<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eileenanddogs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Zani-looking-up-framed.jpeg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>Ad hoc counterconditioning sounds dead easy. Every time your dog\u2019s trigger happens in the environment, give them a fabulous treat or play with them with a favorite toy. If the trigger lasts a few seconds, feed them or play with them for at least that duration.<\/p>\n
This kind of counterconditioning is different from the combination of desensitization and counterconditioning (DS\/CC) most of us are more familiar with. With ad hoc counterconditioning, the desensitization part is missing. There are no carefully planned, graduated exposures starting with a low-level stimulus.<\/p>\n
What it has in common with DS\/CC is that the dog is not required to perform a behavior. It\u2019s a stimulus-stimulus pairing. First stimulus is the noise they hear, second stimulus is the food we give them. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
It may sound easy. But like many things in training, there are details that can greatly influence how effective ad hoc counterconditioning is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When and Why Do We Use Ad Hoc Counterconditioning?<\/h2>\n\n![\"Text](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eileenanddogs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Ad-hoc-counterconditioning-final.png?resize=819%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWe use ad hoc counterconditioning when we can\u2019t control the environment enough to set up a series of graduated exposures. Sometimes it\u2019s because we can\u2019t recreate the stimulus with high enough fidelity. Sometimes we can\u2019t come up with a non-scary version that we can start with. And sometimes it\u2019s because the stimulus happens on its own too often and we can\u2019t prevent the dog from perceiving it.<\/p>\n
Although ad hoc counterconditioning can apply to many kinds of stimuli, it\u2019s commonly used with sounds. Environmental sounds are unpredictable and they are often difficult or impossible to block<\/a>. So for the rest of this piece, I\u2019ll refer to sounds as the triggers.<\/p>\nRecent evidence supports the use of ad hoc counterconditioning for sound. Dr. Stephanie Riemer, whose research centers around dogs with fears of fireworks, found in a review paper that the most effective interventions for fireworks phobias were ad hoc counterconditioning, anxiolytics (medication), and relaxation training<\/strong> (Riemer, 2020). Ad hoc counterconditioning was said to help by 71% of Dr. Riemer\u2019s survey respondents. Dr. Zazie Todd of Companion Animal Psychology<\/a> has some great articles describing Dr. Riemer\u2019s studies. I\u2019ve linked them in the References and Resources section below. Many of us have found success with ad hoc counterconditioning. I didn\u2019t know its name then, but I did it with my dog Summer, who was sound reactive to thunderstorms. It helped.<\/a><\/p>\nUse the Best Food<\/h2>\nAs with all counterconditioning, we want to use the highest value food possible. This is because the conditioned emotional response to the trigger can only get as strong as the reaction to the food. But how to be ready with good food all the time? Many sounds can come without warning.\u00a0Most of us don\u2019t have a way to keep broiled salmon or Gorgonzola cheese on our person all day every day. We are limited to less perishable, less messy foods we can carry in our pockets or cache around the house.\u00a0For many dogs,\u00a0this excludes their favorite ultra-high-value foods.<\/p>\n
Some options of foods dogs enjoy that can usually remain at room temperature for a few days are:<\/p>\n
\n- Dehydrated lamb or beef lung<\/li>\n
- Freeze-dried raw foods (these will eventually mold if kept at room temperature)<\/li>\n
- Some oven-baked dry dog foods<\/li>\n
- Commercial baked treats<\/li>\n
- Some home-baked treats without meat<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
If the sound is infrequent and you have a large dog, you\u2019ll get their attention with one of those single-portion cat food containers you can rip the foil off of. But this is not practical for most situations.<\/p>\n
Ideally, you always use the special food, although it\u2019s easy to get caught up short at some point.\u00a0I\u2019ve been doing this on and off for years, and there are still times when one of my dog\u2019s trigger sounds happens and I don\u2019t have the special food. So I give him whatever I have.<\/p>\n
