Noise Phobias and Medication

Some helpful guidance

Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash

My parents’ last Golden was so terrified of fireworks that they had commercial plexiglass professionally installed on the door that led to their garage. For whatever reason, Amber had decided that the car was her safe place. She had a bed in a cavelike closet off of the master bedroom and crates/beds throughout their home, but somewhere along the line, she had developed a connection to the car and when those booms started rattling the windows, there was nowhere she wanted be more than the backseat of my dad’s car.  

The plexiglass was installed after my parents arrived home from errands and discovered that she had nearly clawed through the door to the garage. Apparently, something sounding like fireworks (it actually wasn’t even fireworks season) had erupted while they were gone and poor Amber had been in abject terror. This is a gigantic, heavy duty, solid core door and she had clawed so vigorously that the innards were visible.

Amber has been at the Rainbow Bridge for many years now, but that plexiglass is still on the back door, a reminder of how noise phobias can drive a dog to do the unimaginable in a quest to feel safe (fortunately their current Golden doesn’t share the same terror).