We are currently looking after a dear little happy dog, however she is terrified of storms . We’ve had a couple of really rough days in SA with thunder and lightening and the dog heard the thunder way before we did and desperately tries to find someone to hide ( inside the home ) and shakes so much she can only just stand ( she’s only about a the size of a medium size poodle ) She has tablets to take ….to calm her down , however they take up to an hour to work and make her sleep till the storm a has passed . My silky terrier i had, was a bit frightened of storms but not to the extent this poor little girl is. Wonder why some are just so terrified ,??? she’s a fairly pampered little one so would have never experienced any reason to be so stressed by storms. other then that she’s a perfectly happy / content dog. Has anyone had any pets who’ve been so terrified of storms like I’ve mentioned??
We had a bit of rain again last night ,and she started shaking ………getting really anxious We can hardly hear the rain due to being in a ground floor apartment , with 4 apartments above us We are right in the very edge of the city ( Adelaide ) in the most expensive homes / suburb in Adelaide. There must have been thunder somewhere…. but we couldn’t hear it ,and yes she tries to hide as well her favourite place is the dark laundry there is no windows being an apartment but that’s only for less then a minute. She doesn’t like cuddles during storms, so her tablet ( Prozac) is the only option to settle her Some most pets have super sensitive hearing cause she’s 15 years old and her owner said her hearing has deteriorated
My son and DIL have two Yorkies. One of them is terrified of storms. He is given medication and they turn the TV up loud to help drown out the thunder. The other one is not bothered by them at all. Same breed but one is frightened and the other is not. It can't be the environment because they got them when they were just old enough to adopt. They are from different breeders, though. I used to have a dog that was frightened by thunder. He would run hide in the shower in my bedroom. That seemed to be his safe spot. My little chihuahua isn't bothered by storms at all. Who knows why some are and some are not?
When I first got Poodle, he was terrified of any kind of loud noise, thunder, gunshots, fireworks, anything that made a loud noise. I would hold him on my lap and just talk to him and he would cuddle up to me and shake. When a thunderstorm signaled that first thunder boom, Poodle would leave wherever he was at and dash over to me, and I would hold him until the storm was over. If it happened at night, he just snuggled next to me in bed. It has taken several years, but gradually he has gotten over being so scared, and unless we have really loud thunder, he just looks to make sure I am nearby, and stays where he is at. I do not expect him to ever get over it completely, but he has come a long way from how he was when I first got him a few years ago.
Have you tried a thunder shirt, Kate? The last dog we had was terrified of thunder. He was an Australian Shepherd mix and a really easy dog to love. We tried several things including meds from the vet but we gave up on trying to cure him or help him. Whenever it thundered he sat in my lap with his head on my shoulder until it stopped. The things we do for the dogs we love. If I'd known he was going to be the last I would have tried to do even more.
The dog that I grew up with was a Japanese fighting hound that my father rescued from a sinking Japanese warship during WWII. He was just a small puppy and my dad stuck him down the front of his shirt and brought him back to his ship. He became the ship mascot and my dad stayed in Japan after the war for a few weeks until he got permission to bring him home on a Navy ship. He was a good and gentle dog with us kids but he was, at heart and by breed, a fighting dog and fight he did. He grew into a medium-sized dog but had the heart of a giant killer toward other dogs. He never lost a battle. He was the terror of the neighborhood. However, he was terrified of thunder. Absolutely petrified. He turned into a quivering mass of canine jelly during storms. He cried pitifully and had to be held tightly. I conjecture that this was a result of his year on a Navy ship during wartime in the Pacific in his puppy years. He never grew out of it and when he was at his worst, my dad would slip half a tranquilizer down his throat to calm him.
Yes she has a Thunder wrap / jacket she had it on all day yesterday …..just incase, we’ve been looking after her since Monday and we’ve had thunder everyday , that we’ve not even heard but it sets her off @Vada Bloom
we had little dog that would have a heart attack..so we made bomb shelter down under where he could go used pillows..cover top..one side open so I could pet him ..with my foot even..he could see out that side..calmed him immediately