Create Caches<\/h2>\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eileenanddogs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Ceramic-treat-jar-wild.jpeg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Clara\u2019s treat jar<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nOK, you\u2019ve decided on your \u201cnoise treat\u201d food. To be ready for those unexpected sounds, it\u2019s best to have caches of the food available all over your house. Use containers that are unbreakable, have a snug lid, but are easy to open. Put them out of your dogs\u2019 reach. Be sure you have them everywhere your dog might hear the sound, including, if possible, the back yard if you have one.<\/p>\n
Even with something that seems this easy, it\u2019s great to practice your mechanics. With your dogs out of the room, practice walking to the container, opening it, and giving a treat to an invisible dog. Do this a few times in each of your setups. You want to make sure the placement of the container is OK, you can open it smoothly, and you can get there from different parts of the room.<\/p>\n
Practice this way because you aren\u2019t going to practice with your dog. The whole point is that this food appears for them only when there is a scary sound!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also, place the containers around your house during a period when the sound is unlikely to happen. Because when you first put them out, your dog\/s will smell the treats and get excited. But we want the odor of the food in the containers to become background noise. Putting it out some time before the sound is likely to occur will allow that to happen. \u201cWhat a drag, I smell that dehydrated beef heart,\u00a0but I never get any!\u201d Until, surprise! The sound happens and the beef heart follows!<\/p>\n
Make yourself a schedule to replenish and freshen your treat caches. Be especially careful with freeze-dried raw foods and home baked treats that you replace them often enough.<\/p>\n
Predictable Noise Events<\/h2>\nFor predictable noise events like fireworks displays and thunderstorms, you don\u2019t have to use your caches. But you still have to be careful about timing. Prepare, a day or two ahead of time, a lot of high-value food. I often use roasted chicken breast because it is low calorie but high value for my dogs. Just remember the order of operations; do not bring out a bowl of it at 8:59 if the fireworks display starts at 9:00. Instead, go to the fridge to get it immediately after the first boom. Or you can do extinction trials<\/a> beforehand: set out a bowl of chicken a few times over a few days and don\u2019t give any to your dogs. That prevents the food from becoming a predictor of the event. If you do this preparation, you can bring the food out earlier on the day of the event, but still don\u2019t do it right before the noises start.<\/p>\nChallenges<\/h2>\nYou\u2019ll need to get the order of events right: always let the sound happen first, then give the wonderful food to your dog. If you get this one right, your conditioning has a better chance of standing up when life intervenes and messes other things up.<\/p>\n
\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eileenanddogs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Thunder-all-day-weather.jpeg?resize=806%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/a>The thunder went on for more than six hours this day<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nRefill your treat caches when you are not<\/strong> expecting a big sound event. That\u2019s hard to remember, because we usually think to do it when a sound event is coming up. But if you go around and replenish them then, you might get the terrible opposite of what you want: the appearance of the food predicts the noise. We don\u2019t want that! So set yourself a schedule.<\/p>\nStay consistent and don\u2019t give your dog this special food at any other time. Be careful about carrying it on your person. If you are accustomed to carrying treats in your pocket, a moment is going to come when you really want to give your dog a treat for something else. It\u2019s very hard to resist that nice special food in your pocket. Ask me how I know.<\/p>\n
Some trainers extend the duration of the feeding to make each food event after the trigger into a happy little party. This can be a good practice; it\u2019s one way to make the positive part of the pairing more intense. But you have to balance that with how frequently the sound happens. Where I live, thunderstorms can last for hours, with the thunder approaching and receding, but never quite leaving. Even receiving one treat per boom, my dogs will often get satiated. And stopping can weaken the pairing. Luckily, ad hoc counterconditioning is a robust procedure. The countless other pairings you have done will not disappear. But we always strive for each sound to predict something the dog loves.<\/p>\n
