According to a new study, dogs who get spooked by loud noises may be afraid of more than just thunder.
An article in Psychology Today called this condition as “Spooky Dog Syndrome,” in reference to a Finnish study that found that dogs who suffer from noise sensitivity also tended to be fearful of other situations that don’t involve noises — and they may display separation anxiety or aggressive behaviors as a result.
The Research
Researchers from the University of Helsinki’s Department of Veterinary Biosciences and Research Programs gathered data on 3,284 dogs of 192 breeds by administering a questionnaire to dog owners about their dogs. Some of the questions asked them about their dogs’ typical reactions to loud noises like fireworks, thunder, gunshots, leaf blowers and sirens. The team also asked owners to comment on the dogs’ fearfulness or aggressiveness toward unfamiliar people, dogs and in new situations, along with if their dogs had separation anxiety.
According to Psychology Today, the investigators reviewed the owners’ responses and divided the dogs into two groups: “fearful” and “not fearful.” The “Fearful” group was comprised of dogs whose owners reported that they showed fear toward unfamiliar people/places/situations/dogs 40 percent of the time or more. The “Not Fearful” group was comprised of dogs whose owners reported that they showed fear responses less frequently than 40 percent of the time.
The Results
It turned out that the dogs in the “Fearful” group displayed a significantly higher sensitivity to noise, as well as symptoms of separation anxiety, than those dogs in the “Not Fearful” group.
“Fearful personality may predispose to specific anxieties such as noise sensitivity or separation anxiety,” the researchers explain in their study.
The dogs in the “Fearful” group also turned out to be more aggressive than the dogs in the “Not Fearful” group, according to the study. Psychology Today reported that the noise-sensitive dogs had a tendency toward displaying aggressive behaviors when confronted with unfamiliar people and other dogs, but not with their owners. Researchers said that they believed it was the dog’s overall fearfulness that triggered the aggressive behavior.
“So is there something that we can define as a Spooky Dog Syndrome? Well it certainly appears to be the case that if a dog is afraid of one particular stimulus, such as a loud sound, that seems to be a good predictor that the dog will be afraid of lots of different sounds, as well as unfamiliar places, people, and animals,” Stanley Coren, Ph.D, writes in Psychology Today.
“These dogs will also suffer from separation anxiety and have a higher likelihood of becoming fear biters.”
You can read the full study in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior.
