FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
The answer to this question really depends on the personal preferences of each pet owner.
There have been many noise phobia therapy solutions introduced into the market. All of them work if they are used correctly. There are many solutions for dogs, and at least one solution for cats and horses. There have probably not been solutions offered before for the other types of pets, i.e. pet birds, small mammals and exotic pets.
The goal with the development of the WeStopFear is to offer process steps and general solution that have the benefits that are outlined above, i.e. to be simpler, safer, easier, more natural, more bearable, etc.
The innovations, how they work, and how they are different from previous solutions, is described, among them here and here.
I would like to see WeStopFear as the kind of innovation that electric cooking stoves and ovens were in people's kitchen, or automatic transmission in cars.
Before electric, cookers and ovens were mostly heated with coal, wood, or gas. Most people think that electric stoves and ovens are easier to use, where you only have to turn a knob, and more secure. But there are people who do want to use for instance coal or wood to cook as the standard method, for instance some restaurants.
Before automatic transmissions, the gearshift in cars was manual, where you have to step on the clutch and gas, and move the stick to shift gears. Many people think that driving a car with an automatic transmission is easier, and prefer that. Still, there are people who want to drive cars with a manual transmission. That is for instance often the case for sports cars. But they are fewer than the others, main stream car drivers.
Likewise, it may be that some prefer the conventional way in noise phobia therapy. It's a question of personal choice and that is okay. But I personally believe that the majority would prefer the new Simple Secure Steps process design, and find it easier, simpler and safer. They would thus conclude that the Simple Secure Steps process is better.
Choose your pet type solution
No, it is not possible to promise a 100% success. This means that out of a group of pet owners that do this, some may not be free from these problems, while others will enjoy a safe and fearless life.
Success in this is dependent on several factors. There are six factors defined on this chart on the image below. Five of the factors are out of WeStopFear's range to manage. One of the factors is the WeStopFear solution.
The six factors of success are further explained inside the member's therapy area for each type of pet or animal.
Thus, it is not possible to promise success in this.
Choose your pet type solution
That is a good question. To begin with, roughly around half of pets and animals may possibly have some problems with unknown, unnatural and uncomfortable noises, from mild to serious. Around 20% may have serious problems, and around 2% may suffer in the most serious and harmful way. This problem can arise at any age.
In addition, up to 80% of horses have signs of stress or more severe fear over fireworks.
This means that the other part of pets and horses will not experience problems.
The point is, that you never know beforehand which group your pet is in. Will your pet or animal be free of these problems, or will problems develop should the animal be facing an unfavorable noise situation?
If you do noise phobia therapy, and your pet is free from these problems, is it because the therapy was working, or is it because your pet wasn't sensitive to this in the first place?
You don't know that really.
If you decide you will not do noise phobia therapy, will your pet have problems during its life? You don't know that either.
Doing noise phobia therapy to prevent a possible problem in the future, preferably from young age but also at any age, is a prudent and responsible thing to do for your pet, just like many other things that people see as being a natural thing to do.
This is in many ways similar to when you leave your home for the day, you make sure that all windows are closed, and doors are closed and locked. Should a burglar come during the day, ensuring this will reduce the likelihood of burglary. People don't generally leave all windows open and doors unlocked or even open. If someone leaves the windows open and doors unlocked, will there be burglary during that day? That is unknown. If someone has left windows open and doors unlocked, and at the end of the day the person returns and no burglar has broken in, was it okay not to lock the doors? Would it have been a mistake to lock the doors and close windows, since it turned out that no one broke into the house during that day? Few people will probably think in that way.
Doing noise phobia therapy to prevent possible problems is like locking the door to prevent the "burglar" noise fear or noise phobia to enter the "house" of your pet.
If your pet or animal has these problems, then it is imperative to do this. However, a 100% success can never be promised, because there are several things that can affect the success, and only one of them revolves around the noise phobia therapy solution itself, as is further explained in the box next above this one, "Is 100% success certain?"
