Why is my dog doing this?

At 12 years old, I’m wondering if perhaps her hearing is getting distorted (that the clearing of your throat, or coughing “resembles” a discipinary sound you might have used in the past??)…or…because of her age…that she’s lost a lot of her hearing, BUT can hear that burst of sound, startling her. If her hearing is bad enough, she might spend the whole day hearing very little…

I wonder if you try desensitizing her to it…like sitting with her, and using your hand to cover you mouth, before you make the noise…(using your hand over your mouth as a “signal” to her, that the noise is coming)…so she can see the noise comes from YOU, and is harmless…but use a leash, so she cannot leave. Then let her know what great girl she is…

My old dog got scared to come onto the back porch…out of the blue…he’d stand at the steps, looking at the light bulb, like he was scared of it. I could NOT figure out why the bulb would be so scary after so many years. I just kept convincing him to follow me in thru the back door…( and he’d scoot thru at 60mph, tail tucked like the roof would cave in)…but after maybe 20 times (a couple times a day)… the fear faded. I found later that he was rapidly loosing his sight, so that may have been the reason for the sudden irrational fear.

Anytime a dog makes a sudden behavioral change, I go to the Vet first…maybe have a complete “old dog” work up done on her, get her eyes and ears checked…and a blood work up.

p