Noise phobia: The phobic response and how it differs from noise aversion

Noise phobia is a common issue in pets—especially in dogs—Christopher Pachel, DVM, DACVB, CABC explained in an interview with dvm360 where he talked about his lecture “Canine Noise Phobia and the Anxiety Patient.” In the interview, Pachel differentiated between noise aversion and noise phobia and provided an example of a phobic response in a canine patient with noise phobia. He also offered examples of noises that may induce a phobic response in dogs, such as fireworks and gunshots. In today’s digital era, animals may also have a phobic response to noises like cell phone tones and other noises from digital devices, explained Pachel.

To hear more from Pachel, including information about the other lectures that he presented at the Fetch dvm360 conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey this fall, click here.

Below is the interview transcript:

Christopher Pachel, DVM, DACVB, CABC: Noise phobia is something that we see as a really common problem and in a lot of different species. Where it tends to show up, at least clinically for us in the behavior world, usually in dogs plus or minus in cats.

But noise phobia is essentially an exaggerated emotional response to noises. And noises— the ones that we often see—are things like fireworks, gunshots, often loud, sudden, unexpected noises or, as we sort of have moved into more of the digital age as well, it's not uncommon to see some of those noise phobic responses to things like high pitched beeps, whether that's tones from a cell phone or the beep of the microwave or the low battery indicator of a smoke alarm, for example—these are all things that can elicit a really powerful response for the animal that's affected.

And whereas a normal sort of noise aversion or a lower-level fear response might show up as an animal who notices a particular noise and then seeks to avoid it, when we're dealing with a phobic response, we're typically seeing an intensity of the response that's so out of proportion to the actual stimulus itself. So for example, one of my patients who responded negatively to things like doors slamming or other again, loud, sudden noises, rather than sort of just startling or reacting and then recovering within a couple of seconds, this was a dog who, when hearing the sound of a door slam, bolted, jumped through a closed second story window and ran for almost 6 miles in one direction before exhaustion essentially stopped her in her tracks, right?

It's such an exaggerated, dangerous response because of that sheer panic that takes over that animal. And we see anywhere from those sort of lower-level fear responses all the way up to really debilitating phobias in those patients who are affected by noise phobia.