Dog Afraid of Thunder.... HELP!!

[WhiplashTX]

My brother had this same problem, the only thing that even remotely worked was an electric fence.

Another thing you may try is viewing ports in the fence. One of my coworkers has a dog that is an absolute escape artist, he'll dig, chew, or break out of his yard by any means possible. He pretty much tried everything with only limited results, most things just slowed the dog down so he would catch it on his daily inspections of the property. Well, he moved about a year ago and the new house had a couple of 2'x3' holes in the fence covered by hog panel material. He was told by the previous owner it was so that the dogs could see out into the front and would behave. It works, his dog has yet to try to escape and spends a lot of time just looking out those holes in the fence.

[kumathebear]

Question?

My wife is a vet and sounds like the thunder coats can work to some degree. Better solution is what we had to do for my 13 year old lab for anxiety, fireworks and thunder is a pill called Zilkene. It works wonders!!!

Dave

Heard different things so what does your wife say causes dogs to be so scared of thunder??

[Hawkpuppy 1]

No telling. It's like asking what causes people to be scared of heights or scared of the dark. Just the way some animals are. My lab was fine up to about 7-8 yrs old and then it has gotten progressively worse as she's gotten older. With the Zilkene pill, she can go through as bad a thunderstorm you can have and be just fine.

Dave

[Draco]

The thundershirt works very well with my Lacy. The place she is the most comfortable is the seat in my truck. I leave the door open for her when company is here. She will stay in there for hours.

[mchildress]

Neeo try one on my wife she freaks and screams when it thunders.

[lovemylegacy]

Its been quit a while since I've posted on the Green Screen but I need some help! My blue lacy has always been a master escape artist. Hard to keep her in anything except a reinforced chain link kennel with concrete floor and a roof. I found out a long time ago that she is terribly afraid of thunder. If I bring her in or even put her in the garage she is usually okay. Well we moved houses and she has taken to the bigger yard great. However, living in El Campo it rains often enough for her fear of thunder to be a concern. I caught her digging under the gate the other day, stopped her and fixed the hole. Well today she successfully dug under. And then again. Now the hole has concrete blocks in it which will do until she finds another spot.

Is there ANYTHING yall have found to help with this? It seems like she's just looking for someone/something to "comfort" her. Even if she knows I'm in the house she will still freak out unless I go out there with her or bring her in. Usually its not a problem as I work from home but I worry about leaving and a storm coming. She grew up as a ranch dog and isn't afraid of loud noises like gun shots... only thunder. It can be 10 miles away and she still loses it. In a kennel she is forced to get over it and eventually calms down but building one isn't an option right now.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

We had one that was skeered of thunder, she would hide behind the dryer. Let her in the house.....straight to the bathroom. Seemed to help her.

[HoneyBee]

Not sure about the thunder. My Blue Lacy dug under my fence fence and ended up in my neighbors yard twice. I cut cattle/hog panels in half and laying them on the ground next to the fence. At first she still dug, but could only dig as far she could reach in the square. This was at least 2 years ago and now the grass is grown over the panels you cannot see them. Irritates my wife, to have "hog panels" in her back yard, but it worked and you cannot see them anymore although they are there.

X2 on the cattle/hog panels they work

[BBRU]

Got a black lab that loses his freakin mind when it thunders. I have to heavily sedate him if it rains

[IOWA BOW HUNTER]

If it's a really bad storm most dogs freak but if it's just a normal storm and shes scared I'm not sure you can do that much about it

[Ducksmith]

[Starman]

Google Thundershirt, buy it and try it. Seems like an odd concept at first, but works amazingly well.

You should try this.

Our neighbors tried this on their Lab mix, and if I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it.

She was a freak during thunderstorms, but the 1st time they put the Thundershirt on her she was fine. I was there the 1st time they tried it, and she was a different dog.

If I had a dog like that I would try it.

[one-shot]

For sure try the thundershirt. I have a GSP that is deathly afraid of thunder. It was terrible, he would scratch the door until I would let him in, them he would pace around and slobber everywhere. Now i put his shirt on and he lays down on the floor and is calm as can be. I'm sure it doesn't work for every dog but its worth a try, its only around 40 bucks.

[Dusty Britches]

I have a lot of suggestions -

1. Thundershirt - if you want, you can put a small tshirt on her and wrap an ACE bandage tightly around her front chest and behind her legs, over her back. We've used that on Pistol's dog when she forgot her shirt.

2. Do not "comfort" the dog - let her know that anything other than lying down in a crate or quietly in the house/ garage is not acceptable. these are dogs, not humans and "comfort" is seen as approval for the behavior.

3. Some sedatives from the vet can help, but like a Thundershirt, it must be administered before the thunder starts.

4. To keep her from digging out - the best and longest lasting solution I've found is to clear out about 6-8-12" from the fence and about 2" deep. Lay chicken wire down and back cover it with the dirt. (The chicken wire comes in 12" strips, so I dig out 12".) The grass will grow over it and you will forget it is there, but if the dog digs, they will hit that wire quick and quickly learn to stop digging. This has stopped hard core Labs from digging. Even years from now when you have new dogs, this will still work.

[scrapwave]

I bought a thundershirt for my Golden Retriever who is so terrifed of thunder and fireworks she will hide under the desk---not even being inside the house in enough to calm her down. She still gets scared---but not completely terrified to go hide under the desk. Last night when that thunderstorm came through she didn't even wake me up (she sleeps on the bed with me and won't get off the bed until I get up so she whines at me and moves around all over the bed until it wakes me up) but she didn't last night---and she didn't even have her thundershirt on. So they do help calm their fears! She still hides when fireworks are going off---but doesn't seem to be as terrified anymore with her shirt on.