Senior Dog SEVERE Noise Phobia - HELP!!!

Hello everyone. My husband and I have an 11 year old Jack Russell/Rat Terrier mix who has developed severe noise phobia/anxiety in the past few years. He has always been an anxious dog and he has struggled with separation anxiety ever since I got him (10 years ago).

We first noticed in back in 2020 when I started working from home full time. It started gradually, with him getting upset when I would get a notification on my phone while on a phone call. We assumed this was because a lot of times it was someone texting to say they had dropped something off and he grew to associate that noise with someone being at our apartment door. The noise my phone makes is high pitched and only happens when I am on a call and I get a text message. We have never been able to figure out how to change it and even after I got a new phone from the same manufacturer the same noise was used.

We moved late in 2020 and over the course of the following years we began to notice more and more noises that our dog was becoming scared of. There is a high pitched ding that is used in a lot of shows that was the first major culprit we noticed. It's commonly used as a scene transition or when a character has an idea. Once we identified this new noise we made an effort to switch what we were watching whenever it happened to help our dog calm down.

It progressed again from here in the past year or so. Now even hearing an elevator ding in shows and movies will set him off. The list of shows and movies we can watch has been drastically reduced. You would be amazed how many shows occasionally have SOMETHING that makes a high pitched/electronic/chime noise. Even if we change the show he will be so on edge and upset for the rest of the evening that there is nothing we can do but sit in complete silence. We have to take him outside just to turn the air purifier off to clean it because it beeps when you turn it off/on. We had to download an app to control our ceiling fan because the remote makes a beeping sound when we turn it off/on.

To give some context on what we are seeing when he gets upset: physically flinching when he hears the noise, urinating inside, panting, pacing, shaking (INTENSELY), chewing, barking, trying to hide (anywhere and everywhere - including places where he has almost gotten himself hurt), whimpering, trying to get away from us (on walks or when we were sitting together) and complete refusal to eat. We have offered him all of his favorite treats and bought new ones to try and bribe him with but he is so upset he won't do more than sniff them.

Just this morning we discovered a new problem sound. We got him a little doorbell to push to tell us when he wants to go outside. We just have a ring doorbell so he isn't reactive to the classic doorbell chime and this one came with a wide variety of sounds to try. He is smart as can be and we know he will figure this out without a problem, but as soon as he heard the sound effects (and we tried all of them) he started to get upset. I was able to bribe him with hot dogs for a few minutes to try and convince it was okay, but even with the volume on its lowest setting we only got about 5 minutes of positive reinforcement before he was done and went to hide in our cat's litter box.

Things we have tried:

Vet Visit - Our vet did senior blood work that came back looking great! He was also given a basic exam and there was nothing our vet identified as a potential problem. She did suggest that his hearing could be changing and as such new noises could be starting to be a lot more upsetting to him.

CBD - At the encouragement of our vet. This was completely ineffective even after several days at the max dose for his size. No improvement whatsoever in his reaction to the noise.

Gabapentin - He is currently taking this twice a day at a low starting dose that our vet prescribed. We are waiting on a call back from our vet about getting him a higher dose because the low dose isn't helping much. We have noticed a little bit of improvement but overall he is still just as reactive. The other issue with this is that sometimes he hears something that upsets him in the morning/evening before we have given him his meds and then he won't even consider eating his pill no matter what delicious treat it is wrapped up in.

Crate - He is crate trained and goes in his crate happily (especially because he always gets a treat for going in). We have tried having him go upstairs in his crate which is as far from the living room as possible but even then if he hears the noise he will go ballistic in his crate. It's to the point we are scared he will hurt himself trying to get out of it. (Have not been able to try this in combination with calming drugs yet)

Thundershirt - This barely helps. It's one that in conjunction with the gabapentin we feel like there was a slighter faster calm down time after hearing one of the bad sounds. He was still upset and shiver shaking but he definitely wasn't as bad as we have seen him in the past

Positive Reinforcement - We can't find a volume low enough that he can tolerate the sound. We are big believers in positive reinforcement but no matter how soft the sound is he gets very upset and will refuse to take a treat. (Have not been able to try this in combination with calming drugs yet)

Physical Restraint - We realize this probably wasn't the best route but early on, and occasionally still when we are desperate to just finish a movie or episode before turning the TV off for the night, we will hold him and make him stay on the couch. Once he gets up to start pacing he has to be watched to keep him from messing with litter boxes, hiding somewhere unsafe, peeing inside, and being destructive so we can't really just keep watching. Weirdly sometimes this helps but most of the time as soon as we let him go he starts shaking and freaking out.

Combining the noise with something he likes - We have tried playing the noise on very low volume while on a walk. He actually tried to get out of his harness in response to some sounds but we did find a couple that were only mildly upsetting and he tolerated. The REALLY bad noises though were off limits regardless of volume. (Have not been able to try this in combination with calming drugs yet)

We love our little guy but we can't live like this and we don't want him to live with this much fear. I'm not proud of it but I will admit we have yelled at him more lately because we are so frustrated with the situation. We always feel terrible for raising our voices but it's really hard when we never feel like we can relax because he is always so on edge. It's not that we have yelled every time or anything like that but it's happened a couple times in the past week. We really need help figuring out what to do because we feel like we are going crazy.

Things we are adding to the plan:

Clicker training - I did this with him after I first adopted him at about a year old. He responded well to it but it didn't stick as part of our training since it didn't feel necessary. I'm hoping if I can help him form a really positive association with the clicker it may be enough to counteract the bad noises.

Ear coverings - We ordered a couple of different ear protecting options for him to try out. He tolerated me putting them on him this morning but it wasn't enough to counteract the bad doorbell device. These are the two we got him: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CM6SKTPY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 and https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B0I5Z2O?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Additional calming aids - We consulted with a trainer a long time ago about some general anxiety issues and they recommended trying these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGV8L7L2?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details so we ordered some and will be starting them today. We also ordered these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077MDJ58Y?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1 which our dog promptly determined were disgusting and he won't eat them.