Remember not to ask your dog for a behavior. Don\u2019t ask them to sit, down, or even look at you. Just offer them the food when the sound happens. <\/p>\n
Your dog may sometimes be too scared to eat. If this happens and doesn\u2019t improve, seek out a qualified positive reinforcement-based trainer who specializes in fear-related behaviors<\/a>. <\/p>\nA Word about Medications<\/h2>\nAd hoc counterconditioning is one intervention among several possibilities, and it shouldn\u2019t be the only one. The first intervention for any sound reactive or sound phobic dog is veterinary help. Not only for the fear (remember Dr. Riemer\u2019s study), but because a very high percentage of dogs with sound phobia are in pain. <\/p>\n
Spur of the Moment?<\/h2>\nAd hoc means \u201cfor this\u201d in Latin. It refers to an act, entity, or procedure with a single purpose, and in our application means a \u201cspur of the moment\u201d action. This is how we want it to appear to our dogs. After a sound happens, we want great food to appear out of nowhere.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWe use ad hoc counterconditioning when we can\u2019t control the environment enough to set up a series of graduated exposures. Sometimes it\u2019s because we can\u2019t recreate the stimulus with high enough fidelity. Sometimes we can\u2019t come up with a non-scary version that we can start with. And sometimes it\u2019s because the stimulus happens on its own too often and we can\u2019t prevent the dog from perceiving it.<\/p>\n
Although ad hoc counterconditioning can apply to many kinds of stimuli, it\u2019s commonly used with sounds. Environmental sounds are unpredictable and they are often difficult or impossible to block<\/a>. So for the rest of this piece, I\u2019ll refer to sounds as the triggers.<\/p>\n Recent evidence supports the use of ad hoc counterconditioning for sound. Dr. Stephanie Riemer, whose research centers around dogs with fears of fireworks, found in a review paper that the most effective interventions for fireworks phobias were ad hoc counterconditioning, anxiolytics (medication), and relaxation training<\/strong> (Riemer, 2020). Ad hoc counterconditioning was said to help by 71% of Dr. Riemer\u2019s survey respondents. Dr. Zazie Todd of Companion Animal Psychology<\/a> has some great articles describing Dr. Riemer\u2019s studies. I\u2019ve linked them in the References and Resources section below. Many of us have found success with ad hoc counterconditioning. I didn\u2019t know its name then, but I did it with my dog Summer, who was sound reactive to thunderstorms. It helped.<\/a><\/p>\n As with all counterconditioning, we want to use the highest value food possible. This is because the conditioned emotional response to the trigger can only get as strong as the reaction to the food. But how to be ready with good food all the time? Many sounds can come without warning.\u00a0Most of us don\u2019t have a way to keep broiled salmon or Gorgonzola cheese on our person all day every day. We are limited to less perishable, less messy foods we can carry in our pockets or cache around the house.\u00a0For many dogs,\u00a0this excludes their favorite ultra-high-value foods.<\/p>\n Some options of foods dogs enjoy that can usually remain at room temperature for a few days are:<\/p>\n If the sound is infrequent and you have a large dog, you\u2019ll get their attention with one of those single-portion cat food containers you can rip the foil off of. But this is not practical for most situations.<\/p>\n Ideally, you always use the special food, although it\u2019s easy to get caught up short at some point.\u00a0I\u2019ve been doing this on and off for years, and there are still times when one of my dog\u2019s trigger sounds happens and I don\u2019t have the special food. So I give him whatever I have.<\/p>\n OK, you\u2019ve decided on your \u201cnoise treat\u201d food. To be ready for those unexpected sounds, it\u2019s best to have caches of the food available all over your house. Use containers that are unbreakable, have a snug lid, but are easy to open. Put them out of your dogs\u2019 reach. Be sure you have them everywhere your dog might hear the sound, including, if possible, the back yard if you have one.<\/p>\n Even with something that seems this easy, it\u2019s great to practice your mechanics. With your dogs out of the room, practice walking to the container, opening it, and giving a treat to an invisible dog. Do this a few times in each of your setups. You want to make sure the placement of the container is OK, you can open it smoothly, and you can get there from different parts of the room.