Dogs vs Fireworks/Storms - Page 4

Dawulf, I would honestly try some herbal or homeopathic remedies- maybe some for vaccinosis as well as anxiety. In a situation as you're describing, you have to wonder what the heck changed. The only thing that jumps out at me from our conversations is the battery of vaccines she received all at once prior to her coming to you. That just makes zero sense (unless it's simply a matter of her behaving in the way that gets results) for a dog to go from zero noise issues, riding in small planes, large jets, gunshots, and plenty of large storms to a dog who is bothered by fireworks. Just weird. Noise sensitivity is common enough, but not sudden, at 4+ years old. 

Dawolf -  this may help you in what you are doing, if you can find 'em ?
In the UK there are a variety of "sound sensitisation" and "theatrical sound effects"  tapes & CDs available, which have
been used quite successfully by trainers and behaviourists.  Can't believe they won't have these in the States also ?
You start off playing thunder or fireworks really quietly as background noise; reward calm behaviour; very gradually
up the volume, keep rewarding relaxed dogs; after around a week or so of these stages, you can get them ignoring
really loud sounds.
If you can't find them in a 'real' music store maybe you can make up your own off the 'Net ?
Cannot promise you it will always work but it is worth a try -  I haven't had to use this method very much as my dogs
haven't in general been worried by storms / fireworks / guns, but the time or two I did try it it got a reasonable
degree of success, and quite quickly.

I've had something odd happen in my household, 2 out of our 8 dogs suddenly developed some fearfulness to thunderstorms a few months ago.  One of them is my 4 yr old female chihuahua mix and the other is one of my dad's male GSDs, 3 yrs old.  Neither of them are having really bad reactions and neither of them are escalating in their fearfulness. 
My chi mix simply burrows under the covers of my bed and shivers and my dad's male GSD wants to crawl up in someone's lap or if it is nighttime and we're asleep he goes into one of our bedrooms and tries to lay directly on top of the person in bed...basically he wants to be held like a baby. 

I'm baffled at what caused both dogs to suddenly start this stuff, they did not start at the same time, my chi mix started first and a few weeks later the GSD started.  Given their ages I don't think it's genetic.   Both dogs seem to be getting better, the GSD has pretty much stopped reacting and my chi mix doesn't shiver as much. 

---> I wondered if that Thunder shirt worked or not??

I used it for Joss, after people I know raved about it. They give a money back guarantee. Joss passed his temperament test with flying colors. I didnt even know they shot off a gun at temperament tests, but they did at Joss's and he didnt flinch. He never had a problem until one July 4th, when he was older, and  my neighbor's kids set off an M-80, next to our house. We have a large house, yet the whole house literally shook! I was standing in our marble bathroom, and I swear, the whole house moved- after I noticed the grout had cracked on the walls!!! I thought it was an explosion, it was so strong- it sure as hell sounded like one, and it came out of nowhere.  After that incident, Joss became afraid of thunder, if it was directly overhead. The thundershirt worked well for him. There is nothing to lose by trying it, as there is a money back guarantee. Its easy to put on, and I was so glad my friends who tried it told me about it. It made a BIG difference.

Strong nerves are one thing, but only a stupid dog would never react to anything. Every living creature and being has its breaking point, and there is no such thing as a person who doesnt get upset, or stressed, at one point or another.
Marjorie
http://www.gsdbbr.org The German Shepherd Dog Breed Betterment Registry
BE PROACTIVE!
http://mzjf.com --> The Degenerative Myelopathy Support Group http://www.mzjf.info/hgate Heaven's Gate  
 

Majorie wrote:

Strong nerves are one thing, but only a stupid dog would never react to anything. Every living creature and being has its breaking point, and there is no such thing as a person who doesnt get upset, or stressed, at one point or another.

No one said a dog cannot 'react' to a loud sound etc. THAT is
not an issue, in fact, I don't believe many would want a dog
that didn't have some sort of reaction.

