Could he have an ear infection and certain frequiencies are painful?

Elizabeth beat me to it. It wouldn't hurt to have a vet look him over.

Recent vet visit gave him a clean bill of health. They had no answer either :-)

If there is some volume at whch he doesn’t panic you could try desensitization. Have the phone on its lowest volume, arrange for someone to text you, and give him yummy treats when there is a text. If low volume is still too much for him you might have to also be a distance from the phone to make it even quieter for him. As he gets used to the sound being associated with something positive (treats) you can very gradually increase the volume during the training sessions. This is not a quick fix - it takes patience.

Did Chewy get the idea that you care a lot about that sound, and it's his job to make sure you are alert to it? But why would he change behavior in just the last 8 months ...? Very strange.

I wonder if he is associating the sound with something unpleasant. Has there been an incident where something he didn't like happened at the same time a text alert message sounded? It might be something you would shrug off but that was a big deal to him.

I once tapped one of our dogs on the butt with a fly swatter I had in my hand when I wanted her to move out of the way, and from that day on, she had a dislike of the fly swatter when it had never bothered her before.

Could it be your reaction to the sound that's giving him anxiety? I'm thinking of the "olden days" when a doorbell would send a dog frantic. Not necessarily the sound causing it, but the actions/reactions of the human. IE: jumping up and running to the door.

Dawn, that makes a lot of sense, although I can't for the life of me imagine what the 'bad' association might be. As to my reaction to the phone and its sounds, there really isn't any. I am not one that is anatomically connected to their phone and I generally don't pay it any immediate attention. I don't even answer right away unless it is a family member calling but let most incoming call go to voice mail.

I may have to try the desensitizing to see if that helps. He is pretty treat motivated :-)

Good luck figuring it out. Their little brains can be a mystery to the humans especially since they can't talk to us. I'm sure whatever it is makes perfect sense to Chewy. :-)

How old is the dog? I an thinking as dogs get older their hearing changes and though it may not be as good as a pup's hearing, certain sound frequencies can be magnified and the pitch painful.

I also was thinking that something happened when that sound went off. I read a quote one time about dogs that has fit. "Once, always, and forever." IE, good or bad if they associate something, they never forget. Example, after their morning walk, they get breakfast, ect.

Maybe you could use the sound and give him a special treat. Ours will do anything for poached chicken.

"As to my reaction to the phone and its sounds, there really isn't any. I am not one that is anatomically connected to their phone and I generally don't pay it any immediate attention. I don't even answer right away unless it is a family member calling but let most incoming call go to voice mail."

That might be exactly what the problem is. My first reaction to your post was that he is alerting to the sound, he thinks you don't hear it, so he is letting you know it is ringing. Your comment quoted above seems to indicate exactly that. He's decided to be your hearing service dog.

Rusty

The only thing I can think of is that this behavior started at about the same time (I think, as best as I remember) that my extended family on a joint messaging connection started a discussion that involved dozens of texts over a short period of time. Maybe it was just auditory overload!! And I don't think he is trying to alert me.....his normal alert activity is to sit close by and stare at me. No pawing or panting or restlessly pacing about. This is obviously stressing him.

Did you have a bad reaction to the extended family discussion such as being sad or angry. Your poor baby may be associating the sound with your emotional level at that time. Beyond that it is probably the tone hurting the ears. If it is the first reassurance that human parents are fine may be in order. Second get used to it.

My dog has become afraid of weird things as he has gotten older. The tongs are the worst although that has improved because you can serve a treat with tongs.

I just have generic tones on my phone right now. For a while, I had it set up to where everyone had their own ringtone and message tone. My dog figured out which tones meant we needed to go pick up the kids which means a car ride. He would get excited when we would get them at certain times of day. He has an internal clock where he knows when certain things are to happen each day.

I wonder if you could retrain your dog to like the tones by doing something he likes.

Generally speaking, the text tones are decidedly different (and much shorter) than a ring tone. Are there any ring tones, or sounds, that Chewy does like? If so, you could try assigning one of those tones as the text alert tone.

