THUNDERSTORM TERROR

[Stenograsaurus]

I need some advise. My dog is scared to death of thunder and lightening. Well, since it is April here and the season for thunderstorms, I haven't been getting much sleep lately. She kept me up all night last night. I feel like a walking zombie today. Being sick doesn't help any either. Friday night she started at 6:00 in the morning, so that wasn't so bad. She tries to hide underneath me and she's panting so bad I think she's going to hyperventilate. It's almost like she's having an anxiety attack. I was wondering if anyone out there in doggy land has any suggestions as to how to help her to overcome this, if it is even possible. I had also noticed stuff in the Drs. Foster and Smith catalog that I get that calms nervous dogs. Has anyone tried such a thing and how does it work? I am willing to try anything because we are all in desperate need of a good night's rest and since the forecast calls for thunderstorms again tonight, it looks like it's not going to happen for a while.
Thanks.

[tatsxxx11]

Hi! My beloved Jingles (Rainbow Bridge) had the same thunderstorm terrors! Before it even became cloudy, she would start shaking, then head for the bathroom to hide behind the toilet. She would shake so hard and pant so hard, I thought she was going into cardiac arrest! It really frightened me and upset me to see her so terrified and unconsolable! The vet told me to try any type of positive association right before and during the storm, hoping to develop some type of positive association with the storm. It didn't help! Finally the vet put her on a mild herbal sedative ("doggiecalm") or something like that. It helped a lot to take the edge off her fear without zonking her. At this time I tried the positive re-enforcement, e.g. favorite treats, fun activities, rewards etc. and now she was calm enough to become distracted from the storm. Good luck! I know it's hard on you and hard on her. Your vet should have some good suggestions. I'm also going to check out a website I think has some info. re: thunderstorm terrors!!

[Daisy's Mom]

I have no advice on this but I just had to share this story... last night we had a thunderstorm and I was laying in bed when I saw a flash of lightning. I thought we only had lightning in the summer, and we had talked about nuclear war in school on Friday... therefore I thought the flash must have been a nuclear bomb. So, bursting into tears, I grabbed Daisy and started to run into my parents' room... then I heard the thunder.. amd thought that it must have been the sound of the bomb exploding! So I was a total wreck, dragging my sleepy hound into Mom and Dad's room.. I woke up my father first and sobbed to him that Russia had bombed us with anuclear bomb and we were all going to die. He looked outside and saw another flash of lightning and heard the rain and just started laughing hysterically. Then when I realized my stupidity, I joined in the laugh fest. I feel so stupid now! Hehe I just had to share that story. Daisy, by the way, is not bothered by thunderstorms at all, but my cousin/neighbor's Bernese Mountain Dog, Joey, who is now at the Rainbow Bridge, jumped through screen doors or windows whenever there was a storm. He passed away still fearing them. Good luck with your doggie!

[Pam]

My little male toy poodle, Pumpkin, (now at the Rainbow Bridge) used to get so upset when it thundered that he would throw up. People setting off fireworks on the 4th of July had the same effect.

[Stenograsaurus]

Thank you, Tats, for the advice. I think I'm going to call the Vets tomorrow and see what they have to say. I'll probably get something for her to calm her down during this time like you used. I, too, am afraid of her going into cardiac arrest. Last night she squezzed her 80 pound body between my nightstand and the wall. Boy, that was a sight to see.

Daisy's mom, thanks for the laugh. That was a good one.

I'm sorry to you guys who have doggies in rainbow bridge. My beloved Rottie went there January 8th this year. He's probably up there laughing at his sister saying, see, I told you I was better than that dang shepherd. At least I wasn't scared of stupid thunder and lightening.

[carrie]

This can work with some dogs but you must take it REALLY slowly and do it all year round. Once the anxiety level has dropped to a manageable level you can lessen it to once or twice a month.
Get a tape recorder and tape a storm. Then get another tape and fill both sides of it with the storm noises. Play this tape pretty constantly while you are around starting with the volume very very low. Wait until the dog is totally ignoring it and then turn it up a fraction, beware! this is where you win or lose! If you turn it up too much you will ruin all previous work so only a little at a time. This takes time but should lessen your dogs anxiety - we did it with Paddy and he is now totally bomb proof!!

