Storm scared Dog

My stage IV Agility Trained Shih Tzu has recently decided for some reason that she is scared of thunder, lightning and rain. Honestly, there was no "exact" moment that would of set this in so I'm at a loss. Now, when it even rains but definately worse when it's thunder and lightning she runs shaking into the closet in the inside of the house. She stays there and shakes, trembles and pants for hours. I've tried to coddle her (I know I shouldn't) and have her sit in my lap etc but she wants nothing about it and goes back into the closet.

My vet put her on .25mg of Xanax prior to a storm however seems like she's on it all the time right now. And it's not really working. They said it's because her endorphines have already kicked in by the time it's in her system. He has recently put her on Clomacalm once a day for the storm season (April-Sept).

Are there any other alternatives? I hate seeing her like this. She is only 3 and has so much personality!

you have to try to catch the storms before they even get there to give the xanax, which is the one drawback about it. i used to watch the radar on weatherunderground and give it if it looked like we might get a storm. sometimes i dosed him and then the storm fizzled, but since he really didn't have any negative side-effects from the xanax, i was ok with that.

my stormphobic dog took clomicalm twice a day, and we did have to increase his dose once because it wasn't helping. but once we got his meds straightened out, he was much happier during storms.

personally i think it's fine to hold her if it helps. she's already scared- she's not going to get more scared because you're holding her provided that *you* are calm about it. i used to sit upstairs in the hallway where my dog seemed to feel the safest and read books to him. i don't know if it helped but at least it made me feel like i was trying.

My trainer told me by coddling her etc is making her think it's ok to be frightened.

My question, does it get any better? Or is this a forever thing?

By coddling her it does make fear/anxiety worse. The dog does not hear you saying "It's okay girl, you're safe and nothing bad is happening so don't worry." She hears, "Good girl!!! Good girl to be scared! I like it when you cower and cry and feel anxious! I like that behavior!"

It can get better. I don't know if it does 100% with every dog out there, but it definitely can. I know one woman who bought a grown dog and when she got the dog was told it had severe anxiety during storms, and needed to be held and fed treats while the storm was happening so that it wouldn't have a fit. She took a "crate and ignore" approach. After nobody making a fuss about the storm, the dog began to calm down. She then was able to reinforce the calm behaviors. Now her dog is fine and can play outside with the other dogs when thunder is booming.

They sell special capes for dogs that are afraid of storms. The idea behind them is that when they have it on it cuts down the electrical activity they feel in the air. My friend ordered one somewhere on the internet but I have no idea where. But she paid a lot for it and just discovered that putting an old t-shirt on the dog works just as well. I've seen the dog wearing this and he changed overnight from a quaking nerve ball to a dog who can ignore the storm and act normal. You could try the t-shirt and see if it helps, don't know if it works for all dogs although when she ordered the cape it was advertised for all dogs who feared storms.

it makes me profoundly sad that people are encouraged to ignore their terrified dogs.

I think there's a happy medium between coddling, making a big fuss over a scared dog and by doing so, reinforcing the fearful feeling by adding to a potential learned helplessness situation..... and completely ignoring him, giving no comfort or lap to sit on. I think there's a balance to be found. When my dogs are afraid of something (they're not afraid of thunder, but Chuli gets a tad bit alarmed looking, nothing much) I will say in a cheerful voice, like it's no big deal, "You're okay." And maybe try to get them onto a game or something. Or I'll hold Chuli on my lap with a blankie over her, but not make a big to do about it. I think if you seem confident and okay, it can help your dog feel better by picking up on your vibes you send out. Giving exagerated sympathy....the poooooor doggie in a sad, sad voice can make a dog sense your nervousness and raise his anxiety.

I don't know how well they work, but I've heard of casset tapes (or CDs) that have thunder storm recorded. You play the CD at the very lowest volume and feed treats. You do this for quite a while until you're confident the dog is okay with it at that level. Then turn it up a notch and play it there for quite some time. Associate with a favorite game, toy and yummy treats. Over a long period....maybe a month or even more, you gradually desensitize them to that sound. Whether or not it emulates well enough a real thunder storm, I don't know. It surely won't put the ions into the air like real electricity. But I've heard they can work with some dogs or at least help. Of course, if the dog is this terrified, she probably isn't interested in a game. If you can just catch it early on before she's in the throws, it might help a little.

Yeah, the drugs would be good, but must be started ahead of time. Do you have a barometer to help you out? Those cape things sound like a neat idea.

I sure hope something can be done to help your little gal.

Well for now she only wants to be in the master closet. So guess there is no harm in that. I am relocating her crate to not be in front of a sliding glass door... Just in case a storm came and I wasn't home. That would be terrifing.

I agree!! That is like saying if your toddler is scared.. don't comfort them it will teach them to act scared. If its real fear.. its not a consious choice.

Think.. if it worked that way then desensitizing wouldnt' work. I can tell you feeding treats to a dog who is growling quietly when she sees another dog.. does not make them growl more. It makes her growl less as she becomes happy to see another dog.

