I have a friend with a female Border Collie (not a puppy). This dog has stable nerves otherwise but goes crazy during thunderstorms. She will hurl herself against a door and scratch at the door constantly.
Questions: Does anyone know what dogs that exhibit this fear are reacting to during storms? Is it lower barometric pressure (the dog seems to get hyped up before the storm arrives)? Are they sensing shock waves from thunder at a great distance?
And does anyone know any way of treating the problem? Another friend has a SchH3 female GSD with no gunfire issues that still freaks out during thunderstorms.
My dogs don't even seem to notice storms so I'm afraid I don't have a clue of how to proceed here.
My dog was very stable and calm for 4 years of her life- when she turned four she became scared of storms, it was the damndest thing in the world. I later found out thatmy roomate at the time, had a dog, that was scared of storms so she would put her dog in bed with her and stroke and calm her down during the storm, and she had gotten Hanah, my dog, in on the act. Well I found out and reemed the heck out of her and told her to ignore my dog and put her out of the room during a storm.
Now when a storm comes, Hanah will whine a bit and try to climb into my lap, I make her get off me and then I give her a command, Platz. I enforce the command just like any other time and other than that I ignore her. If a loud clap of thunder happens she will sometime jump up on me. I just push her off and give her an obedience command. I dont ever put a hard correction on her for fear that would make things worse. I just give her easy enough commands to follow and reward for good behavior. She has gotten much better.
Tell your friend not to coddle the dog or try to soothe the fear out of the dog, as this only makes it worse. But to ignore the dog or give a command and tell her to pretend like it just an ordinary day. I dont think this is something that can ever be cured, per se, but maybe you can control it, like I do with Hanah. I will say also that if Hanah is in drive she does not notice the storm and will work right through it. So if you friends dog like to play, maybe make that association with the storm also, storm comes I get to play- make it a positive thing.
Questions: Does anyone know what dogs that exhibit this fear are reacting to during storms? Is it lower barometric pressure (the dog seems to get hyped up before the storm arrives)? Are they sensing shock waves from thunder at a great distance?
Hey Pete you’re the meteorology major. Didn’t they teach you that in met 301.Why do dogs freak?
From what I read it could be one of the above or all of the above.
Here's a website that has some good info. http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/lib-prob.htm
Scroll down to Loud Noises/Thunder
Gee, Milt... you really know how to bust a guy out... did we go to school together or something? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
All I remember of Met 301 is drawing a whole bunch of skew-T diagrams.
Thanks for the link to Dr. P's. I will share it with my friend.
And GSDSAR, thanks a lot for your carefully considered advice too.
Pete I never met you I just have a little black book on all you guys. For instance we have a moderator that's a cross-dresser. I'm not going to mention names. All I could tell you is that he has a rotary engine in his automobile.
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