Dogs react to loud noises as if it is almost painful for them, which is almost exactly what happened.

A sharp, loud sound like a balloon popping unexpectedly, is startling to a person, but traumatizing to a dog.

Machines, alarms or any of the thousands of sounds that can be heard daily by people is much more intense to a dog. People can reason out and anticipate certain sounds (two cars crashing into each other, for instance). People know in advance there will be very loud noises from two cars colliding into each other, but a dog cannot anticipate the noise these two cars will make.

Dogs are not necessarily startled by loud noises, but it does catch them off-guard and may even hurt their ears permanently.

Learn more about this by going to this site of the vet Shawnee.