I can tell you of two toddlers (twins) who are almost 4 years old who are becoming completely neurotic because their mother over-dramatizes when she comforts them. My nieces and daughter were with these people who are extended family the other night at a family party. One of my nieces baby's, an almost 2 year old was just playing, barely touched one of the twins and that kid looked horrified....scared and cried, "ouuuuuu." My daughter said something to cheer him up, like, "you're okay...c'mon lets play with this".....something or other and the mother comes running over, "awwwwwww.....are you okay?????" Big fuss. Another time one of my nieces ruffled his hair as she walked by and he said, "ouuuuuuuuuuu...that hurts" and started crying. My niece said, "ahhh, that didn't hurt. You're okay." (in a cheerful, no big deal voice.) The mother again makes a big huge deal out of it. These kids are afraid of everything and when the little two year old so much as touches one of them, the kid seems really afraid, shaking and horrified. Something is really wrong there. When one of the twins really did hurt himself when playing, my daughter comforted him and brushed off his knee or whatever. He didn't want her comfort. He wanted his mother who came swiftly over to him and acted horrified herself about his ouchie and cooed and fussed and kept asking if he was all right. What she's doing in essence is telling the kids that they aren't all right, that they can't manage without her, can't possibly handle anything that comes their way. They're going to be picked on and bullied when they get to school. You can be sure. They're going to have one hell of a time getting along in this world.

I'm all for comforting...absolutely....but a dog doesn't always interrpret it as we intend. Neither does a human child in every way someone does the comforting. The dog can pick up, just as those kids have that whatever it is that hurt or scared them is really truly something horrifying and scary since the "grown-up" in the mix thinks so too...that what just happened is more serious than it is. That over-dramatizing reiterates or drives it home to the child or dog that what they suspected is really worse than it even is.

That is why I say there's a happy medium. Comfort, but without a lot of drama and over-concern. Confidence yourself that you know that nothing is that bad.....but not without sympathy or a sign of protecting the little one from escalating that fear. They pick up on our vibes so easily that if we act like it's not such a big deal, but let them know we're near, they often believe us and it helps get them over it.

I've seen a learned helplessness in dogs too where someone has made a big, huge fuss over them when they're afraid or reactive toward something. But I do agree that completely ignoring isn't helpful, natural or nurturing either.

It's not as if anybody said to toss them outside in the storm and let them get over it.

She crated the dog, because to that individual dog, the crate was a safe, comforting place to be. The dog was also safe from running away or getting hurt.

Also, it only took two thunderstorms for the dog to be rehabilitated enough to be playing with other dogs outside during thunderstorms (Texas storm season, they come in thick and loud). This is why I said I wasn't sure if it would work for every dog. To me, those results tell me a couple of things about that individual dog:

1. It is able to self calm. Some dogs (and children) do this much better than others. For individuals who have problems self calming, it would be better to desensitive them without crossing their threshold. That would be ideal in most cases, but thunderstorms don't really have a volume switch.

2. The woman doing this also had a house full of calm happy dogs to model off of. When the human and all the other dogs in the house are happy and fine with what's going on, it's hard to stay anxious about it.

3. This individual dog probably had a stable, trusting base temperament to begin with. For a more anxious and fearful personality, they might have needed drugs or something to give them a calmer baseline to work with during desensitization.

harv didn't have any problem being terrified in the company of two dogs who don't care at all about storms and an owner who loves storms *shrug*.

anyway, patricia mcconnell on reinforcing fear and thunderstorms: You Can’t Reinforce Fear; Dogs and Thunderstorms TheOtherEndOfTheLeash

This is what I'm talking about when I say to try and not show that you are overly concerned or to make a huge fuss over the dog when he's afraid.

What I have done with my dogs from early on to try to ward off fear and alarm of not only thunder, but of gun shots (because my son and I target shoot on my own property)...was to get out their favorite toy or play fetch, act like this is a really cool time and bring out the best treats upon hearing the first rumbles. It was party time. I tried to make as pleasant an association as possible. Except for my child hood dogs, I've never had a dog since that was unduly afraid of thunder. They may not have been anyhow. There's no way to be sure that what I did affected their out look on these scary noises, but that's what I do when there's a thunder storm brewing or if my son is shooting.

If a dog is excessively or phobic about thunder storms and in the throws of reactivity, I think to place him where he is most comfortable is best, whether that means holding him on your lap or putting him in a dark, quiet, small place in the house. One of my child hood dogs was very afraid and she'd try to get into closets to hide. Sometimes we'd put her in the laundry room where it was dark and quieter. Patting her made no impression on her. She was too phobic to even be aware of that. The other dog, her son was not afraid of thunder for the first several years of his life, but over time, her reaction seemed to rub off on him and he gradually became much more nervous about thunder. I do believe in modeling from other dogs and to a degree from human to dog.

Anyway, yeah...IMO it is good to comfort without coming off as afraid or terribly concerned. Balance, I guess. In the example in that article, comforting a friend who had a break-in is a little different because humans understand spoken language and explanations. Dogs interrpet our intentions differently sometimes. You can't explain to a dog in words. All they have to go on is your demeanor; body language, facial expression, your vocal tones, sometimes a few words they know, whether you're nervous yourself or whether you're calm and happy.

With Chulita, who is mildly alarmed with big thunder storms, but not terrified, I invite her onto my lap, cover her up with a blanket, which she loves and tell her it's okay...you're fine. And I might give her some treats while we relax on the couch. Toker just barks at thunder but doesn't look very afraid and Jose` looks at both of them like, "what's all the fuss about?" It doesn't faze him. It's funny because out of all three, he's the more timid in other ways.

solution to dog anxiety

I have a dog who is petrified of thunderstorms. I also tried medication and it totally knocked out my dog and made her sick. I would definitely not recommend using medication. I did buy something called the Thundershirt, which is a shirt that you wrap around your dog to help them calm their anxiety. I was shocked to find that it really helped calm her down tremendously, would definitely recommend this solution.

Rescue Remedy from Bach's seems to really help a lot of dogs as well.

Argon is frightened of storms, and medication didn't work well for him. He does like to be wrapped up in a fleece blanket and put under the computer desk. I will hold him if I think he needs it, but usually the swaddling and being put in a small place works.