Thunderstorm Phobia - Page 1

 Hi Everybody,

I was wondering if any of you had had a dog who suffer from thunderstorm phobia?? Did you rehabilitate the dog? can it pass?

I had an experience before with a belgian sheepdog who always jump in the bathtub when he heard thunder (and this dog had a sch. 2!!) It has never pass even if we tried to focus is attention on something else (doing protection work in the rain ot try to play etc.) but it never worked.

This is a dog I have sold, he is 5 years old now and it is getting worse.  The lady told me they have tried many things and now we are trying medication but they're is something very strange.  I had to dog for boarding at the beginning of summer and in my place he doesn't act crazy like he does when he is home.  I figured it was because of the other dogs who are very calm during storms (some even go outside and play). Anyway he does look a little anxious but never to the point of destroying things like he does is his place.

Also..is it genetic?? This is the first time it's happening to dogs that I have bred but there is 2 dogs in this litter( this male and a female but she is less freaked out) with the same phobia.  These are very strong minded dogs usually when there is no storms.  The mother of those 2 dogs never had any phobia, very calm an assertive.  could it be on the father's side?? Or did anyone notice it could pass from generation to generation?? 

I adopted a adult male years ago who absolutely freaked out during thunderstorms. I did rehabilitate him. Everyday I put a recording of storms on the CD player and play it at an extremely low volume. Every couple of days I increased the volume. After a while the sound of the storm just became a normal background sound and he stopped reacting when we had a real storm. I remember I found the recording of the storm on a halloween sound effects CD and just programmed the player to play that one thing over and over. Hope that helps.

I don't know about phobias and genetics, but I do know that phobias are the result of a negative experience in childhood (usually occuring between 1-5 years of age). As adults, most people can't remember the negative experience because it happens so young. The reaction people with phobias have is the result of them experiencing the same fears and emotions they did during the initial imprinting.

I suspect that dogs can be negatively imprinted in the same way.  I know that with my pups I have always distracted them with play or a toy during their first couple of storms and have, fortunately, never had a problem since.

Karen

Fear of a thunderclap is natural.  

I could show you human's who hide from lightening too.    This fear can also come from actually feeling the static charge of a thunderstorm either directly or indirectly.   A skiddish mother can pass on a fear to her pup's.  Some dog's are not gun shy but lightening is far more intense and harder to condition out if not impossible. 

An electrical shock is something no one forget's especially an animal. 

I have seen dog's who pay no attention to gunfire but they alway's fear a loud nasty thunderstorm, its natural.

Have you ever been touched by lightening?     You'll never forget the experience I promise.

Its genetic yes, from the beginning of time.   Not a mental problem.

You can condition pup's yes, but if one ever feel's the charge you'll never get them to forget that.

Animal's that live outside , livestock and so on know what lightening is.   They can feel it even when it's mile's away.

JMO

 I have one that has gotten better with a lot of work. Have worked with clients with ones that are worse then mine. I think that it's not "either/or" genetics or bad experience, it's a combo. I think they can be genetically predisposed for it, then something in the environment happens that creates it. It's a nature AND nurture kind of thing. But I think genetics does play a role. 

There are lots of things that can be tried. I've had people have success with wiping a bounce sheet over their dog before a storm (specifically the dogs that are scared of the static electricity, those are a lot of times the ones that jump into the tub). There is also something called a "storm defender" that I've been talking with trainers on another list and many of them swear by it, My own mixed breed dog is sound sensitive in general and I'm not sure I'll try one with him. What helped with him was the B complex in the vetraceuticals I give him as well as I give him melatonin during scary times, and I completely and utterly ignore the frantic behavior or make him work through it. The CD's helped too (gunshy cd's). he used to eat his paws raw or chew through walls, now he just shakes and froths and paces. 

Also make SURE that nobody is inadvertently reinforcing the fear. They feel sorry for the dog and treat them differently or stroke them and try to calm them, but it reinforces the fear and makes it worse. 

