[Valeartiste]

Hi there!

I’m a new member seeking help with my 1.5 year old rescue, Gracie. She seems to be a greyhound schnauzer mix and has been with us for just over a year. She is a genius of a dog with tricks, but her high energy seems to translate into anxiety.

She will whine excessively after seeing a dog/person theough the window, which we don’t know how to correct. But that isn’t the bigger issue, what I need help with is her meeting new people. She is very friendly and social, and it almost always only takes her a few minutes to warm up to a new guest. But when I decide to take her to a family gathering, it’s different.

Early this year, 5 months after her adoption, I took her to a gathering at my aunts house. My goal was to socialize her and not leave her at home all alone for hours. The problem wasn’t with my family, they hadn’t met Gracie before but she warmed up to all of them quickly and they were considerate of her. But the family of my cousins wife weren’t respectful at all and it caused problems.

They were very loud, laughing and clapping hysterically at times, and I noticed it was making Gracie anxious. She started barking anytime they started laughing, and at one point one of the women was standing and started clapping and Gracie jumped on her. Gracie did not lunge, I was right beside her and saw that she wasn’t being aggressive at all, but more of a helpless gesture.

After seeing how uncomfortable Gracie was, I removed her from the area after the women ignored my plea to quiet down. I decided not to take her to large gatherings after this, but she does well with smaller ones. It’s just that now if there’s any loud sounds like laughing or clapping being made by several people at once, she will get anxious and eventually bark (when I say bark, it’s never a bark at a person, but more in the general direction and she looks around a lot).

I want to take her to the Christmas gathering this year, but I want to do as much as I can to prepare her. Loudness can’t be avoided with such a large group (family of 20-25), so I want to know what else I could do. I’m not really able to desensitize because i don’t have access to a group of strangers to help. I know that exercise could help in calming her before the gathering, but not sure to what extent. What other methods could help? I don’t want to avoid taking her forever.

Finallly, I would just like to clarify that my concern is not for any family friends, but more for Gracie. She is not aggressive at all in her nature, and to me it’s clearly to do with fear of sudden loud noises. I don’t want her fear to escalate and for ignorant guests to think her barking is aggression.

Thank you so much to any advice that could be given! ❤️

Valentina