I agree that your pup has been traumatized in some way. It seems it is now hardwired in which seems to happen with dogs fairly easily.

Unfortunately it has to be tackled with a greater degree of intensity than he demonstrates. The prevailing thought is that it takes at least 5 good experiences to offset one bad one for humans. Animal trainers use this as a base number.

I think you have to try the desensitizing thing with the best treats toys love and distance. I would clicker train him for short periods of time one to several times daily time permitting. Make sure it's positive and stress free. Show him how to react to the noises with your training.

Rinse and repeat as there will be setbacks. It's built in to living beings it seems to go back to that tried and true shtick. Our brains like the easy beaten down paths more than the new path.

One person I know used recorded human voices for a sensitive dog who always jumped and whined at phones ringing. It worked. She gradually reintroduced the ringing and the dog accepted it with clicker training and some treats.

One more thing. A thunder coat works well for some dogs for any kind of noise fears etc.

The actual ring tones don't bother him at all. It is just the text alerts. And I seldom participate in the family group texting - it is all mostly silliness and doesn't require my response so I ignore it. Not sure how that - other than the number and frequency of the texts - could be the source. And it happens very infrequently as well.

Just now there was a very faint one from the TV - I barely heard it, but he did!!

Seriously, I have spent a lot of time myself trying to figure it out and rectify but so far, nothing! I might have to do some downloading.....if I can find a frog croaking alert tone, that should work!! We have lots of frogs around and their noise doesn't bother him at all :-) Or crickets!

It is really hard to figure what is going through their little brain cell. Ours seems so smart most of the time and then............

That's hilarious, adellabedella!

The frogs or crickets is a good idea, gardengal. Definitely worth a try.

While I would still get her ears checked (just to be sure that she doesn’t have something in her inner ear going on), but I have to say that Dawn might be spot on.

Once when she only a couple of years old, our lab was desparate to play in the water and apparently chewed on a spray hose at the day care. They must have scolded her because anytime she hears the phrase, “what did you do” she freaks out. She also has gas a lot and if we’d jokingly ask her if she farted or call her a stinky girl she’d freak as well. You may not ever know what the trigger was, but something she relates to that noise happened.

To help get her past it, I would say those things to her while I’m playing and cuddling with her so she’d see nothing terrible comes from it. She also used to be very fearful of the noises different plastic wraps can make. To get her past that, I started having her watch me hold them and carry them around, then I’d invite her to come smell it and check it out. After a few times of doing that, I started to subtly introduce the noise while I was holding it and then I’d have her come smell it again. It almost became a game with her, but eventually, she wasn’t fearful anymore.

My dog howls at the answering machine. DH is actually in the living room - the machine kicks on in the kitchen and he hears his voice ... he runs in the kitchen and howls ! Maybe your dog , just like my dog - is confused ! lol and that is my unofficial opinion :)

Have you tried using a short music clip instead of one of the tones? I would try that.

Currently my phone ringtone is the song Despacito. My little dog loves that song, as do I lol. She literally starts dancing around looking at me. She doesn't do that with any other song clips. Their ears are so sensitive they are probably hearing something we can't hear.

Agree with Raven. A simple fix might be to change the alert tone. Something in the frequency range of the current one seems to be causing the dog discomfort.

Their hearing is sensitive considering they hear a silent, to us, dog whistle.

I appreciate everyone's input but it is still unexplained why this started to happen out of the blue after many years of hearing the same text alert tones. Ears are clear and uninfected, whistling doesn't bother him, squeaky toys don't bother him and the phone ringing doesn't bother him. And after a few minutes with no text noises, he is right as rain

I am upgrading my phone this week so will load some different tones on the new one....hopefully something froggy :-) And if that doesn't work, will start on some desensitization. He will do anything for chicken jerky!!

I aleays use “crickets” for texting. But I can’t figure out how to change FB messenger or eBay alerts.