Dog Terrified of Smoke Smell

[suzmax]

Hello!

I'm new to these forums as we just got our truck camper on Saturday. We had a 5th wheel before that and a motorhome before that. Last summer, due to my work (which I have now left), we didn't get a chance to go camping. In December of the year before, we rescued a Boston Terrier who was 3 months old, so he hasn't been camping yet. The owner said he was hard headed. After having him less than a week, we figured out he was deaf. He's the cutest little thing ever (he's the one with his head down and the big ears) and so smart! I've taught him lots of signs.

Anyway, he's terrified of the smell of smoke. I mean, he'll hide in our shower or wherever he can find until the next day no matter what we try. Other than that he's fearless! I did some Googling and found out that it's more common than you would think (among all dogs, not deaf dogs). But since he's deaf, I worry about him when we're camping and the campfire smell. Obviously I won't let him off-leash but has anyone else experienced this? To be on the safe side and to make his life more comfortable, I will be getting tranquilizers from our vet just in case. But I do wish I could get him used to it. I'm thinking hot dogs roasted over the fire might help so he'll relate the smell to something positive, especially since our dogs don't usually get people food. 😉

Here are our 4 rescues:

[USA_Traveler]

A beautiful group of furbabies! I agree with you hot dog theory! Please keep us posted so we know how things are going! Happy Trails (and tails) to you--

[sher9570]

Deb and Ed M wrote:
I agree with the hot dog theory.

My late Aussie was terrified of air compressors and ANY "hissing" air. But he loved to go camping. Part of our camping experience was taking the motorhome to the dragrace track and he liked, that, too (the noisy cars never bothered him).... but guys there are constantly adjusting the air pressure in their tires. Eventually the dog learned that hissing air was part of that camping experience it, and learned to (unhappily) tolerate it. His face would show his complete disgust - but he didn't need to hide/run/pant or do anything he used to do when around compressed air.

Oh boy I thought our big Lab Lucy was the only one afraid of compressed air... She has yet to tolerate it and will hide wherever she can find.

Sher

[suzmax]

campn4walleye wrote:
What a bunch of cutie-patooties!

Luckily for you, your TC door faces the back where you can position it facing the fire (safely away). He can see you and know that everything is okay. Duncan has separation anxiety a bit and is comforted by being able to see us. Hopefully that will help him as well. Possibly, just the smell of the smoke on you will get him used to it. After all, you did say you all sleep together. 🙂

Thanks! Yeah, that might be good. Although if he can see us but can't be with us he has this really loud, high pitched bark...I guess since he can't hear himself he doesn't know his inside voice/bark. Ah yes, very true, although maybe if I smell like smoke he'll sleep somewhere else. As if! 🙂

[suzmax]

dspencer wrote:
I had to comment on your 4 handsome boys! I love the Boston's of course were partial to them. My wife and I have 4 Boston's, we did have 5 but lost our senior just over a month ago and it still hurts like yesterday.

One of the posters above mentioned the thundershirt, I second that one 200%. Our youngest Boston is blind in one eye and he was a rescue from a raided puppy mill. He is deathly afraid of a thunderstorm and trust me he knows it's coming way before we do. I don't know what it is about him but he is better at forecasting a pending storm better than the local weather forecasters. Anyway thanks to the advice of several members of the form we purchased one. Truthfully I was skeptical about them working but when he starts going through his little routine that tells us a storm is coming out comes the thundershirt and he will sleep right through it and won't flinch.

By the way, Thank You for adopting!

Aren't Bostons just the best? The logo of our business, SmileDog Embroidery, is a Boston and it's named after our Digby who is almost always smiling. I guess I might have to give the Thunder Shirt another try. I hate puppy mills! I wonder what it is about puppy mill dogs that they are so afraid of thunder. Maybe their cages are outside and it's just scary. I mentioned to someone else that we had a rescue, Sheldon, who was a puppy mill dog for 8 long years. He was so afraid of thunderstorms, fireworks, loud noises on the TV, TV thunder. The Thunder Shirt just made him more hot and pant more. Poor little guy. 😞 I do see that they work for a lot of people!

[suzmax]

rockhillmanor wrote:
First time I made toast in MH the smoke detector went off and dogs started screaming barking.

Moved toaster to rear of MH.

All it takes is just the 'smell' of toast to reach my one dog she starts that screaming barking. :R

Pavlov's Dogs at it's best.
To her it means:
Smell of toast = smoke detector alarm.
Its' a bell I can't unring inside that one dogs brain. :R

Crazy! You know, the first time it happened with us the smoke detector went off too but he was already headed for the hills. Although our vet said he is 100% deaf I think he can hear really loud noises. My husband thinks it's just the vibration but I disagree. I'm going to get him BAER tested to be sure. He still can't hear much but I wonder if he heard that smoke alarm.

[suzmax]

lasparrot wrote:
you could try starting the desensitizing by using some strongly smoked meat or jerky 😉 Like the other posters have suggested, start small. You want him to succeed at each tiny step.

