A prospective study of two self-help CD based desensitization and counter-conditioning programmes with the use of Dog Appeasing Pheromone for the treatment of firework fears in dogs (Canis familiaris)

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Abstract

The aims of this study were to evaluate the efficacy of two self-help CD based desensitization and counter-conditioning programmes with the use of Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP) for the treatment of firework fears in dogs and to evaluate the training progress and owner compliance. Fifty-four individuals were recruited for an 8-week period of training between August and October 2004. The dogs were separated into two treatment groups, each using a different CD based programme. After implementing the CD programme for the 8-week period without any personalized instruction, two telephone follow-up interviews were completed after periods during which fireworks are commonly used (November and January). Forty-two individuals completed the first 4 weeks of training and 38 completed the 8-week training period. Thirty-six individuals completed the first follow-up interview with 29 completing the second follow-up interview. Assessment of efficacy was measured using both owner reports of its natural response (i.e. the dog's behaviour in the home) and video footage of behaviour in response to a novel recording of the problem sound (i.e. the dog's behaviour in the behaviour clinic) pre- and post-treatment.

The majority of change with respect to the dogs’ response to the CD occurred during the first month of training with no significant change during the second month of training. With respect to real exposures, there was a significant reported improvement at both follow-up interviews in both the total severity scores and the global fear scores. There was significant improvement in the mean severity score of all individual behaviours at the first follow-up with the exception of “vigilance” behaviour. Inappropriate elimination was the only behaviour to be completely resolved by the second follow-up. No difference was found in the video recordings of fear behaviours occurring in response to a novel CD recording pre-treatment versus post-treatment.

Although the CD programmes varied significantly from one another with respect to their format and the details given in their accompanying instruction booklet, there were no differences between total severity scores or global scores at follow-up two between the treatment groups.

Eighty-three percent of owners claimed to have read over 90% of the accompanying instruction booklet for their respective CD but only 48% said that the majority of the instructions were clear. Approximately 90% reported they would consider using a CD based desensitization and counter-conditioning programme again if they were to acquire another dog that was scared of fireworks.

These results suggest that the use of self-help CD based sound desensitization programmes in combination with DAP can produce a satisfactory result for some owners of dogs with fear of fireworks, but compliance may be a problem for a notable proportion of owners.

Introduction

Noise fears and phobias among dogs (Canis familiaris) are a commonly reported behavioural problem (Beaver, 1999, Landsberg et al., 2003, Mills et al., 2003, Overall, 1997, Overall, 2002) with an estimated prevalence of 38% being reported (Voith and Borchelt, 1996). There are many noises of which dogs are fearful; however, the most common appear to be thunder, fireworks, and gunshots (Landsberg et al., 2003, Shull-Selcer and Stagg, 1991, Tuber et al., 1982). Being able to identify the fear eliciting situation is essential for successful treatment; however, the specific sensory channel stimulated by the trigger situation may not always be discernable. For example, thunderstorms consist of several interrelated stimuli to which the dog may be reacting (e.g. changes in barometric pressure, light intensity and ionization, in addition to the noise) and can be extremely difficult to treat as a result because of the inability to replicate these changes in the home environment. By contrast, fear of gunshots or fireworks are perhaps a more useful model for investigating treatment plans focused on the noise stimulus as many of the potential confounding non-sound related stimuli can be more easily controlled and appear less frequently implicated in the problem.

