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My dog and fire and burglar Alarm sounds - how to deal with this?

asked 2017-06-08 07:25:29 -0500

There are times when we will leave Shadow home alone. We see how hyper she gets when the smoke alarm goes off and we have to rush to turn it off. What happens if this happens (or the burglar Alarm goes off) when we are not there?

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answered 2017-10-24 16:32:27 -0500

It's hard to predict what will happen if you're not there to stop it right away. She may be so scared that she just finds a place to hide until it stops or you come home. Or, she could react in the opposite way and get so anxious she destroys the house. Does she show anxious behavior to any other triggers? If so, she may just have underlying anxiety and a low dog of anxiety meds may be a great option to help her cope. You don't want to constantly medicate if there's only one thing that sets her off, but it's a great aid if she's generally anxious. If she's destructive, you may want to keep her in a crate every time you leave, just in case. That could be soothing to her to have a confined, comfortable place to be when something stressful is going on. You certainly don't want to punish her for being reactive to an alarm, because she should be, to some extent. Alarms indicate danger and she should get a little upset by the thought of your home being in danger. I think this is a "wait and see" kind of situation. It's hard to "treat" something that hasn't happened yet.

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