No, I don’t mean you should record the thunder! Record a custom masking noise for your dog who fears thunder, fireworks, or other sudden or low-frequency noises.
In my webinars and articles, I talk about the types of sound masking that work best. From a biophysics standpoint, the best multipurpose masking noises are brown or other random noise, fans, home appliances with motors, and music with a lot of bass and drums. Low frequencies can mask sounds of higher frequencies, but it doesn’t work the other way around (Kinsler et al., 1999, p. 318–320). That’s why I always recommend low frequencies as long as they don’t scare the dog.
Beyond the considerations of physics, we must customize to the individual dog. For instance, taiko drumming recordings are great for masking booms, but because of that, they may trigger your dog. The way to go about it is to think of what is available in your household that your dog is already OK with. You can record these known sounds, especially if they are duration sounds that include low frequencies. Appliances your dog is used to are ideal.
What Did I Record?
As I was scrambling to cope with Lewis’ newly emerging fears, it occurred to me that fan noise and random noise (brown, pink, white, etc.) are homogeneous. They create a hum or a whoosh or a rumble, but no momentary noises stand out. See the bottom waveform in the image at the beginning of this post. When the masking background is homogeneous noise, that means that sudden environmental noises stand out.
I realized that there is a household noise that Lewis is fine with that contains both a background hum/rumble, and occasional more sudden noises. That’s my dryer. See the top waveform in the first image. I’ve recommended in the past the “sports shoes in the dryer” trick (not original to me). I’ve never tried it with Lewis because I suspect it’s too close to his triggers. That could be a perfect solution for some dogs. But a regular load of clothes is perfect for Lewis. He hears it every two or three days without a problem. There is the homogeneous sound of the motor and the cyclical sounds of the drum rotating, and the occasional noise as a heavy piece of clothing makes a thump. In the waveform image above, those varying spikes on the top line represent the thumps and clunks.
My washer is pretty helpful, too. If I know that storms or fireworks are coming, I plan my laundry loads for those times as a bonus to the masking team.
But I can’t do laundry every time the scary noises come, not around here, where we have so many storms. And I don’t want to spend energy on unnecessary use. So now, when we get unexpected thunder, the first thing I do is throw some random clothing items into my dryer and turn it on to the air dry setting. But only for the time it takes to set up my little system. Then I play long recordings I’ve already made of the dryer on my Bluetooth speaker that has a subwoofer.
It still makes me grin, hearing laundry sounds coming from the laundry room when the appliances aren’t on. And now my recordings are part of my plan for any loud noise event.
Making and Playing Your Own Recording
I’m not sharing my own recording for public use, since it will be a foreign sound to every dog who hasn’t lived in my household.
But you can make your own recording of a dryer or other appliance your dog is habituated to.
- Use a smartphone app that can record and export in WAV or AIFF format if possible. But MP3 format is better than nothing.
- Make a 20–30 minute recording when the rest of the house is quiet. If you are recording the dryer, make sure you have a load of various items in there.
- After you’ve saved the file, if you have sound editing software, make the sound fade in so it isn’t sudden when you turn it on. Otherwise, you can always start it quietly with the volume control when you play it.
- Play it back on a good speaker to make sure it doesn’t scare your dog. Start it at a distance and at a low level and gradually turn it up to an appropriate volume. Ideally, he won’t even pay attention to it.
- If your dog is fine with it, set the sound file up on one of your devices so it can loop, or put multiple recordings on a playlist that can autoplay.
When playing the recording, use a speaker that includes low frequencies. Do not play it on your handheld’s internal speaker; they are notoriously bad at putting out low frequencies. Send the sound to a wireless speaker with a good bass. I use an old tablet to play the sound files because I don’t want the devices I use every day attached to the speaker. You can get some unpleasant surprises and scare your dog that way.
Here’s a link to the speaker I have. From the next room, it’s hard for me to tell the difference between the dryer itself and my recordings. And while Lewis probably can tell the difference, the recording doesn’t bother him and is a useful addition to the masking environment.
Sound Comparison
Here’s an auditory demo showing the difference between homogeneous brown noise and the dryer sound with its bumps and clunks. You’ll hear, in sequence: 1) brown noise; 2) my dryer recording; and 3) the two combined. Doubling or tripling up on masking sources is a great idea if your dog is OK with them all (separately and together).
How Much Does Masking Help?
Masking is a management technique. It isn’t perfect, because there are no noises we can generate at home that can mask the loudest thunderclaps and booms of fireworks without being scary themselves. But masking can make the distant booms inaudible and moderate booms blend more into the background. On those lucky days when the storms don’t get close, masking can protect your dog effectively. And on the worse days, it can at least put a dent into the overall exposure.
For directly addressing our dogs’ fear, evidence suggests that medications, ad hoc counterconditioning, and relaxation training are our best tools (Riemer, 2020 & 2023).
Copyright 2025 Eileen Anderson
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References
- Kinsler, L. E., Frey, A. R., Coppens, A. B., & Sanders, J. V. (1999). Fundamentals of Acoustics (4th ed.). Wiley.
- Riemer, S. (2020). Effectiveness of treatments for firework fears in dogs. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 37, 61-70.
- Riemer, S. (2023). Therapy and Prevention of Noise Fears in Dogs—A Review of the Current Evidence for Practitioners. Animals, 13(23), 3664.