Hothersall and Tuber (1979) provide a detailed account of the use of incremental changes in the volume of recorded sounds to desensitize systematically and counter-condition two dogs in order to treat their noise fears, and since that time, the technique has become central to most treatment schedules for this problem. An abundance of individual case testimonies provide evidence of the widespread success of this method but there have been remarkably few scientific studies which have systematically examined the efficacy of other or related treatment programmes. Crowell-Davis et al. (2003) found that, for storm phobic dogs, a combination of desensitization and counter-conditioning therapy using sound recordings of storms together with medication (alprazolam and clomipramine) helped improve the reported behaviour of dogs during storms. However, there was no consistent evidence of improvement based on video recordings of the dogs’ behaviour in response to the CD recordings in the veterinary hospital pre- and post-treatment. This suggests that the response to the recording in the clinic environment may not reflect the perceived response in the home environment to the real event where the behavioural modification programme has been undertaken. Sheppard and Mills (2003) suggested that Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP, Ceva Santé Animale) was also useful in reducing firework-noise-related fear behaviours, even without the use of systematic desensitization and counter-conditioning, as long as the owners ignored the dog's fearful behaviour. A retrospective study which examined the effect of various treatment plans with dogs who had firework fears (Mills et al., 2003) found that the combination of DAP and a CD recording based programme (Fear of Fireworks, http://www.Fearoffireworks.com) provided a stronger therapeutic result than either the recording or DAP alone. The authors also found that owners who used medication (acepromazine, diazepam) to help in the management of the problem were less compliant with certain aspects of the behaviour modification programme and tended to report no improvement in their dog's behaviour as a result of treatment. Such medication is only available on prescription from a veterinarian and the results of this latter study emphasize the importance of behaviour therapy in the management of these cases. It should be noted that acepromazine is a sedative and not an anxiolytic and that diazepam is most efficacious as an anxiolytic when administered prior to the noise event. Desensitization and counter-conditioning can be time intensive, laborious and confusing for inexperienced individuals. Theoretically, the desensitization and counter-conditioning programmes should be applied in a structured manner to maximize the chances of success and avoid exacerbating the fear through inadvertent noise sensitization. Whilst there are behaviour specialists to help design individual treatment programmes for their clients, there are also a range of commercially available tape and CD based self-help programmes advertised for the treatment of noise fears in dogs. These recordings vary in sound quality, structure, and content, together with the instructions provided. For example, Fear of Fireworks (http://www.Fearoffireworks.com) is based on a live recording of fireworks, whilst Sounds Scary (Sounds Scary Ltd.) is a more formally structured programme based on sound segments and sequences. To date, there have been no systematic studies of the efficacy of these self-help desensitization and counter-conditioning programmes, nor the problems that might arise. Therefore the aims of this study were, firstly to evaluate the efficacy of two self-help CD based behaviour programmes for the treatment of firework noise fears and secondly, given the lack of personalized instruction, it was of interest to examine training progress and owner compliance and interpretation of the instructions provided with these programmes in a self-help package. Efficacy would be assessed using both owner reports of the dog's behaviour to live events while the dog was in the home and video footage of the dog's response to a segment of a firework CD in the behaviour clinic pre- and post-treatment. The latter allows a more objective determination of whether, in the case of firework fears, the behaviour of the dogs in the clinic in response to a CD recording corresponded with their reported behaviour in response to the live event at home. The efficacy of the two CD programmes would then be compared using the owner reports as, ultimately, it is the owner's impression of improvement that will dictate if a treatment is deemed useful.

Section snippets

Participants and animals

Participants were recruited via notices at local veterinary clinics and a press release to the local media. The dates of the study were August through October 2004. Telephone interviews with potential participants were completed to ensure they met the following inclusion criteria: the dog was at least 6 months old, displayed fear responses identifiable to fireworks, displayed the fear responses in the home, had not generalized the fear such that the fear eliciting cues were too numerous to be

Population characteristics

Forty-two individuals completed the first 4 weeks of training. Of these, 17 of the recruited dogs were mixed breeds and 25 were pure breeds. The breeds represented included Collies (6), Retrievers (4), Terriers (4), German Shepherds (3), Cocker spaniels (2), Greyhound (1), Miniature Schnauzers (1), Shit-zus (1), St. Bernards (1), Staffordshire bull terriers (1), and a Whippet (1). There was no gender (χ2 = 0.382, d.f. = 1, p > 0.05), age (χ2 = 0.008, d.f. = 1, p > 0.05), or pedigree status (i.e. pure breed

Efficacy of CDs to real exposures

These results describe the potential value of using sound recordings of fireworks with the use of DAP as a treatment plan for dogs with firework fears. Behaviours that occurred most commonly (i.e. >70% of the dogs) to real fireworks included hiding, cowering, pacing, panting, seeking the owner, shaking, vigilance, and having an exaggerated response when startled. This is similar to findings in an earlier study using owner reported information regarding fear behaviours exhibited by dogs exposed

Conclusions

Self-help desensitization and counter-conditioning programmes for firework fears in combination with the use of DAP appear to be a potentially effective way of reducing owner reported fear-related behaviours in dogs, but compliance may be expected to be poor. If owners apply the treatment for 60 days an overall reduction of approximately 60% in the number of signs exhibited may be expected on average but this depends on the specific signs being shown. Most signs, even if they are not

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank both the Fear of Fireworks and Sounds Scary companies for providing the CD programmes free of charge. The authors would also like to than CEVA for providing the Dog Appeasing Pheromone free of charge.

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This paper is part of the special issue entitled “Veterinary Behavioural Medicine” guest edited by Daniel Mills and Gary Landsberg.

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