Choose your pet type solution
Extensive research has been done throughout the years and even decades on noise phobia therapy, desensitization and habituation, to prove its effectiveness to prevent or cure these problems in pets and animals (horses for instance). This is for instance mentioned here, where it says "Desensitization and habituation methods have been widely studied (Watts, 1971; Watts, 1979 & Lader, 1968) and are proven to be effective in the management of behavioral problems in animals.".
WeStopFear is basically a noise phobia therapy, and the animal has a similar experience from WeStopFear and other conventional solutions that have been available before. The difference is in the Natural Intervals that add silences of random length between the therapy noises, to make the process more natural and more bearable, (in real life, these noises don't appear in a constant succession, one after the other, and therefore the Natural Intervals were developed to better imitate reality).
The WeStopFear solution, i.e. the structural innovations in the process design, or the steps that users need to implement to deliver the noise phobia therapy to the animal, has not been clinically tested. The innovations are mostly based on logical thinking and common sense, as is described above.
It would be interesting to have the method tested by professionals or scientists. Results from such tests will surely be posted here on the website if and when that happens.
However, here it is necessary to understand what should be tested and what not. For instance, the sound files themselves that are used here are not a fixed part of the system. If someone concludes that a sound file is not of a sufficient quality, then it is easy to remove the sound file and add another one, should a better sound file be available.
What the system is about is largely the organization and process design, how the therapy process is conducted, and how sound files with different inherent loudness or volume level are prepared and made available successively during the process, i.e. where the handler has access to very low loudness levels at the start, and has access to full loudness levels only after some time has passed, and the handler has gone through the first steps where lower loudness levels are available.
Also, the success level of doing this is based on various factors, as you can read more about in the FAQ item above "Is 100% success certain?"
Choose your pet type solution
The WeStopFear solution is a self-serve solution. The extensive instructions, along with the five-step system with timed access, should be enough to guide the user to do this correctly.
Managing the process it to a large extent based on the user choosing the locations and using the best audio playback devices that the user has access to, with capable loudspeakers, and also based on the user knowing and monitoring the progress with its pets or horse. This is something that cannot really be built into the WeStopFear solution.
To maximize the likelihood that the user will do this correctly and successfully, the utmost care has been put into letting the solution be as well-developed and the instructions to be as comprehensive as possible, and there will be continuous development on that, as much as is possible regarding time and economic restraints.
If the user believes that something might be added, the user can contact WeStopFear and describe the suggested addition. If the addition is deemed to be valid and realistic, then WeStopFear will develop it and add it to the system.
A solution of offering personal support and one-on-one coaching for an additional fee is under consideration and will be introduced should that decision be made.
Choose your pet type solution
WeStopFear actually requires very little information from its users.
The registered member only needs to submit a first name or nickname of choice, and an email address, that the member is regularly checking. We also ask for information about the user's country, (but not city or full address).
The system monitors what pet- or horse-type solution the member starts, and manages the member's access to the different steps, from Step 1 to Step 5 and onto the ongoing Maintain Success phase. This is done to ensure that the pet and horse progresses correctly through the program. This information have nothing to do with the human owner.
The paid programs (More, Advanced and Full Care) are managed by our partner Clickbank, which is the world's largest, oldest and probably most respected payment processing platform for digital services. The member registers on Clickbank through the sales page, and submits its information there. The only information that WeStopFear receives is that a member with a particular email address is a paying member. WeStopFear has no access to any information about billing address, or payment details.
Choose your pet type solution
No. We cannot have people logged in and using the system, without having their email and acceptance that we can contact all our users. So being on the email list is a prerequisite for using the solution.
Users will receive reminders and encouragement, both when using the solution for the first time and also in the future during the maintenance, which should preferably continue throughout the life of the pet. These maintenance reminder emails will be sent as long as WeStopFear is operational.
Along with reminders and encouragements, the emails may also contain helpful information, special offers and discount codes, so receiving the emails has great benefits too.
Choose your pet type solution
The main way of managing the therapy process using a mobile device, when there is a connection to the Internet, is through the web browser app on the mobile device. This is because the WeStopFear solution is a website. This means playing the sounds using the audio players embedded in the pages, which stream the sounds in real time over the Internet. This is thus similar to when people are on social media websites and are enjoying streaming content, videos and audio.
