Thunder Phobia

[just_lily]

Does anyone have any tips on how to deal with a dog who has a severe phobia to thunder?

Some background - I have a 6yo G.Shepherd/B.Collie/Lab cross who I rescued at a year of age. He is generally a nervous kind of guy. He has severe separation anxiety that we manage mainly through a reinforced crate (otherwise he would do severe damage to our house) and that has improved quite a bit since we added a second dog to our home 2.5 years ago, and now that I WAH.

When I first adopted him he was extremely timid and would cower if people or animals approached him when I took him out for walks. I took him to several obedience classes, we did some agility work, and even tried fly ball for a while but had to give it up because he wasn't at all interested in the balls and just wanted to run. All of this improved his confidence a million times over and now he is quite a friendly dog loving adults, kids and other dogs.

But he still worries. A lot of noises freak him out - he usually barks whenever he hears a car door slam, if my cell phone beeps he starts to pace around, and the garbage truck torments him every week.

But thunder is the worst. The. Worst.

I woke up at 4am last night to a 60lb dog jumping on top of me. I couldn't even hear the thunder yet, he could just feel it coming. He was a panting, shaking, drooling mess. We had another thunder storm this afternoon and he wedged himself into our bedroom closet.

I had read the St. John's Wort can help in anxiety in dogs, so I started giving that to him last week. He seems to be getting better in regards to barking at every noise he hears, but the thunder is just brutal.

I also try not to encourage the fear by comforting him or babying him when he gets into a state. This is how we worked through all of his other fears when he first came to me (this is a dog that wouldn't go near a fire hydrant at first because it freaked him out) but again it isn't doing anything with the thunder.

If I had my way I would just have it thunder for hours until he got over it, but unfortunately I can't control the weather.

Is anyone else dealing with this? Any tips? It really isn't my favourite way to wake up in the middle of the night.

[Oubliette8]

My little dog does this although its not as severe. She either presses against me, sits on my head, or hides- normally behind the toilet. For some reason toilets seem a preferred hiding spot for dogs with thunder fears. I doubt flooding your dog with thunder would help- we have pretty long storms sometimes and she's still scared. If she was on the ark, I think she'd hide in the lavatory the full 40 days!

One thing I've heard GREAT reviews for is the Thundershirt. Its a wrap/shirt that your dog wears. I think it works on pressure- the same reason squeezing into a hiding spot makes him feel safe. I haven't tried it myself, but other dog owners have told me it works really great for their dogs. I've also heard people tried other brands and they didn't work as well, so here it is http://www.thundershirt.com/

[buttercup784ever]

Our dog isn't exactly 'scared' of thunder, but he barks at it when it's really loud which is annoying. I give him a Kong filled with peanut butter or treats just to get him to shut it. I've heard this is a strategy for helping dogs with separation anxiety too.

[russsk]

We worked with a behaviorist on this issue with our dog. He had severe reactions to thunder and fireworks. She had me make a recording of the noises that scare him. I would play the recording on repeat when we left for work at very low volume, slowly turning it up a bit after a few days, to desensitize him. It worked up to a point, so that he started to ignore some sounds, but he was never able to tolerate the really loud noises. After that, based on her recommendation, we started keeping a bottle of doggie-dosed Valium in the house for him. That helped him a lot. He never seemed really out of it or drugged out of his mind, but it seemed to take the edge off enough so he could relax. We only had to use it about 2-3 times a year. She did strongly recommend against tranqs (as some vets recommend) as they immobilize the body but the dog still has the fear response. They can't really move to hide or anything, though, which increases their fear and increases the chances of a bite.

[Baby~Braatens~Mama]

Hi! We have a 3 year old Australian Shepherd/Husky. The only thing she is scared of is thunder, and the only thing I have found that helps her is a nice cozy place to hide. We leave the closet door in the bedroom open. The floor of this little closet turns into a make-shift hamper, so it is littered with comfy things that smell like her people, and there is enough room for her to pace when she is really uncomfortable/scared. She likes to curl up in a ball and watch the door, I think maybe her primal instincts are satisfied. She has a "den" with one controllable entrance. After a few months of letting her hide in her safe place alone, I would crawl in with her during really big storms and talk to her in gentle tones while petting her. Basically I tell her I know! And it will be ok. She is tough enough now that she only uses her "den" during the intense parts of thunder storms. And when the wind gets going not even her "den" is safe enough for her... She hides in the shower or bathtub! Good luck with you dog! I adopted my dogger when she was 6 months old and had to spend about a year and a half re-inforcing positive behavior to get her out of her crazy seperation issues. It was very hard, and I'm not sure exactly how I was fortunate enough to help create my lovable and goofy, almost completely well-adjusted dog, but the book The Dog Bible helped me a lot.

[just_lily]

And we are in the middle of another thunder storm watch. The dog is already starting to pant and pace but isn't too freaked out yet.

Thanks for the link the the thundershirt... that is a really neat idea. I wonder if I could make soemthing like that.

I have tried things like peanut butter kongs, but when he is stressed out he just isn't interested. He isn't very food motivated at the best of times and when I was training him I had to use praise as reward because he wouldn't even take treats from me in class.

Yesterday was garbage day, AND we had thunder in the afternoon. He was quite the mess by the end of the day. Poor guy.

[lifeguard]

Have you tried rescue remedy. We have found it really helpful with our anxious pup.

Fortunately our girl outgrew her thunder fear after we moved somewhere that had lots of thunderstorms - guess she just got used to it.