I’m no expert. I can only recommend what I’ve learned from the dog trainer I hired and my personal experience with a slightly “Nervous Nelly”. Find a treat that your dog loves and give it to her when the scary noise happens. Like someone else said, you don’t want to reward the fright response, but you do want to build a more positive association with noise. You don’t have to start outside. You can do this at home. Get something like a gun-noise app on your phone. Turn the volume down to 1%. Trigger the noise, feed her a treat. Slowly build the volume and start randomizing it so she isn’t expecting it.

Try to catch moments at home where she’s inside, but the landscaping equipment is running. Loud noise = treat. You want her to learn that the loud noise isn’t a bad thing. She’s possibly scared of kitchen noises as well because kitchens are loud. Pots and pans banging around, boiling, fans whirring, etc.

My dog isn’t food motivated generally, but string cheese and chicken will get her to do anything I ask. What kinds of treats are you using? Sometimes a scared dog isn’t going to be interested in food. If someone was actively breaking into my house and you offered me a cookie, I’d probably refuse the cookie. I think the key is to try and find ways to train in isolated environments that don’t cause her to go full flight or fight.

My dog used to be very scared of a vent outside in the city I adopted her in. She was afraid of the loud whirring noise. I loved the vent because it blew out hot air, which I loved in the -20F weather. I wanted her to not avoid it because it meant we both lost the heat opportunity lol So I always carried a treat bag on me and I fed her when we passed it. That’s all I did. As we approached/passed it, I gave her a treat and said “good girl”. By the 2nd week (of doing this daily), she was walking past it without even noticing. She even started to sniff it. I did the same thing with poles (she hates certain random poles. In a line? They’re fine. Alone? We groan.). I reward her if she investigates something that seems to make her nervous.

Another couple of pro tips, get a jar and fill it with 1/3 kibble, 1/3 random treats, 1/3 the best treat you can find (that’s shelf stable). Mix it all up. Put it on your coffee table or somewhere where she can’t reach it, but you can easily grab it. When she hears a loud noise in the house, try to immediately go “treat!” or some command. Then you can quickly grab the jar and slowly feed 1-20 pieces depending on your dog’s weight, treat size, etc. The slower the feed, the better. You only want to occasionally hand out many pieces at the same time. The key is being able to respond quickly. They say associations have something like ~10 seconds before they stop being effective. So, if you want to associate a noise with something positive, you have to be quick.

The only negative of this approach is - if you’re super successful - she might start looking at you for treats when a loud noise goes off. But hopefully that means her mind isn’t focused on the fear aspect anymore. And maybe someday you can redirect her to some other behavior like “place” or “crate” when she hears the noise. Somewhere that’s safe and comfortable for her to relax.

Again, this is just what my trainer recommended. Obviously there are tons of caveats. Maybe your dog just isn’t going to acclimate and you shouldn’t try this forever. Try maybe training to her to enjoy those head wraps that reduce noise (I picked a random website to illustrate the concept. this is not an endorsement). Maybe your dog just needs to go somewhere else sometimes to unwind (e.g., doggy daycare can sometimes be a nice reprieve for some dogs. It can help them relax and get some energy out playing with other dogs). But in my experience, my “Nervous Nelly” tends to be capable of confidence if I give her treats at the right time/place when she’s about to be scared by something.