MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- It is not unusual for pets, especially dogs, to react badly to loud noises such as thunder, fireworks or, say, the sound of military ordnance detonating during Marine Corps training half a mile away. But military working dogs, capable of staying focused in the uproar a firefight, are a testament to the fact that animals’ reactions can be conditioned.
Cpl. Ryan Miller, military police officer and dog handler with the Quantico Provost Marshal’s Office’s K9 Unit, said his unit retrains its dogs’ response to noise by exposing them to the sound of gunfire at progressively closer ranges. “You habituate them until it’s not an issue,” he said.
Rick Gallaway, owner of Sassafras K-9 Training and Boarding Facility in Stafford, agreed that the most important element of reconditioning a dog’s reaction to loud sounds is to expose it to more noise.
“Whatever I’m exposed to, if it doesn’t harm me, I stop being afraid of it,” Gallaway said. “Dog owners have to expose their dogs to the elements of the environment in which they live.”
He said there is even a noticeable difference between dogs raised in apartments, which are taken out for walks on the street, and those that get their exercise in the relatively sheltered world of a suburban backyard.
In addition to taking the animal out for walks, he suggested websites or CDs with recordings of thunder and fireworks, many of which are created for the purpose of conditioning dogs.
Miller said he begins gunfire training for a new canine recruit with a pistol full of blanks at 500 yards. When the dog shows no reaction, it’s given a treat, and he works his way closer until the animal reacts. That ends the training for the day. Playing with the dog or otherwise distracting it while the noise is taking place also helps, he said.
Until the dog becomes accustomed to the noise, gunfire training is carried out at least three times a week.
“You’ve got to be persistent with your training,” Miller said, noting that the length of time it takes to train the reaction out of a dog depends in part on the animal’s personality and partly on how often it’s exposed to noise.
Gallaway said anyone trying to condition a dog’s response also must be careful not to inadvertently reward the wrong behavior. Comforting the dog by petting it, praising it or giving it food while it’s overreacting can send the wrong message.
“The dog understands that the behavior he’s doing is what he’s being praised for,” he said. “When you get the response you want, that’s when he gets the reward.”
He said the various vests and other garments that are supposed to comfort a dog during noisy events fail to address a dog’s fear response to noise, only mitigating its effects.
Once a dog has lost its fear of gunfire, Miller said, the training has to be sustained by continued exposure. At least five times a month, dogs in the K9 Unit get their basic obedience training at the ranges, while live-fire training is taking place. “It’s just so the dog knows we’ve got a task to do and there’s a lot of noise going on, but it’s OK,” he said.
Miller said the key to reaching the point where the dog is no longer afraid of the noise is to start with relatively low volumes and slowly work up to louder sounds. “Have patience,” he said. “Don’t get frustrated with the dog.”
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com