How do you calm a hyperventilating dog?

Jake had a bad episode last night. Just after I wnet to bed I heard the dreaded chipr one of our smoke detector batteris. I rant o see where jake was. since he totally freaks out over the sound. Well luckily I forgot to shut hte dog door and found him pacing outside in the pouring rain.

Got the battery changed, He came to bed with with me, all 100# soaking wet, and he he layed there for an hour hyperventilating, could barely breathe.

I there anything I can do when this happens to help him calm down? I though for sure he was goung to have a heart attack his heart was racing so bad

 

I actually hold them on my lap and pet the belly and scratch near the tail. My dogs settle down in just moments with this.

 

Hi Honeybears,
So the hyperventilating was purely down to the alarm beeping?

Are there other things that trigger it?

Theres a couple of things that come to mind that should help, the body temperature can increase pretty rapidly when they hyperventilate, him being out in the rain may have helped him a little. Usally cooling them down with a wet sponge and putting a fan on them helps, you need to stay calm yourself because if your upset or panicking its not going to help him, keep talking to him in a calm voice...reassure him, pet him. Dont let him pace, try and get him in a place he normally feels safe/secure in, maybe his own bed or a room he likes to be in with the door shut (takes away the option of 'escape', while theyre frantically looking to get away from somewhere the fear wont go away).

If you really think he may actually have a heart attack through this (it can happen) then maybe talk to your vet and see if there is something they can script you out for emergencies, valium is pretty good for it as long as there are no medical conditions that prevent him from using it.

Ive dealt with a lot of dogs in the hospitals that react the same as your describing because of their fear of vets/hospitals/strangers/car rides to get there, with most of them usually taking them into an exam room, door closed and I just sit there for 10 or 15 minutes talking to them, then some of them have been so bad that the owner has to give them a sedative before they bring them to the hospital.

There is another option, have you thought about (or maybe youve already tried it before) desensitization training/conditioning? If you havent tried it but want to give it a go, check with your vet first if he/she thinks it would be okay, its easy for me to suggest it and it is what I would do personally (Im in the process of desensitizing my own dog right now, she was terrified of everything when I first got and its slow but we are making progress).

Hope that helped a bit.

 

I am bummed, I posted a long message and it didnt take.

so Jakes is not afraid of anything else. no noises like thunder, fireworks, etc. its only the pitch of the beep on the smoke detector. this first happened 2 years ago. I thought Jake was going to jump thru the window. but he wasnt hayperventilating like he was last night. We replaced all batteies in the detectors. dont knwo why this one decided to fail.

I tried calming him by petting him soft voice, etc. he could not settle. I will remember the cold compress technique. And should ask the vet for a sedative if this every happens again. hopefully not. I think it would kill him if we were around to fix it.

 

If its only a rare occurence issue have you tried just putting his leash on and taking him for a walk for 10 minutes if possible. Just take him as soon as you see him react, the walk should help calm him, take his mind off it by removing him from the 'source'.


Just a thought.

 

thats a good idea about walk something I wasnt thinking about when I am sound asleep not thinking too clearly, and this is the third time its happened, always in the middle of the night :x :x. The first time it happened my husband was out of town, its 2 am I get the ladder out, cant get the detector apart, I had to turn of the stereo LOUD and lock Jake in the room so he wouldnt here it. next morning I was able to get thebattery out, the darned thing was still chirping :x . I had to break it to get it off the ceiling and then take it far away from the house.

 

Reminds me of that episode of "Friends" when Phoebe couldn't get the smoke alarm to quit chirping. :lol: She took it apart too.

 

I hate smoke alarms!!! They scare me. I've always hated that chirping sound. Especially when the battery is going low.