However, the 'panic/fear' type reaction described by Dawulf is
not a reaction of a strong nerved dog.

Dogs can/should 'startle', it's how they recover that is the real
'defining moment'.

This is also not a 'one time' event according to Dawulf's own words.
This is a standard reaction to fireworks and storms from her dog.

I'm sorry of that was not the answer you were looking for Dawulf.
Had I known you just wanted people to say 'oh thats normal', I would
not have bothered to repsond. Not all in life with dogs is sunshine and
happiness. Sometimes one must take the rose colored glasses off.

Happy 4th everyone, I hope your dogs fare ok through the fireworks.

It's funny, because last night I wrote a post at 2am that said the same thing as workings dogs, then after reading it I said the heck with this, let people believe what they want and feel good. The issue isn't that a dog won't react, but rather how they react. When you are paid to help people with problem dogs, the first thing you learn is to assess causation. Abuse, environment, genetics, or combination of the three, or some of the three. Any good dog trainer can look at a dog interact for 15minutes and be pretty spot on in determining which of the above three is having primary influence on the problem,( in this case noise sensitivity) now I am excluding illness or older age cause OP did not indicate those factors were involved. The point is you have a hard time fixing something if you approach it without knowing causation. From the initial post of Dawulf, I have seen that set of circumstances many many times, and though it may not be exclusively weak nerves, dogs with strong nerves don't have this issue. We have to remember there are various degrees of nerves. I see this ALL the time when we wash out a dog from police academy from the sport world. It is almost always rooted in weak nerves, though the behavioral action, may be lack of courage, unsureness in strange environments, surface insecurities, noise sensitivities , reluctance in buildings at night, and others. But dogs with strong nerves do not have problems with any of those things and pass the academy. Many dogs are strong in some of the above mentioned things but fail dismally in others, while some dogs will marginally tolerate the above things but can't operate on full bore when these things are present....nerves. Dawulf, based on what you initially wrote, I felt this was part of the reason.....hey but maybe it isn't. Like I said...Good Luck to you and your dog.

The part being somewhat missed, it seems, is that the dog is nearly 5 years old and this just started. Why? What happened? THAT is why Dawulf is having a hard time accepting the "purely genetics" answer, imo. I am not getting that she just doesn't want to accept that the dog has weak nerves  and wanted people to say it's "normal"; she knows damn well it's not normal or she wouldn't be asking about it. The lack of acceptance, in my opinion, is based on the fact that it took the dog over 4 years to ever have a reaction like that which makes the "genetics" answer a tough pill to swallow. I tend to agree; this dog was as solid as they come her entire life, been lots of places, stayed with different people, in and out of airplaned, trained/tested under gunshots, and now all of a sudden she doesn't like storms that she used to not even bother to come into the house in??? Rather odd, imho. 

http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-practice-news-columns/pet-projects/thunderstorm-phobia-in-dogs-an-update.aspx

Interesting & even on topic.

Very good article Gaf!

Dawulf- you said this dog survived your car accident & 'shrugged it off'? Maybe not....
could that have been the traumatic episode that precipitated this new behavior? Most car accidents have a LOT of loud noise, although we humans don't focus on the noise so much, we focus on what we saw, especially if you're the driver. But your dog would certainly remember those noises....just a thought.

How you can recover a dog from such an event, I would like to learn, as well.

And I wondered about the thundershirt, too! That article offers some insight into why it works, by dissipating static build-up in the dog's fur!

And Jenni, I'd call authorities, too. That's not right. We have rednecks that think torturing animals is fun around here, too. You have to be persistant & consistant, but eventually they 'get it' if you call the authorities EVERY time...just watch out they don't try poison in the meantime!

I'm lucky, I guess. My dogs have no reaction whatsoever. They've been hearing these noises now & then since puppyhood, & it doesn't affect the household routine, so it doesn't affect them, I guess.

jackie harris