[aly]

Dessi was always really afraid of thunder and fireworks. If she was outside when it happened, she'd throw her whole body against the door or a window. One day, we left her outside in the backyard when we went to school since it was a nice day. We ended up getting a rainstorm and I faked being sick so I could go home and let her in Harley is deathly afraid of thunder too. He sits in my lap and shakes like crazy. This is about the only time he'll want to be in my lap. I generally don't agree with medicating dogs for behavior reasons but I think in your case it would be good. Harley doesn't have the problem of breathing hard but if he did, I'd probably look into some calming medicine too. Once she is on the medicine, it will probably be easier to do some training techniques to get her used to storms. Then you can ween her off the medicine. Good luck.

[Stenograsaurus]

Carrie,
I had thought of getting a CD of a storm and playing it constantly but I was afraid of putting her through too much trauma. Since I have one success story, it brings me hope. I'm going to give it a try. We had real bad storm yesterday, heavy rain, hail, lightening and thunder. I put her in her cage and it helped. I forget that dogs consider their cage their "safe place". Since her cage is downstairs and too heavy to take upstairs, I cleaned out an area in my closet for her. Hopefully she'll consider it a safe place too. I'm going to try to make it seem like a cave. If the closet/cave doesn't work, I'm going to have to get the herbal medicine. I too, like Aly, hate doing that to her, but the other night she actually jumped on top of my 4 yr. old toddler (she's sick and sleeping with us because of the coughing). Patience literally stepped on her head and laid on top of her. I can't have that happening. We didn't have a thunderstorm last night so I didn't get to test out the "cave."
Thank everyone for their suggestions. It's nice to have somewhere to go for support.

[carrie]

Good luck - make sure you start off the CD very quiet - barely audible - and you must totally ignore any reaction from the dog. This is the hard bit! You MUST ignore her until she becomes calm, then loads of praise and cuddles and gently up the volume.

[Pam]

Bella experienced her first thunderstorm last night. There was a lightning hit that sounded like it could have been in the back yard. We both jumped! She just kept pacing back and forth and looking out the window. I tried to cuddle her a little but she felt better pacing. After a bit she was OK. More storms are on the way for the next several days.

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Since we don't have many thunder storms here in Southern California, I did not know what to expect with Daisy and Perry when a thunder storm did arrive. As luck would have it, we had one about three in the morning.
Perry was in his crate which he loves, he even takes his afternoon nap in it, didn't hear a peep. Daisy was sleeping with us and she slept right through it, didn't bother to lift her head out of the covers., so I guess all is well here.

[shais_mom]

Our first dog Sparky, was terrified of storms also, he was strictly an outside dog and he would try to get inside. He was once outside (he had access via doggie door to our garage) but tried to rip the metal door off my dad's shed to get in it. Another time he accidently got locked in the shed and chewed the door to get out!!! He crossed the rainbow bridge in 1992 and there are still gouges in the door!!
Shaianne has absolutly no trouble with storms, the first storm we experienced together, I thought oh boy here it goes!! and she just laid there and looked at me!!
A good book on dog behaivor is "The dog who loved too much" It addresses all dog behaivor problems. Very good book.

[annibale16]

Angus, the silky terroist, is very afraid of storms and will even get nervous if it starts to rain hard. The strange thing is : he is 6years old and around 3 years ago, we were at my inlaws house and they have a dashound who was afraid of storms. At this tiime, Angus was not afraid. After that day in which they were in the same house together during the bad storm, Angus has been afraid.
I guess he just thought that if Rusty was afraid then he should be too.

[karen israel]

This past Monday night (same as Pam's)I took Cody out for his evening walk, hoping to beat out any storm. About a mile away, the sky lit up and thunder boomed, scaring me 10 feet in the air. Cody, on the other hand, looked at me like I was nuts, and went back to sniffin'! If I pull him to hurry, he won't budge so I very cheerfully coaxed him home. A half block away, nobody around, I let him run home off leash since he really started to pull and the millisecond we both got on the porch, it monsooned!!!!! Like Carrie said, he's "bomb proof". At least I'm so grateful for that!

[Pam]

Karen...was that a storm or what????????? It took roofs off of buildings in Bucks County!! Cody is one brave dog!!!! The allure of those smells must have made him be able to tune everything out.