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My dog hates the TV!

GilbyGilbertGilbyGilbert
in Bull Terrier Training & Obedience
Hi there! I'm sure some of you have dealt with this... But our 1.5 yr old bullie Gilbert is SUPER sensitive to the TV (the sounds/pictures, everything). Every single time the TV goes on, he lunges towards it and gets his "aggressive" growl out and gets in serious defense mode..starts running from one end of room to the other. I'm not sure at all why this started happening since when he was a puppy up until 9 months old, he typically would be totally fine with TV on. In fact, we used to leave him to go to dinner and keep the TV on as background noise and he was always ok. In the past few months, we've tried to stay mindful of his anxiety towards the TV on a daily basis but it hasn't been getting any easier. We remove him from the room, give him time to relax in his crate to re-set, and even work on desensitizing. We've tried rewarding with treats once he calms down and relaxes for .5 seconds but nothing seems to really stick. Every day feels like its starting from scratch again. It's very upsetting to see and also gets very frustrating :(

Anyone out here experience this? Please tell me it gets easier....
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Comments

  • philsergeantphilsergeant Palm City, Florida, USA
    No, never! I never had a Bullie who gives a crap about the TV, but let a deer waltz by in the dead of night 120 yards away and step on a leaf, they go berserk! ... Actually some "surround sound" effects on the TV make them think something is going on outside... But TV can be as loud and obnoxious as possible, and they just snooze.
    In the beginning God created English Bull Terriers, in the image of EBT's, God created all other breeds.
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  • DjammyDjammy
    edited May 2016
    I have also experienced Djamila getting upset from some contents on TV, especially when they involve animal movement or noises.
    But your case sounds pretty special.

    I think this is definitely something for a trainer to take a look at on site or at a video to evaluate the situation and give you advice. There will probably be no one-day solution, but I guess there still IS a way to get this under control.
    It's stressful for both you and your dog. So trying to work on it and not just excluding him during TV time is a great step on your site.
    So sad that I could not be more helpful. Really an odd problem.
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  • GilbyGilbertGilbyGilbert
    Thank you, appreciate the feedback! Yes, it's definitely very strange... so we're going to meet with a trainer soon to see what he/she says. We've tried lots of things and nothing seems to work. Poor thing gets so upset.. and we just don't know why. His hyper sensitivity to sounds/TV's just seems to be getting worse and worse...

    Thank you for the kind words!  
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