such a response to a bird sound? I can cut back the vine from my window but I'd have to get tree loppers in to remove the other tree and it serves a bit of a light barrier for our bedrooms so we'd prefer to keep it. Can I desensitise Stussy to the sound somehow? I haven't reacted to the sound or even gone near that window for weeks so I'm not sure how I am reinforcing it.

And for what it's worth Stussy has been a very naughty dog over the years but rarely gets in actual trouble because I never catch her in the act and some of it is my fault for leaving known temptation in her way. So the number of times she has actually been in 'you'd better kiss my butt because I am furious with you' trouble is miniscule. She is 8 years old. She is usually very fond of a lie in with her mum and good at sharing bed space with me and the other dogs.

[Rebanne]

I've done this in the past with great success. At dusk go outside and hose the tree/vine making the birds fly away. After only a few days the birds find somewhere else to roost and don't come back.

[Salukifan]

This morning she was at it with a vengeance - running between both our rooms shaking and panting and jumping on and off of us and crawling over us, licking our faces and just not being able to stay still. I realised there was a dove carrying on outside my window. I'm now thinking it is the dove sound that is triggering her panic 'in case' I get upset at it. I was able to calm her down quicker than previously but what do I do if she has developed such a response to a bird sound?

Counter condition it. No more pillows at the window.

Reward the sound - pats, treats, anything.

[Rascalmyshadow]

Sounds very similar to a situation with my oldest dog, years ago my kids were fighting over something, I raised my voice and stormed through the house but didn't look down and accidentally kicked a dog bowl into the cupboard door causing it to crash and break, also didn't realise my boy was following behind me.

From that day my bombproof dog became noise phobic, it's been around 4-4 1/2 years and he is still worried by certain sounds.

[Little Gifts]

This morning she was at it with a vengeance - running between both our rooms shaking and panting and jumping on and off of us and crawling over us, licking our faces and just not being able to stay still. I realised there was a dove carrying on outside my window. I'm now thinking it is the dove sound that is triggering her panic 'in case' I get upset at it. I was able to calm her down quicker than previously but what do I do if she has developed such a response to a bird sound?

Counter condition it. No more pillows at the window.

Reward the sound - pats, treats, anything.

Just to clarify - I haven't done the pillow at the window thing since the initial incident as I realised by her response that I'd scared her. I've totally ignored any doves that might be partying outside either window.

Since we have been using lots of cuddles and praise when she gets upset we will definately need to up the ante and add yum yum food. I think the hardest part is going to be being awake enough to respond appropriately when we hear the doves and she gets scared. Instead of staying half asleep and hoping it all goes away I am going to have to slap myself around and get focussed.

Stussy has always been pretty bomb proof so I do want to shift this fear. I once owned an sbt who was terrified of everything and I hated what he went through. That I accidentally caused it in Stussy makes me feel horrible.

Rebanne, I will also be trying the hosing idea!!!!!

Fecking doves.......

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I guess this is not the same, but my dog gets extremely excited when I get the fly swat out to go fly hunting. She loves to help.

I can swat near her and she never thinks I mean she's done something wrong. I think if I let her have the fly swat she'd kill it tho. Sometimes she finishes off the flies I bring down. Yuck.

I think if I'd done this - my dog would blame the doves and try to herd them out the tree. She certainly feels that way about felines in the yard (and I have encouraged that).

I think if evil hound was overly scared of something that was predictable - I'd get maybe a frozen kong of food or a bit of roo jerky or bob a lot, and get her working on that while the scary thing was going on. When there's fireworks - I tend to act nonchalant and just pat her but she's not a quivering mess.

I do know if she is really stressed - she won't eat anything and then I've got some work to do. But if she's taking food and I can get her to work for it, she's not thinking about the lawnmower man or the cat fight or the freight train or the garbage truck or postie or kids going to school...

I'd be hosing the tree but I might shut the dog inside while I do it so she doesn't get excited or upset by the hose.

Good luck with the dove relocation project. If you find the three sticks they make their nest out of and dislocate the nest they will probably pick a different tree to nest in. Best to get it before eggs.

[corvus]

You can find most bird calls in mp3 form on the internet if you know the species. You can use the recordings to counter-condition so you don't have to be ready for the birds to make a sound themselves.

Seriously, I would consider teaching this dog a safety behaviour or spot. Sometimes dogs get themselves so worked up with appeasement attempts that they make it worse for themselves. The best thing you can do for them is give them somewhere to be away from you that is safe and rewarding. Giving them directions and a job to do can satisfy their desperate need to connect with you without putting them so close to you that they just get themselves more frantic and aroused. If she is so easily tipped over the edge, I expect you will find this comes in handy more than this once.

[Little Gifts]

She did it a bit this morning again and didn't sleep with me last night. She'd already been up and had breakfast. My sister was sleeping in and I could hear Stussy panting and noticed her climbing all over her. Since I was up I called Stussy and we went into the lounge room and a one on one play with toys to try and use up some of that nervous energy. She was focussed on what I was doing. I did try chicken first but as she had just eaten her breakfast she wasn't interested. Then we went under the house and sorted stuff. She doesn't get under there much so was quickly distracted by doing something different and all the interesting smells. I kept calling to her and she would come back for a scratch and then run off again. Just me and her.

Corvus I will have to ponder the safety behaviour/spot idea more as we have tried something similar before but it was an epic fail. She simply wouldn't stay in her quiet spot when the action was going on elsewhere (she has a tendency to get over excited by a couple of things and we've trained her to come out of the situation and sit but no success getting her to stay put in say another room). I can see we have at least two problems happening - the dove noise is the trigger to her expecting I might have a tantie and her fear that I might have a tantie is causing the over the top appeasement attempts.