Thunderstorm Phobia - Page 3

Shelley,

The best way to get over your fear of thunderstorm's is to stand under a large Oak tree during a thunderstorm holding a golf club.....and dont forget the shoe's with the steel cleet's.

Make me the benificiary in your will before you do....

LOL....  

Two Moons, that was soooooo naughty,but i like it.LOL   Liz

 Two Moons, 

I know you are kidding, but it is not so funny when I have seen exactly that as a paramedic. The guy was in cardiac arrest, had both femurs broken and everywhere his jeans had metal on them, that pattern was burned into his skin. We resuscitated him in the field, but sadly, the damage done to internal organs, including his heart, was too severe and he died later that day.....If you can hear thunder, go inside....period. Shelley too.

Weak nerve.....Can improve on it, but not fix it.....Yes it is genetic

     I find it funny my boy Duke, is a thunder runner, while most of my dogs are scared of it, Duke heads out after it. Now, whenever there is thunder, (which has been just about everyday here in NY), I have to be sure where Duke is. I have caught him just heading over the hill several times, chasing the thunder. He Loves It!!! Thank God he is great about coming so fast when I call him.(I'm lucky enough to live on the top of a mountain, surrounded by State Land, plenty of running room).

I can't recall who but he was a professional golfer and had been struck by lightening several time's during his career and told that story on Carson one night.  

Virginia Park ranger Roy C. Sullivan, according to Guiness was struck 7 time's and survived.

I remember lightening striking a poultry barn near my home once and the chicken's were still standing inside burnt to a crisp.

I myself took a shock once on a boat caught out on the river during a storm, I was touching the aluminum frame of the canopy.   I could see the spark inside my head.  That's why I'm so strange maybe...LOL

I strongly dissagree with weak nerve...  genetic yes, as long as there has been life there has been lightening,  I'm sure evolution has included the fear of lightening in all creature's.  Except Golfer's.

Try touching an electric fence sometime, see if you can do it once a day for a week.  Use one that has the weed wacker feature.  You will see that a time will come at some point where you can no longer force yourself to do it.

Animal's who are outside wild or domestic have felt the static charge at one time or another.   Cattle, Deer, Horse's, a lot of time's you will see them laying down out in the open, its the safest place to be.   Low to the ground away from tree's or structure's.

Kitkat,

Your dog is just not right in the head...LOL...:)

JK...lol

I have a female GSD that has EXTREME problems with thunderstorms and problems with Gun Shots or any thing that resembles the two like Dump Truck Tail gates slamming, blasting at a quarry 5 miles from here and a few other things.

Melatonin and Vit B complex may not work for your dog, it did nothing for my DeeDee.  I have tried the desensitizing with no results.  Training is impossible, when she goes into her fear zone in her brain, you can not reach her.  She can not respond to commands, there is no recognition in her eyes that she remotely understands what you are saying.   For her she HAS to be in her SAFE place, which is a VariKennel 300 in our walk in closet (yup a 300 for a 66 lb dog) she flies into the crate and curls herself up a in a little ball).  As long as we have current a box fan running near her crate helps to droned out the thunder, also the radio or TV or if it is really bad all of them, covering the crate or or the closet door so she can't see the lightening helps.  But if it is a really bad storm she needs me near her talking to her or she will tear the door off the crate, she has bent the chrome door on a VariKennel and another door on a different crate.  Tranquilizers work, but if they are in tablet form I have to give them at least 2 hours or more before a Storm, we don't always have that much time and I don't want to tranquilizer her if I don't have to.

She was doing really well until Mid June of this year.  I have been working with some Tellington Touch.  Some times I will put a T-Shirt on her or a Body Wrap.  I put her with my male most of the time, hoping that he could help her, but she has him now trained to bark if she is having problems.  He isn't upset for himself, he could care less about storms or what ever, but his little DeeDee is upset so he barks and I will swear it sounds like this "Mom Mom I can't help her, come and get your little bitch.... NOW.

So some times you have to try different things as all dogs don't respond to the same things.

Val

Don't know if this willactualy help, but might be worth a try.

Get a CD with "naturalnoises".CDs like this aresold everywhere, with noises from nature,like waterfall,ocean waves, jungle sounds, rain,rain forest, thunderstorms etc...

Of course, all we need is thunderstorms.

Ge your dog's favorite toy, or a favorite treat and play the Cd with thunderstorms at low volume while playing with her and doing your thing with him/her.itdoesn'thave to be one session,could be as many as needed, if possible during the entire session. They key is forthe thunderstomr sounds to be "dialedin" with the volume to be heard by the dog,but for the dog NOT to show the usual response we are trying to avoid. That takes a bit of trial and error on your side.Do low but audible volume first and see how it goes.

If that goes over well, increase the volume slightly, stilldoing the obedience,feeding etc... something powerfully distracting and enjoyable to do for the dog.

Keep at it with the volume going higher as long as the dog has indifferent attitude towards it. Don;tmake the big deal out of it if the dog cowers from it, pettign it softly and saying it's okay, it's okay, that's just reinforcing it to be nervous even more. Treat it as a "background noise", something you wouldnever pay attention to, like car noises from the highway far away.

Hope this helps. As other posters mentioned, could be genetic, could be imprinted, can't guess the cause.