We had a big thunder storm this afternoon. There was one huge clap of thunder and my little dog lept into my lap. That was quiet an accomplishment since I was sitting at the computer at the time and she had to leap up over the arm of the chair. Does anyone else have a dog that is afraid of thunder?
I have 2 dogs afraid of storms. My daschound is terrified and runs under the bed if my husband isn't home otherwise she's in his arms the whole time and believe it or not my pit bull runs and hides in our pantry at the first sign of a storm usually when the rain starts to hit the sky light he's gone until it's over.
I worked at our local humane society for a number of years. We had a huge pitbul turned in for rehoming and he was terrified of storms. He would start to howl at the first sign of rain and just tremble all over. I would go into his pen and sit on the floor with this 120lb dog on my lap with his head on my shoulder. We would sit like that until the storm cleared away. I lived just a mile or two from the shelter and if it started to storm in the night, I would get into my car and go over and sit with him to keep him from being so afraid.
(08-19-2014, 07:49 PM)evelynmcgregor Wrote: [ -> ]We had a big thunder storm this afternoon. There was one huge clap of thunder and my little dog lept into my lap. That was quiet an accomplishment since I was sitting at the computer at the time and she had to leap up over the arm of the chair. Does anyone else have a dog that is afraid of thunder?
Hi Evelyn,
I am from the Far East and I live in a place where storms and typhoons passes as much as how many letters there are in the English alphabet. I and my pet dog buddies practically live all the days of our lives experiencing not only thunderstorms and lightnings which really frightens us especially my buddies. But since this is our home, we have learned how to adopt to our regular weather pattern. I once wrote an article about how we try to cope during the storm and below is the link for your reference:
http://petskeepersguide.com/forums/Threa...-the-Storm
Its a regular thing we call: LIFE SURVIVAL
It seems like some dogs are bothered more by storms than other dogs. We had a little Peke mix who was absolutely terrified any time it started to thunder, or after a ballgame and they had fireworks. At the first sound of thunder, she would be barking at the back door if she was out in the back yard; and then usually hiding under the bed as soon as she came in. Sometimes , she just jumped in my lap and shivered while the storm passed over.
Chipper really doesn't care about thunderstorms, and unless if is one of those huge thunderclaps that seem to hit right on top of the house, he simply ignores them. Of course, he is always right beside me; so maybe he is already where he feels safe.
Dogs can slo learn from other dogs sometimes. My friend had a lab who was terrified of thunder, and then got a little Pom who was not bothered by storms at all. After she saw how afraid the lab was of the storms; soon the Pom was afraid as well.
I agree that many dogs are afraid of storms because their hearing is more sensitive than than that of humans. In particular, our pit bull named Sheena always panics when the rain is pouring and thunders are just raging every minute. She would run all over the house, going under tables, huddling next to us. It's really sad when I see her acting like this. We always do our best to comfort her, but to no avail. One time, there was a really bad thunderstorm. Sheena came running into the house, and she almost hit my 80-year-old grandmother. Thank goodness my grandmother wasn't hurt. Though she was safe, one of the flower vases on the table got hit by the running Sheena. Oh well, we just thought that at least the vase can be replaced.