Fear

My dog is afraid of thunder storms and it is very difficult to reassure her, she has to hid but she also needs the reassurance of us being close by. A friend of mine has had some success in helping her dog to overcome a fear of thunder, but her method has not worked with my dog. How do you deal with this problem?

Hi there, I have a similar problem with my dogs with fireworks.......You can try giving 5-6 drops of rescue remedy - Rescue Remedy For Dogs | DailyPuppy.com

or chamomile tea & valerian:
How to Treat Anxiety in a Dog | DailyPuppy.com

Just recently I seem to be reading quite a few positive reports on these thunder shirts but I haven't tried them myself - Treat Your Dog's Anxiety | Wrap for Dog Anxiety | Thundershirt.com

I guess as you put this in the training section you are looking for more practical advice? So, what methods have you tried?

Trying the Thundershirt. My one dog is afraid of thunder, fire works, and gun shots. I will let u know how it works.

Another thing to try is to get a CD with rain sounds and thunder sounds and play it very very very very low at first and give her treats if she doesnt react to bad and let her get used to it with it not being to loud. Alot of dogs are afraid of thunder because its a very loud scary thing( had this problem with my old Aussie cattledog..) If you let her get used to the sound when its not loud and threatening it wont be afraid. You then just gradually increase the volume as time goes on but DONT RUSH IT or they will just get scared all over again. This sort of thing ca take awhile to work out. Im not a fan of using drops or medications but while you are working with the CDs, when a real storm comes along you could use some calming things just to keep the stress level down on the poor pup.

I have tried the rescue remedy and trying to keep her with us and distracted during a thunder storm. This works well enough with fireworks and bird scarers (they sound like gun shots), but thunder storms are different. She knows that thunder is coming long before we do she is a nervous wreck before there is any thunder, I suspect it has more to do with air pressure or atmosphere or something. I will find out more about the thunder shirt, it sounds interesting.

The CD with rain and thunder sounds is not really an option because I really don't think it is the noise that she is afraid of, it seems to be the air pressure or the atmosphere that troubles her more than anything.

Lots of luck, I hope it helps.

We're lucky in that we have two labs that are absolutely unafraid of thunder or other loud noise. The last two dogs we owned were deathly afraid of thunder storms. I guess it depends on the breed.

I don't think it is about the breed as much as it is about the dog. Some are just mote anxious than others.