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Dog scared of thunderstorms...what to do?
Hello! I have an almost 4 year old lab/retriever mix, we've had him since he was 12 weeks old. Just in the past 1-2 years, he has started getting scared of thunderstorms (fireworks too).
He gets scared to the point that his whole body shakes and his teeth chatter. Eventually he stops shaking and then pants for about an hour. NOTHING we do helps with his shaking (bones, petting him, sitting with him, hugging him).
With all the crazy weather/storms we've been having, this has started occurring pretty often. I've read about how some anxiety medication can help (though I really don't want to have to put my dog on medication) as well as a 'thundershirt' for dogs.
Does anyone have the same problem? What did you do? Does those 'thundershirts' help? Any helpful advice would be appreciated! Thanks so much!
Re: Dog scared of thunderstorms...what to do?
Don't coddle/pet your dog. It reinforces the behavior
I open a closet door and let my dog hang out in the dark while she is like that.
When the storm passes, she comes out. Otherwise, I let her do her panting and shaking routine.
You can try desensitizing the dog to storms. I believe there's detailed instructions in one of Jean Donaldson's books, I can't recall which though. It involves playing storm sounds at very low volumes as background noise while something good is going on such as playing, getting treats, etc.
I have heard behaviorists say that not coddling during fear is based on a false assumption. The dog isn't going to act more scared because you're positively reinforcing fear behaviors any more than I would act more afraid or become more afraid of a giant spider crawling on me just because, say, DH was hugging me at the time. There's nothing wrong with comforting a frightened pup with soothing words, a confident demeanor, and some snuggles.
Also if you try the Thundershirt, I suggest putting it on randomly not just during storms to help not associate the seeing the shirt with scary storms. We use if to separation anxiety and general fear not storms though. The TS has a 45-day money back guaranatee so I'd say its worth the try.
You can also get Rescue Remedy and give that as the storm is approaching. We get ours at our local health food store and its the regular human version. We just squirt some in their mouth.
HTH