Sensory overload
How do you help a dog who suffers from sensory overload? It’s tough. I guess if you don’t suffer from it yourself then it makes it very hard to understand. For both humans and dogs who don’t suffer it is easy to just think it’s about socialisation and training. If it were then getting them used to it little by little would help them to overcome the problem. But when a dog suffers from ADHD it isn’t like that at all. It’s the same as when a human has ADHD or autism. There is nothing you can do to get them to overcome the impact of sensory overload.
For humans, they might sometimes where noise cancelling headphones to block out some of the sound. They might spend lots of time outdoors in quiet places and away from busy places or cities. But all those are about avoidance, not about ceasing to have the problem.
The same for dogs
It’s just the same for dogs. I’ve been talking it though with Pebbles. Sometimes her overload is a slow build up and sometimes she may hit it very quickly. Unfortunately, when she does reach that level, she simply has a meltdown. She absolutely stops being able to cope.
Mum says that she gets a little older, while the problem won’t go away, she may learn some coping strategies. It’s hard, because it does mean there are some things she will never be able to do. I was telling her about when I went by train to central London some years ago. Pebbles just started at me open mouthed when I told her what it was like. She could never face anything like that. Mind you, she’d never sit still for the couple of hour train journey, so she wouldn’t even get as far as London!
Poor Pebbles. I just wish I could help her.
Love and licks
Wilma
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