Oooo...good idea!

[suzmax]

K9Intruder wrote:
Beautiful pack you have. My suggestion is to gradually make a very very small fire before you go camping and do something fun father away from it, so he relates it to something positive. Do that a few days, then slowly get a little closer but keeping it FUN ALWAYS. If you see him get scared, go further away, keeping it fun. DON'T force him...he needs to gain trust in you and when he's close to smoke it'll be fun. You want his camping trip to be just as fun as yours. Always leave off on a positive note with him and the smoke/fire. Is he a rescue? Maybe he was in a house fire. Just go slow. Trust is better than tranquilizers. Best of luck!

By the way, thank you...they think they're beautiful. 🙂 I should also mention that the first time he got scared I was reseasoning some cast iron and it started to smoke and then all heck broke loose! The next time was when some neighbors had a fire in their fire pit. Now if something starts to smoke (it doesn't happen a lot, but...) I start to feed him whatever I'm making so he'll relate the smell to good food.

[suzmax]

K9Intruder wrote:
Beautiful pack you have. My suggestion is to gradually make a very very small fire before you go camping and do something fun father away from it, so he relates it to something positive. Do that a few days, then slowly get a little closer but keeping it FUN ALWAYS. If you see him get scared, go further away, keeping it fun. DON'T force him...he needs to gain trust in you and when he's close to smoke it'll be fun. You want his camping trip to be just as fun as yours. Always leave off on a positive note with him and the smoke/fire. Is he a rescue? Maybe he was in a house fire. Just go slow. Trust is better than tranquilizers. Best of luck!

Well, we live on 10 acres with lots of prairie grass and we are under a fire watch because we've had such a dry winter. And it's super windy here. So we probably can't test out the fire and as a matter of fact when I saw our fire warnings I figured we probably won't be able to have campfires this summer anyway. But hopefully we will in the future and I'd love to help him acclimate. He is a rescue but we got him at 3.5 mos. so he was a puppy. I thought about him being in a fire until I read about how many dogs actually have this fear.

[suzmax]

Deb and Ed M wrote:
I agree with the hot dog theory.

My late Aussie was terrified of air compressors and ANY "hissing" air. But he loved to go camping. Part of our camping experience was taking the motorhome to the dragrace track and he liked, that, too (the noisy cars never bothered him).... but guys there are constantly adjusting the air pressure in their tires. Eventually the dog learned that hissing air was part of that camping experience it, and learned to (unhappily) tolerate it. His face would show his complete disgust - but he didn't need to hide/run/pant or do anything he used to do when around compressed air.

Don't you wish you knew what triggered this stuff? I wish they could tell us.

[suzmax]

Uwharrie wrote:
You might want to try a thunder shirt and lots of positive reinforcement

We rescued a Boston Terrier who was a puppy mill breeder dog for 8 years (bless his heart) and he was terrified of thunder (even TV thunder) and loud noises. We got him a Thunder Shirt and it just made him pant harder! We donated it to a Boston Terrier rescue. But they do have good reviews. I tried to be Stretch's Thunder Shirt when he was so scared from the smoke smell and he didn't want anything to do with me. 🙂

[suzmax]

Go Dogs wrote:
That's a sweet bunch of babies! I think associating a smokey fire with a couple bites of hot dogs, (or other positive reinforcement)should go a long way, in getting him more acclimated. Plus, after the first trip-he'll see how much fun the other dogs are having-and he should learn to love it, bugs, smoke and all!

I sure hope so! He loves doing what the other dogs do for sure.

[campn4walleye]

What a bunch of cutie-patooties!

Luckily for you, your TC door faces the back where you can position it facing the fire (safely away). He can see you and know that everything is okay. Duncan has separation anxiety a bit and is comforted by being able to see us. Hopefully that will help him as well. Possibly, just the smell of the smoke on you will get him used to it. After all, you did say you all sleep together. 🙂

[dspencer]

I had to comment on your 4 handsome boys! I love the Boston's of course were partial to them. My wife and I have 4 Boston's, we did have 5 but lost our senior just over a month ago and it still hurts like yesterday.

One of the posters above mentioned the thundershirt, I second that one 200%. Our youngest Boston is blind in one eye and he was a rescue from a raided puppy mill. He is deathly afraid of a thunderstorm and trust me he knows it's coming way before we do. I don't know what it is about him but he is better at forecasting a pending storm better than the local weather forecasters. Anyway thanks to the advice of several members of the form we purchased one. Truthfully I was skeptical about them working but when he starts going through his little routine that tells us a storm is coming out comes the thundershirt and he will sleep right through it and won't flinch.

By the way, Thank You for adopting!

[rockhillmanor]

First time I made toast in MH the smoke detector went off and dogs started screaming barking.

Moved toaster to rear of MH.

All it takes is just the 'smell' of toast to reach my one dog she starts that screaming barking. :R

Pavlov's Dogs at it's best.
To her it means:
Smell of toast = smoke detector alarm.
Its' a bell I can't unring inside that one dogs brain. :R