My bichon/poodle mix has learned the sound of a telephone call. Whether it’s vibrating ringing, the ringtone sound, the ringing sound the phone makes when you are calling someone, or just the inflected way that I say “hello” when answering the phone. He even picks up on any of the above sounds on TV, and he seems to be able to differentiate between the short vibrate of a notification versus the long vibration of a ring.

I have a lot of phone anxiety which means I often get up and pace around my apartment a lot when I’m on the phone. He thinks this pacing implies that I want to play with him, so he gets super excited, chases me around, and tries to grab my ankles or jump on the furniture and nip at my fingers. When I want to play with him, these behaviours are cute and fun. But he has associated me walking around my apartment with wanting to play which is distracting and frustrating when I’m already on edge from my phone call anxiety.