My Golden Retriever vs thunderstorms

[Clark94T]

Okay here is my 4year old. Her name is Savannah and she's a very sweet gal. Only problem is she freaks out during thunderstorms. Up in the bed, goes into the corner of my bedroom, scratches at the wall like shes trying to dig a hole. She pants like crazy and her heart is beating so fast.

I always know when a storm is coming b/c she'll usually go to the corner of the room and stare at the wall an hour before it gets here. Once the thunder/lightning comes is when she starts going nuts. What should I do. I've tried putting her in a few rooms w/ TV and stereo on, but it doesn't work as she doesn't like to be left alone. She will just scratch and pound on the door until I let her out.

Vet gave me some pills for her, but I've yet to try them out. I'd rather not, but I might have to next time she keeps me up all night.

Thanks,
Clark

[Dragonfly5338]

Hi Clark!!!

[Clark94T]

Hey Val! Good seeing you guys last night. Any thoughts on how to keep the pooch calm during storms?

[The Ren]

What kind of pills are those? Working for a vet I can tell you there is prolly only 2 ways to help your pooch... Try either benadryl (for her a full pill) or I would say ask your vet for some aceapromazine. It's a sedation pill but you have to give it to her 30 min before the storm starts.. Either those or you can sit cuddled with her.. Other than that.. your SOL hun...

[Dragonfly5338]

Yeah, or one idea I've heard of - they're kinda expensive, but it's like a glade plug in, and it supposedly has a homeopathic remedy which keeps dogs calm. Ask your vet about it - they recommend it for dogs with EXTREME seperation anxiety, which would probably qualify in your puppy's case, as well.

I'm not a big fan of medicating dogs unless you really have to, I think usually pills have worse side effects than what they're intended to do.

Dunno what you can do behaviorally, it seems that she has herself pretty worked up over thunderstorms, she prolly has had a bad experience with them. Consider yourself lucky tho, Jonna's dog Tex gets MASSIVE shits whenever it storms and he freaks out, spraying it everywhere, hahaha!

[The Ren]

my old lab used to have seizures suring thunderstorms..

[300z]

well it has to do with the air pressure or somthing like that i was told my dog freaks too
their ears are just so sensitive that it bothers them with the slightest changes

[Crowml]

First of all you don't want your dog geeked on acepromazine. With the frequency of thunderstorms here I would not advize giving ace every other week. Personally I would suggest you try behavior extinction first. One of the primary stimulus that triggers dogs negative reaction to T-storms is the overpowering rumble of thunder. Most dogs don't like noise, combined as a audio-sensatory trigger, the stimulus is 100% terrifying for them.

The way to overcome this: download some thunder mp3 bits. Hook up your stereo and turn the subs all the way up. Slowly raise the vol until the dog reacts, as soon as he does have him sit, stay near and praise him. Distract the dog to focus on the commands and praise him as you continually raise the volume. If the exercise becomes to much for him, take a 30min break or pick up the next day. Increase the volume from sessions to session and continually treat/praise.

I did this with my current dog and it worked about 80%. During helacious storms he still reacts, but in that case I'm not usually sleeping either. In this case I usually lock him in a bathroom and turn a stereo up, it seems to help a bit.

Try these two things before medication, if all else fails medicate. But go ahead and discard the homeopathic plugins. Their success rate is less than the placeebo in double blind studies. (plugin type, some homeopathic oral drugs are passable)