Systems and methods of desensitizing an animal to anxiety-inducing events

#1. Field of the Inventive Concept

#The present general inventive concept relates to a system to desensitize an animal to an anxiety-inducing event, and more particularly relates to systems and methods of reducing the anxiety felt by an animal after being exposed to an anxiety-inducing event.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#The above-mentioned features of the present general inventive concept will become more clearly understood from the following detailed description read together with the example embodiment drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a counter-conditioning system according to an example embodiment of the present general inventive concept;

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a counter-conditioning system according to another example embodiment of the present general inventive concept; and

#The present general inventive concept provides counter-conditioning systems and methods of desensitizing an animal to an anxiety-inducing sensation and minimizing a user's active involvement in such desensitization. The example systems and methods enable conditioning of an animal that exhibits anxiety in response to the occurrence of a particular event (e.g., sound, vision, audio, video) such that the animal learns to anticipate a conditioning element (e.g., treat or toy or other reward) upon the occurrence of the event. The event can be reproduced on a media, such as audio or video media, for delivery to the animal for training purposes. The training system can perform the noise desensitizing conditioning such that a user is not actively involved in the training process and the user is not required to invest extensive amounts of time to the training.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a counter-conditioning system according to an example embodiment of the present general inventive concept. In the example embodiment of FIG. 1, an example counter-conditioning device 10 includes a media output module 16, a detector unit 22, and a conditioning element dispenser 18. Although the illustrated components may be shown as separate units for convenience of illustration, it is possible that the various components may be formed into one or more integrated units, or various combinations of units. For example, the sound generation system (e.g., speakers and/or media player) may be co-located with the conditioning element dispenser, including the detector unit and media source, into one or more integrated units, or various combinations of units. The media player may be any known or later developed type of audio/video device such as a home theatre system, stereo system, television system, radio, DVD/CD player, etc. In the illustrated embodiment, the detector unit 22 and conditioning element dispenser 18 are communicably coupled to the media output module 16. The device 10 may further include a power source 20 provided to one or more of the media output module 16, detector unit 22, and/or conditioning element dispenser 18. The media output module 16 is further communicably coupled to a first and second media signals source 14. In some embodiments, a control module 12 is communicably coupled to media output module 16, detector unit 22, conditioning element dispenser 18, and/or the first and second media signals source 14 to collectively control their respective functions. In other embodiments, each of the media output module 16, detector unit 22, conditioning element dispenser 18, and/or media signals source 14 each have an independent controller for controlling their respective functions.

#In operation, the conditioning element dispenser 18 is configured to dispense a conditioning element when instructed to do so, according to various selection criteria. Example criteria are discussed below in the connection with FIG. 3, but the present general inventive concept is not limited to any particular sequence of event flow. As user herein, the term conditioning element broadly refers to anything pleasant or pleasing to the animal, such as, for example, a consumable item (e.g., food, treat, or liquid), a toy, scent, sound, or other perceived reward. In some embodiments, a receptacle (not shown) is disposed to receive a dispensed conditioning element from the conditioning element dispenser 18 and present the conditioning element such that it is accessible by the animal.