beeping smoke alarm

[balkis]

Hi Mike,

I was wondering what I could do to help Stitch --- not too long ago the battery in one of our smoke alarms was going bad so it kept beeping intermittently. I'm not sure how long this was going on because it was early in the AM and I was just getting up. Once up, I took down the alarm and pulled the battery out. Well, it took Stitch close to 2 hours to feel comfortable being in the house again.

When I first got up and saw him he was waiting by the door trembling, I gave him a few words of encouragement and let him outside. However, he never came back in. Instead he chose to sit outside the door in the garage. I felt so bad for the poor boy. I wanted him to come back in (to see it was ok) so since it was feeding time, I called him in to eat. Even though he came back in and ate his meal, his tail stayed between his legs. (Please note, I never forced him).

At this point, the only other thing I thought of was "working him". So I made him do some "sits", some "downs" and a couple of "high fives" (with lots of praise and treats) and this seemed to make him feel better.

My concern is, the alarm could beep at any time and if it happens when I'm at work it could be the whole day he has to hear this. That would be terrible for him! Poor boy.....

I'm wondering if there is a way to help him. Any advice?

PS - it doesn't bother my other two dogs AT ALL.

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

Well, I would say there are two things that you can do off the top of my head.

From a training point of view you can do lots of work desensitizing him to the noise by muffling the sound and pairing it with treats for very short sessions on a daily basis then slowly muffle the sound less or do the drill with the alarm outside and an increased distance, then slowly move the alarm closer.

Or, from a management point of view you can try to figure to the best of your knowledge how long the batteries last in the alarm and change them much before you guestimate they will run low. You can also remove the batteries when they are home by themself if no human is going to be relying on the alarm anyway (as long as you have a good system to remember to put the batteries back in).

You can also do a search for alternative alarms that might use a different sound or warning that communicates a low battery.

Those are my immediate brainstorms at least...

Here's one alternative:

http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b42/lisamorris922/emails/firealarm.jpg

[balkis]

Hey Mike, well after considerable thought I think I'm going to pass on the "Jiffy Pop" idea - much too messy during a fire (God forbid) --- LOL.

I think I'll try the desensitization with Stitch - not as messy.

Thanks