Anyone have a dog that's afraid of thunder?

**Darlene** · 06-10-2010, 03:23 PM

When the warmer weather comes and the weather changes that often means thunder & my poor pooch just shakes & shakes. It starts raining & gets all freaked out waiting for the noise. He's a pound pooch so I have no idea what happened to him before we got him. I feel so bad for him but the vet says the best thing to do is go about your business and not make a fuss and if I wanted they would give me something to help calm him if he gets bad. Right now he's just beside himself because a plane went by overhead making rumbing noises. Heaven help you if you are 2 1/2 miles from home walking him and he hears distant thunder, he wants home & in the house NOW.
Anyone else dealt with this? What do you do to help your pet? We've done the cranking of music and pulling of shades before but mostly I feel bad and just tell him everything's fine and let it go.

**Greebo** · 06-10-2010, 03:24 PM

Our dog freaks out at the smallest things. We yell at her until she comes and huddles by us so we'll stop.

**Darlene** · 06-10-2010, 03:27 PM

Thank you for that helpful post Greebo. Poor pooches.
I know you really love em.

**thesightofoneself** · 06-10-2010, 03:27 PM

yup, she hates storms

i try to put the music up so that she cant hear whats outside

**craftypam** · 06-10-2010, 03:27 PM

My mom had a small dog and it used to climb the 4' fence and get out of the backyard whenever a storm was coming. My mom did eventually put the dog on tranquilizers.

My ds had a girlfriend whose stepfathers dog would break out of the house through screens to get away from storms.

**baxjul** · 06-10-2010, 03:38 PM

My dog and both cats are. They are trained so that the first crack of thunder, all 3 animals, myself, and dd all run in on my bed and we all cuddle.

**mek42** · 06-10-2010, 03:44 PM

Our tan Zeus is. Pretty ironic given his name, eh? The biggest concern is that he gets over-afraid and decides to give his sister some fear aggression.

We adopted them as adults and the way he behaves sometimes ... if I knew who did what to them I might be in jail.

**beks37** · 06-10-2010, 03:49 PM

My two are afraid of storms too! When they were young, Raven was so bad that we'd have to give her a sedative during the storm. Over the years (they are 5 now) they have gotten better, so no more sedatives. I hated giving them to her, but I would be up all night with a 70 lb dog pacing around and jumping on the bed and me if I didn't!

Now, when it storms, they like to be in secure places like behind a chair, up against us, or on a pillow between the bed and the closet door. They can tell a storm is coming....so they are our early warning system.

**jas** · 06-10-2010, 04:16 PM

My Yorkie will come hunt us down at the first rumble of thunder. Here in Florida every afternoon around 3 the thunder starts and there she will be. She wants to be close, she does not totally freak out, but you can tell she is bothered.

**mauimagic** · 06-10-2010, 04:21 PM

All of our dogs got anxious during thunderstorms - crawl under beds, onto our laps. Poor things just couldn't understand what's going on!!

**gapeach** · 06-10-2010, 05:09 PM

Our lab doesn't like thunder. He'll come over to me or DH and lay at our feet until the thunder stops.

**Libby** · 06-10-2010, 05:51 PM

OMG I hide when there's thunder & lightening. I turn on ALL the lights and turn on the tv/music pretty loud - and I don't care HOW unfrugal it is.

I'd prob teach a dog bad habits lol

**lparker** · 06-10-2010, 06:13 PM

Yup, got one... part lab. Not all the time but often enough. Music won't do it. We was watching Netflix Avatar last night & I turned on the extra speakers...all the bass made her crazy.

**shoiji** · 06-10-2010, 07:29 PM

Yup had a dog like that. I had the clapper hooked up to my bedroom lamp. Storm would come along and the dog would turn it on with the barking, off and on, off and on. I would let the dog hide if he wanted to and told him in a calm voice that everything was alright. One time I heard thunder in the distance so I took him out to go to the bathroom. He would lift his leg then hear the thunder and drop his leg real quick.

Apparently this fear of thunder is catchy. My young cat at the time became fearful of thunder storms. She has gotten better since I try not to get worried about her when a storm comes along.

Maybe you can also try making sudden loud familiar noises around the dog. Then reasure the dog that everything is fine.

**Paws** · 06-10-2010, 07:55 PM

Yep! Actually two...My female Shepherd, she's been gone a couple of years now, was terrified of storms! When it started thundering, she started climbing the chain link fence to get to the front porch...when she got there, she would actually bang on the storm door, then try to climb it...if we couldn't hear her, our neighbors would usually call and tell us that Sable was on the porch trying to get in again...after one such incident, she hurt herself on the fencing. We had to go to an after hours vet to have her stitched up...after that incident, she became a house dog...but she was still frightened of the thunder.

Now...my Rottweiler is a huge baby when it comes to storms.
He hates them too! Every time it thunders, get ready...here he comes running under me where ever I may be...he's even knocked me out of my recliner when he jumped onto my lap...from across the room...boy...what a wreck that was! lol