Possible high pitch noise from neighbours.

[Flamingos]

We have a beautiful 7 years old male German shepherd who normally loves spending time in the garden, until 3 days ago when I opened the back door, threw his ball and after running out he came back in straight away. He now refuses to go out, if we take him, he starts shaking in fear and he looks terrified. I have no idea of what could have happened. He is never scared of anything! The only thing I can think about is that our neighbours (who we don't get on with ) could have put a pet repellent in the garden emitting high pitch noises. I know he hates them as we had issues a couple of times in the park when people where using dog whistles. Is there any way I can detect it? Is it legal? I am so upset for him. It is boiling and he is hiding by my feet upstairs. He is a good dog, doesn't bark often or unnecessary. Any suggestion is welcome!

Sadly, they are legal, but it may not be that - could he have been hurt or spooked by something in the garden?

Thank you for your reply. I have thought about it, but I can’t think of anything that could have caused it. He is not easily scared, he is very dominant and doesn’t hesitate to protect the garden from unwanted visitors ( including a big fight with a fox a few months back). He is not a nervous dog, I have honestly never seen him like this, even tonight while we were all sitting outside he sat in the living room by himself.

There might be an app you could get that would pick up high frequency noises? No idea if its a thing though!

Bat detector? I think they detect high sounds.

If it's a standard cat scarier thing you might find children can hear it, the frequency is only just above the top end of normal human hearing range for most of them.

I can hear cat scarers... they’re awful, but yep legal

They're legal, sadly.

They may have installed something labelled as repelling cats / foxes / rats / mice etc without realising the effects on dogs, children and other domestic pets.

They can be intermittent too, and motion activated, especially cat scarers.

Do you have any DC who can hear it?