The WeStopFear app
Members who on an annual payment subscription in the More, Advanced or Full Care programs can download sets of MP3 audio files, for each therapy step, sets of counter conditioning audio files, and the video therapy MP4 video files. This is for playback on MP3 players, or video players, even if they are not connected to the Internet or outside serviced areas. The users place the audio or video files on their computers or mobile devices, and play them using the audio player and video player of their choice on their mobile device.
An app is currently being developed, with the lists of signs of fear and phobia in the different pet types, the Quick Focus instructions, and general advice for off-line playback and the downloading and organizing of audio MP3 and MP4 video therapy files.
The app is a "progressive web application" which means it connects with a website created specially for the app. As the user goes through the pages that are relevant for the user's pet types or horse, the content of the pages is "cached", or stored on their mobile device. The user can then read the pages even if their mobile device is outside an Internet connection.
PDF documents and printouts until then
Until the app becomes ready, the lists of signs of fear and phobia, and the Quick Focus instructions, are available as PDF documents that you can download and place on your mobile device. You can then read those documents on your mobile device, when not connected to the Internet, using the PDF viewer app on your mobile device.
You can also print out the relevant list or instructions on paper, and keep them in your pocket to refer to.
When the progressive web app is ready, links to it will be placed on the corresponding web pages in the member's area of WeStopFear.
But the app will not have an included an audio or video player, and the app will not handle the download of the audio or video files from the WeStopFear members area. This the user will do manually as before.
Choose your pet type solution
There is not a free trial per-se. However, there is a 30 day money back guarantee, so you can try the solution for 30 days and get your money back if you don't want to continue. So that trial period has been free in the end.
Even if the Basic program is so inexpensive, that it is nearly free, then WeStopFear realizes that a large part of potential users will be interested in doing noise phobia therapy for free. Since that is the case, the goal is to set up a separate website with a simpler, 5 step Simple Secure Steps therapy organization, and offer that for free. The website will be at www.noisephobiafree.com, and will be opened soon.
With that, no one will have to deny their pet or horse benefiting from the Simple Secure Steps noise phobia therapy because of cost.
Choose your pet type solution
The audio players on the member's area therapy pages are streaming players that stream the audio files over the Internet. To play those, you need to be connected to the Internet, just like when you listen to music or watch videos on social media websites.
However, for those who want or need to be able to play the sounds without an Internet connection, there is the possibility of downloading the sounds as packs of audio MP3 files. This option is for those who are on an Annual Payment Subscription of the More, Advanced or Full Care programs.
The member can thus play the sounds on a MP3 player that is not Internet connected.
The member can also use the audio MP3 files and burn their own audio CDs. Just keep in mind that you would need a set of CDs for each of the five steps, so that could be quite a number of discs.
Choose your pet type solution
Choose your pet type or horse solution introduction:
Dogs, outdoor cats, indoor cats, horses, pet birds, small mammals, exotic pets, various types of pets.
(Small mammals include rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters. Exotic pets include chinchilla, degu, fancy mice, fancy rats, fennec fox, ferret, gerbils, hedgehog, sugarglider and pot-bellied pig. Various types of pets are any pet types combination excluding horses.)
Front Pages Links
Sounds and videos
Try the 5 steps therapy sounds players
Sounds in programs (most types)
Sounds in Solutions for Horses
Sounds in Solutions for Outdoor Cats
Explore the 5 step video therapy
Further Information
A new standard practice for pets and horses? Start when young
Mobilize the world: 500 million households
Walk through screencast video
Short comparison of WeStopFear and conventional process
Book Chapters
Chapters from the book "Pets and Horses Should Not Have To Live In Fear Of Noises", available on Amazon.com as Print version or Kindle version.
About animal types, fear of sounds, and noise phobia (page 23)
Ten items to be better (page 106)
About Simple Secure Steps and the four innovations (page 111)
Comparison of the conventional method and WeStopFear’s Simple Secure Steps (page 127)
Is this new method the best method available? (page 137)
About the Years of development (page 155)
Merch
Stock images from 123rf.com, model release contract, (referral link). - Infographics designed by WeStopFear © Copyright.