Champagne glass phobia. Random household object desensitisation??

[BettyBotter]

Obviously ddog is a good socialist worker type prole-dog, as she's developed a crippling fear of champagne bottles, glasses and all corked fizzy things (she can tell which are the champagne glasses, but doesn't distinguish between the expensive French Krug or cheap Prosecco - it's all terrifying!). Obviously it must have stemmed from the sound of a cork popping (she's also firework phobic) and it's got to the stage that we only need to get the glasses out of the cupboard or get a champagne bottle out of the fridge and she'll tremble, pant and cower for the rest of the evening. We're not exactly excessive champagne drinkers - honest -but we would like to be able to share a celebration glass every now and then without traumatising poor ddog. It doesn't happen with wine thank fuck

So, my plan:

1. Take out champagne glasses just before her dinner time each afternoon.
2. Use a champagne bottle as a water bottle at meal times so she sees us regularly drinking 'champagne' without pops.

But short of opening a new bottle every night I'm stuck on how to introduce the cork pop in a controlled way.

Any ideas?

Is she too scared to take treats when you get them out?

If not, could you try getting them in and out of the cupboard regularly and simultaneously dropping something delicious on the floor for her to eat? It might help with counter-conditioning if she starts to associate the sight of the glasses with something pleasant happening.

Once she's not reacting to you getting them out, perhaps leave them out in full view, so their presence just becomes normal, but don't do this until she's already happy with you getting them out of the cupboard or you could push her above threshold.

From there I'd start to drink water out of them and get her used to that, before introducing a bottle.

Once she's used to the glasses and ok with you drinking out of them, then would be the time to start work on the next stage and introduce the bottle in a very similar, controlled way.

I think if you try and counter-condition the bottle and glasses at the same time it's likely to be too much. Essentially you need her to do three separate things, 1. break her association between the glasses and champagne/bottle (and the inevitable pop that goes with it) 2. break her association between the bottle itself and the pop and 3. desensitise her to the sound of the pop, so that it's no longer a big deal.

Have a google and see if there are champagne cork pops on any of the dog sound desensitisation cds. If there are, you can start by playing them almost inaudibly and very slowly build up the volume to normal cork-popping levels as she starts to tolerate them.

A quick Google brought up these there are different ones for the uncorking squeak as well as pops and toasts further down the page.

Thanks Moosemama. That's really helpful.

She wont accept treats or eat her dinner when the glasses are out at the moment but I really like your idea of just leaving the glasses out all the time. I'm sure greed will get the better of her

I think your right too about doing the glasses first, then the bottle. I'm still not sure about the pops though. We have a firework desesitisation cd that she is completely relaxed about the pops and bangs on that even on quite high volume. I think a cd just doesn't have the same resonance.

I'm going to follow your programme and let you know how it goes.

Wow - a great sound effects page!! I've been having a little play and ddog is sitting beside me quite happily.

Some of those combined with the sight of the glasses might be our stage 3.

Thanks again Moose.

With the sound effects. If you can, try playing them perhaps on an ipod or similar, close to the place you would usually open a bottle. She may well be suss when the sound only ever comes from your laptop or stereo, so you might need to think outside the box a little. I have heard of people building up to playing fireworks over a loud stereo outside an open window to make it as close to the real thing as they could get.

Good luck.