We moved into this apartment in Brooklyn in May 2014. It’s a nice neighborhood, tucked in the southwest corner of the borough. It’s safe and family friendly with lots of shops and restaurants.
It seemed like the perfect place for us to move — having never lived in a major city before. The apartment is big and the neighbors are great. The neighborhood is quiet.
Except where we live.
Because we live next to The Salty Dog bar.
The hubs and I can certainly tolerate the noise and annoyances that accompany living next to a bar — including the chain-smoking drunk people who simply must fondle our dogs every time we take them out for a potty break.
But Babe has an anxiety issue that has gotten profoundly worse since moving to the city. She is, mostly, terrified of noises.
That’s not great considering the popularity of our next door neigh-bar. At least 3 times per week there are keg deliveries. The delivery guys aren’t gentle with the kegs and bounce them (loudly) on the asphalt, sidewalk and metal interior of the delivery trucks. It is loud. I mean, really loud!
Babe goes into a full panic when this happens, crying, pacing, clawing into our laps, then getting more frantic. We have Xanax to help her, but we can’t give it to her often and it only occasionally helps. Otherwise, we use other methods to calm her, including putting sweaters or her ThunderShirt on. (The gentle pressure helps.)
On top of the keg deliveries, there are often motorcycles blaring around the bar, fights and yelling, honking horns and revving engines. On the weekends, the music is blaring and the bass shakes the walls.
Our poor Babe is so scared all of the time.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that Ivan (the hubs) is currently interviewing for resident positions all over the country and on April 30th, our lease expires and we’re driving our poor scared Babe out of the city and back into a more rural setting where she can be happy!
In the meantime, we’re giving her lots of attention and lots of treats. The latter, especially, seems to be helping. This week the pups are enjoying some Buddy Biscuits from their doting grammy!
5 responses to “How Terrifying to Live Next to a Bar”
Aw, poor bunny. My senior dog is starting to develop noise anxieties in her old age and it’s so hard to help her deal with it! I like the thundershirt idea, but noises are so unpredictable… Are you supposed to just leave the shirt on all the time?
I think you’re supposed to put it on when you anticipate noises (storm coming, fireworks, construction, etc.) or after unexpected noise has occurred. It’s supposed to have a similar effect as swaddling a baby — comfort and safety.
How do you calm your dog? Are there certain trigger noises that upset her?
I’m so glad you’re going to get her away from there…
You and me both! Poor girl is at retirement age. She shouldn’t have to deal with this!
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