Anxiety and stress?

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Hoping someone can share some advice or words of hope.

I have a 4yo golden retriever who is extremely scared of noises. We think it links to her hearing fireworks at a young age alone sadly. We've worked with many behaviourists and managed noises well so far. She has had similar issues but always bounced back. As not to drip feed, she won't often go for a poo at home, she will go for a wee but not a poo. She won't go in the garden as a child kicked a ball at the fence and it scared her so we have to go out the front.

Around December she completely changed. Refused to go on walks, shaking etc. So we met with a new behaviourist who said stop walks for 2 weeks, let her reset and we started doing training classes with her at her farm. She is completely happy there, normal confident self. We started walks again, with very little success. She would go to the toilet and then bolt back to the car. We have always stuck to more rural walks as she doesn't like cars, issue is there can be shooting, crow scarers etc. Behaviourist has suggested we try new places where she has never been scared but even then it's like the anticipation of hearing a scary noise frightens her.

Has anyone tried prescription tablets for stress/anxiety, we have tried vet pro and she currently has nutracalm but life is becoming very hard to manage. Hoping to hear some success stories!

Didn't want you to have no responses
My dog is an anxious girl who isn't nearly as bad but can be randomly freaked by even a known noise.
No idea why suddenly the curtains being closed can cause her to run away .
It's quite exhausting for her
She weirdly loves fireworks and even blanked cannons going off one day .
We also use the avoid for a few days then reintroduce any sounds .
I wouldn't discount medications esp as you have taken advice and worked through the advice .
Anything that might work is worth a go .
Good luck

I spent many years managing a noise reactive dog just like this, so you have my full sympathy on this.

My girl was prescribed Trazadone by the vets, initially for major situations like fireworks and eventually as a daily top-up to try to keep her calmer generally as her reactivity was to more than just noise.
It worked well to begin with, though I found that as time went on she actually became more stressed after taking it - almost as though she knew when the drowsy feeling came over her that something scary was going to happen (sorry, not what you want to hear, I know but it could work like a charm for your pup, they're all so different🤞)

We ended up switching to Nutracalm and just giving considerably more than the recommended dose mixed into a big bowl of tuna and smeared all over a lickimat during fiteworks to give her something else to focus her mind on (she was only a little Chinese Crested so not too expensive to do compared to your goldie)
That seemed to help as it didn't make her as drowsy and she was still in full control of herself.
For out and about I used to mix the nutracalm into a tube of primula squeezed out of it's original tube into a reusable one and reward with that every time a scary noise occurred. Not foolproof but much easier to counter-condition a calm dog than a terrified one.

I'm sure you're already comforting her when she hears a scary noise outside but go crazy praising her, rain down treats and fuss and all the good things. I eventually managed to walk my pup in a field where bird scarers occasionally went off with minimal reaction from her by making a total fool of myself celebrating every time one went off and ensuring that it became a precursor to aaaaaall the treats instead of just being an isolated scary noise followed by nothing but fear.

I know there's a gel that you can rub into their gums which comes highly recommended by alot of people with noise reactive dogs, although the name currently escapes me someone else may well be able to name it for you. Failing that I'm sure the vet would know.
Not sure it would be much good for day to day management though as we used a similar, stronger version when my girl was pts and she was totally out of it with no clue which way was up after a dose of that.

One last thought - have you tried confidence building games? Places like Absolute Dogs offer some reasonably priced online video courses with targeted games for certain issues so you may find some helpful info/courses on there.

Apologies for the essay, just wanted to pack as much info in as possible😅

Thank you both for the replies.

We do loads of games at home to build confidence and she does a pet gun dog class which she enjoys and she's actually really good at it just seems to be when she's outside she's a different dog 😢 I am tempted to try her without nutracalm for a few days and see if we notice a difference in how she is. The biggest issue we have now is that she just anticipates the noise more than anything, we get out of the car and some days she's just frantic pulling on her lead and trying to get back to the car before she has even heard anything.

We've had to drive round 4 different places tonight to get her to poo, she finally did a tiny one in the last place but she hadn't been for 24 hours which I worry is bad for her!

I'll have a look at the gel! Never heard of that.

Thank you

Hello, I came across your thread and it’s almost as though you wrote it about my dog. I had my dog since a pup, did all
the socialisation, we went to steam shows, to various cities, in multi story car parks, lifts, shops, all sorts, obviously inc countryside too as I love rurally. However, she just developed an anxiety of life, seemed to be exacerbated by an unfortunate firework when we were walking (not even firework night) and worsened by the crow scarers all year. In fact it worsened in Feb this year, similar to when you wrote your post. She used to be the most outgoing happy dog. Now she does the same as your dog, fearful before anything has even happened. I’ve tried Nutricalmand they do not make any difference at all. The vets once prescribed Trazadone but their dosage knocked her for six and it doesn’t work long term without behavioural work. I’m considering a vet behaviourist but the charge is £650 which of course I am happy to pay if I had confidence that they’re actually going to do anything different and that it’s going to be effective training/ approach. They won’t even speak to me to answer my queries, it’s simply “get a vet referral and pay the fee”.
I wondered if you’d had any success since your post. It’s very challenging for dog and owner to live life like this and I’m so saddened by my dogs mental decline. I’ve been to two vets for pain assessment and both dismiss me without seeming to take me seriously or bother to investigate the dog. I tried a dog physiotherapist too which was a waste of time and money unfortunately.

Ps the gel is called Sileo. But it’s not for every day use, I was told by the vet as it’s a form of tranquilliser.