FWIW

 Oh btw, my OWN dog with it started at 15 months when we introduced the gunshots, and he's now 9 years old. He's MUCH better then he used to be...for the longest time there he somehow associated obedience with gunshots and we lost much of his obedience. Tried to associate getting a bite with a distant popping and he refused to bite for awhile...it CAN backfire! He's just a mixed breed (shepherd/malinois type X) so we just bring him out for fun sometimes. But while it did get much better, it never passed. Many of my client dogs have lessened it with work though. 

 I do think it was reinforce in the beginning but not for long (long enough tought).  This dog started having this at 3 years old..before that nothing or maybe it started very  slowly and these folks never saw it happens..

They didn't try the desensibilisation with a Cd or sound in the background yet but I sure will proprose it.

Is the're a way to know if it's the sound..the barometric pressure or the static?? Is the dog showing different behaviors for differents kind..or maybe it's all of the 3.  Like I say he is very different when he is here with other dogs..It's calming him to see other not reacting. Does that make sense or it's my imagination!!

 The advice about using a recording of a storm at very low volume is correct as one way to desensitize, however, unless I missed it reading very quickly through these posts, one critical aspect has been left out. You MUST also begin to make a new meaning to the sound. So you do something fun with the dog, like play with its' favorite toy, pet it a lot, play with it some other way or give it food. Do a little at a time and go SLOWLY. What you are trying to do is desensitize and that requires small incremental exposure. If you can get the dog, for example, really hungry, then take a really special treat and put on the recording at the lowest possible volume. If you can hear it, the dog can really hear it because their hearing acuity is so much finer than is a humans. So be careful and make sure it is really low volume, for you, just barely perceptible. Do this exposure/reward (however you do that based on my suggestions above) daily, perhaps doing it only, for example, just before mealtime when the dog really is hungry. Stay at the lowest level until you are certain you see no difference in the behavior of the dog. It might take a day, it might take several weeks at the first level. Increase very slowly and always make sure you are carefully observing the dog for the most subtle of signs that it is bothered. If it is bothered, then go back to the previous level. Keep a log of level, reactions, what you used as a positive motivator etc. Don't rely on your memory. In time you probably can make this dog a lot more comfortable.

It is true that some noise sensitivity is genetic and there is a lot of literature that suggests some dogs ARE naturally more sensitive to sound than others. In reality, such sensitivity is good as these would be the canids in the wild that would alert more quickly to intruders in the area. However, taken at its worst, and especially in how humans use dogs, noise sensitivity can be created when someone does something stupid to expose a dog to a loud sound unexpectedly, especially during certain developmental periods. And finally, dogs are used by humans in capacities that put them around gun fire, canon fire, fireworks, loud machinery, loud vehicles, backfiring vehicles etc. So such dogs, if they are to be useful, must either be selected for NOT being particularly sensitive, or worked with slowly as well to build a tolerance for such noises. Too often I have seen SchH people, for example, just walk up to a dog with a firearm and shoot it off. That is stupid, hurts the dogs ears, just like in humans and may cause a problem with a perfectly good dog.

Good luck. If you need more help, I have some other specific techniques.

A fear of thunderstorms is not a phobia; intelligent working canines can hear the subsonic components of impending natural disasters that we cannot (or the audible portions that we choose to dismiss as an acceptable risk), and do the smart thing, as in crawl under the bed or head for an available basement. Our family GSD that we had when I was a child was intelligent enough to head for the southeast corner of the basement when there was a tornado approaching from the southwest.

We humans think we are so damn smart....

 I agree with you..we think we are very brilliantLoL

I know it is a natural thing to hide in a secure place but this dog get really nervous and doesn't seem to find a place where he feels safe.  He almost passed trough a patio door one time.  If only he didn't feel THAT bad.  She is afraid that one time he'll hurt himself or someone by being so nervous.

And I know that usually it get's worse..I just hope it's not too late since he is been doing this for 2 years.  But I must say that I think they're is always hope for dogs..With work and patience we can usually rehabilitate but it takes time.  They have a wonderful capacity to ajust.  It's natural Instinct also.