Advice please

[Flowery57]

We have a lovely border terrier who is 10 years old. A few months ago he became very anxious when rugby was on TV, so much so that I had to sit upstairs with him. He has now become anxious when football is on! My husband loves watching sport, but does not shout or get over excited so we are struggling to know what is wrong or how to manage it. Has anyone else experienced this with their dog? We have tried cuddling him and giving him reassurance.

No idea, but I heard reassuring them when they are anxious is just reinforcing that (so they'll do it again more often )

To be honest though, I think he's doing you a favour, I mean who wants to watch the football 😂 I'd rather be in another room just the dog and me 😂

Is it the shouting from the fans? Or something like that?

you could maybe try muting it and putting subtitles on instead?

but yeah tbh, I’d just go elsewhere with him when it’s due on and stay there till it’s done tbh 😂

Please do continue to reassure him when he's scared. You're doing the right thing.
Being scared is a feeling that he can't help having, not a behaviour that you can just ignore or train away. You cannot reinforce it or encourage it by comforting him.

PPs suggestion of muting with subtitles would be a good starting point to see if it helps.
You want to change his feelings towards the sport being on tv so it's a lengthy process but counter conditioning would be the way forward. Amazing things need to happen when sport is on.
So you start with very short bursts (5-10 seconds to start) of it on tv at a very low volume, and for the whole time it's on rapidfire high value treats into his mouth. Switch the sport off, the treats stop. Rinse and repeat.
You gradually increase the length of time/ volume, only moving on a stage if the dog is totally happy and showing no signs of fear.
Eventually he should begin to associate tv sports with great things rather than scary ones.

I hope I've explained that well enough, someone else may be able to give a better explanation in a bit.

My 6 year old border collie hates sport on tv, especially football, he barks continuously. We put a lead on him and this helps for a while, he won’t come upstairs with me. He’s not too bad with just my DH, but when my DC are also watching, he goes mad. Their hearing is so much stronger than ours and I don’t think he can take it all in, the fans, commentators and my family all making noise at the same time. I’ve used calming treats from Nutripaw and they do calm him down.

Dogs are very sensitive and will be able to pick up on subtle changes in your OH behaviour (maybe even things like scent/sweat) that you might not notice.
My dog gets anxious when my OH watches his team play and takes himself off upstairs to bed. But any other random match is fine and he feels able to stay downstairs.
Perhaps just encourage him out of the room or out for a walk before the match starts to try and break the cycle of anxiety.

Thanks everyone for your support and advice. Our dog was our daughter’s dog. Sadly she passed away after struggling with anxiety and depression so he came to us after a difficult time so I am probably hyper worried about him and he is very precious.
It was good to hear that we are not alone! I will definitely try the calming treats and de-sensitising. I don’t like sport so happy to sit upstairs with him but thought we should try to sort it.

Thank you again x