<\/p>\n Practice this way because you aren\u2019t going to practice with your dog. The whole point is that this food appears for them only when there is a scary sound!\u00a0<\/p>\n Also, place the containers around your house during a period when the sound is unlikely to happen. Because when you first put them out, your dog\/s will smell the treats and get excited. But we want the odor of the food in the containers to become background noise. Putting it out some time before the sound is likely to occur will allow that to happen. \u201cWhat a drag, I smell that dehydrated beef heart,\u00a0but I never get any!\u201d Until, surprise! The sound happens and the beef heart follows!<\/p>\n Make yourself a schedule to replenish and freshen your treat caches. Be especially careful with freeze-dried raw foods and home baked treats that you replace them often enough.<\/p>\n For predictable noise events like fireworks displays and thunderstorms, you don\u2019t have to use your caches. But you still have to be careful about timing. Prepare, a day or two ahead of time, a lot of high-value food. I often use roasted chicken breast because it is low calorie but high value for my dogs. Just remember the order of operations; do not bring out a bowl of it at 8:59 if the fireworks display starts at 9:00. Instead, go to the fridge to get it immediately after the first boom. Or you can do extinction trials<\/a> beforehand: set out a bowl of chicken a few times over a few days and don\u2019t give any to your dogs. That prevents the food from becoming a predictor of the event. If you do this preparation, you can bring the food out earlier on the day of the event, but still don\u2019t do it right before the noises start.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to get the order of events right: always let the sound happen first, then give the wonderful food to your dog. If you get this one right, your conditioning has a better chance of standing up when life intervenes and messes other things up.<\/p>\n Refill your treat caches when you are not<\/strong> expecting a big sound event. That\u2019s hard to remember, because we usually think to do it when a sound event is coming up. But if you go around and replenish them then, you might get the terrible opposite of what you want: the appearance of the food predicts the noise. We don\u2019t want that! So set yourself a schedule.<\/p>\n Stay consistent and don\u2019t give your dog this special food at any other time. Be careful about carrying it on your person. If you are accustomed to carrying treats in your pocket, a moment is going to come when you really want to give your dog a treat for something else. It\u2019s very hard to resist that nice special food in your pocket. Ask me how I know.<\/p>\n Some trainers extend the duration of the feeding to make each food event after the trigger into a happy little party. This can be a good practice; it\u2019s one way to make the positive part of the pairing more intense. But you have to balance that with how frequently the sound happens. Where I live, thunderstorms can last for hours, with the thunder approaching and receding, but never quite leaving. Even receiving one treat per boom, my dogs will often get satiated. And stopping can weaken the pairing. Luckily, ad hoc counterconditioning is a robust procedure. The countless other pairings you have done will not disappear. But we always strive for each sound to predict something the dog loves.<\/p>\n Remember not to ask your dog for a behavior. Don\u2019t ask them to sit, down, or even look at you. Just offer them the food when the sound happens. <\/p>\n Your dog may sometimes be too scared to eat. If this happens and doesn\u2019t improve, seek out a qualified positive reinforcement-based trainer who specializes in fear-related behaviors<\/a>. <\/p>\n Ad hoc counterconditioning is one intervention among several possibilities, and it shouldn\u2019t be the only one. The first intervention for any sound reactive or sound phobic dog is veterinary help. Not only for the fear (remember Dr. Riemer\u2019s study), but because a very high percentage of dogs with sound phobia are in pain. <\/p>\n Ad hoc means \u201cfor this\u201d in Latin. It refers to an act, entity, or procedure with a single purpose, and in our application means a \u201cspur of the moment\u201d action. This is how we want it to appear to our dogs. After a sound happens, we want great food to appear out of nowhere.<\/p>\nUse the Best Food<\/h2>\n
\n
Create Caches<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Predictable Noise Events<\/h2>\n
Challenges<\/h2>\n
<\/a>A Word about Medications<\/h2>\n
Spur of the Moment?<\/h2>\n