Dickens and the smoke alarm

Mignarda

Mignarda

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Last night the smoke alarm went off when I took some low-carb biscuits out of the oven. Dickens's reaction was completely out-of-character. Usually when he encounters something that makes him afraid he'll identify it and then approach it very cautiously to investigate. Once he's satisfied that it's nothing harmful he accepts it. This was different, though, and I think it was because he couldn't identify the source of the noise. The alarm gave at least three or four distinct beeps before I could get to it and turn it off, and these must have been acutely painful to him. He ran out of the kitchen and tried to climb up onto Mama's lap; failing that he headed for the door with his head low and his ears pinned to his head.

Badly as I felt for him, I didn't want to make him think that it was some big deal. I maintained my equanimity and called him back into the kitchen, where I tried to give him a very nice treat, which he absolutely refused, and tried to duck back toward the door to be let out.

Mama thought it was funny, but I didn't agree. Dickens has a pretty even-tempered disposition, and I didn't want anything to happen that would destroy his self-confidence. So I took the smoke detector off the ceiling, showed it to him, and made it beep just one time. Then I held it out to him and let him approach it and examine it, to show him that in spite of the hellacious noise it was nothing that was going to hurt him.

Even with that, it took him a good hour before he returned to his normal self. For that hour he laid down beside me and actually allowed me to stroke his head and ears, which is generally something he hates! Today he's back to his normal self, but for that brief period of time it was really touch-and-go.
 
Hi. I know these alarms are necessary but here in Quebec they have to be connected in new building to the electrical circuit of the house. My Miko is not afraid of thunder storm but every time the power flash, the alarm bip and he run in the basement to hide. Poor little guy, I tried everything to help him restore his self-confidence but he shake like a leaf for an hour. I hate the alarm :gaahL. Sorry if my English is not the best but I’m French J
Michel and Miko
 
frustrating story, Lily was 7 weeks old, with her littermates in my family room in the puppy pen. Smoke alarm went off down the other end of the house..its an ear piercing constant beep...My other adult dogs hate that thing with a vengeance, so it was complete chaos. She literally shut down. Right in front of me she became that dog that is afraid of loud unsuspecting noises...That moment devastated both of us. It took me working with her for months and months she still isnt perfect but she is better...I dont think she will ever be where she was before that. I had the smoke alarm unplugged until my father decided he would plug it back in. needless to say it went off within days again...she went outside and hid, but within minutes I had her back..thank god...
 
I can see I'm not the only one who has had this problem! I'm not too sure what to do, apart from maybe taking a smoke alarm outside and exposing him to the noise in a place where it won't bother him so much. I't seems to me that it's not only the unexpected noise, but that it must be very painful to the poor dog's inner ears as well.

I'd get rid of the smoke alarms except that if I did I'd be depriving myself of something that might save everyone's life if there were an actual fire!
 
They startle the heck out of us humans and we KNOW what that is. I can't imagine there are many dogs that wouldn't react. Remaining calm and possibly equating it with something good is the key. The fact that he ran to mama isn't a bad thing. If there were a fire you would find him fast because he would find you!
 
Smoke detector makes my Forrest go unhinged. If he were outside & heard it I'm sure he'd jump the fence & run. Poor guy won't walk through the kitchen when the oven is on, he is terrified of it for some reason-maybe because it's old & makes a lot of creaking sounds as it warms up?

He's so sound sensitive the first time he met my BIL who talks really loudly & can sound angry even when he's laughing, he jumped the baby gate into the cat room & tried to hide in a rubbermaid tote :cry:

I try to unhook the smoke detector when I know I'm cooking something on high heat or smoky just to keep Forrest from heart failure.
 
We have an alarm system and our smoke detector in the kitchen is wired into the alarm. I was cooking bacon one night -- quite a while ago -- and the smoke detector went off and we couldn't get it to stop. It turned out it had malfunctioned and they had to replace it, but it kept beeping for an hour or more.

I was standing out on our deck, holding Callie in my arms (in about 40 degree weather), and she was just shaking as we could hear it even outside. I was seriously debating putting her in the car and driving around to get away from the noise when they finally figured out how to shut it off until a replacement unit could be installed.

To this day (and it's probably been a year or so), as soon as I cook bacon she runs to the basement and hides. I assume she's associating the smell with that awful noise, and even though it hasn't gone off again, she's absolutely terrified.
 
That is Spitfire every day :lol: Either he is the toughest thing on the planet or scary things! It helps when Sca is there though.
 
Ok - I'll admit it. I have started this comment at least 4 times and I deleted each one of them. They were deleted because I understand what is being written here, and I understand that each of you intends to do the very best for your dogs. Each of my prior attempts (when I reread them before hitting "send") sounded like I was being critical - which is not my intent. But, some topics and the resulting conversations me me go - - :gaah.
Disclaimer: I have spent over 4 decades charged with the responsibilities of safeguarding the health/safety of employees and if possible mechanical systems. As such, I am flabbergasted at the suggestion that anyone would deactivate, remove or otherwise disable a safety warning device in an effort to eliminate the source of noise that is distressing a companion (I am not referring to resetting the noisy device - I am talking about deactivating, removing or disabling a device even temporarily). I will concede that eliminating the dog's distress is of paramount importance, I just do not include tampering with safety devices as a viable means to achieve the goal.

The problem (IMO) is the original intent may be to replace the device immediately, but not only may that not actually happen, the unit could be damaged during the reinstall or improperly reinstalled (believe me, it happens). It strikes me as somewhat incongruent that some of the same folks who trumpet never doing certain things in order to keep pups safe (never wearing collars/tags in situations due to strangulation potentials - always leashing when you open an exterior door, etc.), are probably some of the same folks advocating defeating a device that would potentially save that dog's life.

Like I said, topics like this one make me go :gaah.
 
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