Good afternoon from sunny south georgia.

Thunderstorm season is upon us. A couple of weeks ago, we had a scare when our newer dog, Chance, got out of the back yard and we had the hardest time understanding how he got out as the space under the fencing seemed far too small for him to fit - my thought was that he must have seen something that he wanted very badly in order to get through, like a cat. He really hates cats.

Unfortunately it appears that that escape, and the one yesterday, were both motivated by thunderstorms. He escaped from the same area of the yard, only not through the same hole, he actually broke the privacy fence slat clean off about 4' up from the ground.

Thunderstorms are normally a daily occurrence here during the summer months. I'm formulating a plan and want to run it by the folks here for ideas and adjustments as we go;

- adding l-theanine to diet along with melatonin on days with forecast storms (instead of the spontaneous ones)
- getting a calming wrap (muzzle/back of head) and a compression shirt (chest) to see if either help with behavior inside the house. Clearly the calming wrap cannot be left on during the day while we're gone. I do not think leaving the compression shirt on would be a good idea as he's pretty destructive, even when left with preferred destructible toys. He'll take novelty every time! (unless it's food)

If the above does not seem to help in the long term, I'll be talking to the vet about prescription grade drugs - I swore I'd never have a dog on Valium but it's pretty obvious that he's willing to hurt himself when he's worked up and we're not home.

Also, he does pace in his crate, not nearly as much as he did when he was on crate rest, but the other night after there was some distant thunder, he paced the kitchen incessantly and I could not seem to engage him at all, so I simply crated with some peanut butter stuffed toys.

I've also been introducing him to raw this week and I include this more for amusement than anything - he's lukewarm with food, always has been, usually the first 2 times he's interested and eats his fill but after that he'll simply leave the kibble, frozen kong, etc. He enjoyed the turkey neck and organs that were his first raw test. The first chicken quarter took a very long time for him to finish, but he did finish. The next day he would not eat the quarter unless I stood near him(outside for cleanliness as I figured he'd need to toss it around a bit in order to figure out how to disassemble it). Yesterday, he refused the quarter in his crate other than chewing the spine a bit . Today I cut the quarter in pieces (drum/thigh) and again fed outside since we'd had success there before - he ate the drumstick then (after I was going to lift the other piece and take it inside) accepted the thigh, dug a hole and buried it He took about 2 minutes, carefully covering that raw chicken up with his nose. I told him that I was very sorry but the fire ants would come for it before he did. No buried chicken, Chance.

I know the general rule with picky eaters is to pick the food up after 15 minutes and feed the same meal at the next scheduled time - now that we have him on a high-protein kibble, he no longer loses weight as easily, but we still leave him with that measured portion overnight as he was previously losing weight at a rather alarming rate. (Hip bones started showing up) No rush, but clearly raw diet is not going to be the (immediate) solution for his inappetance.

About the thunder ...

Is this his first experience with thunderstorms?

I understand the amino acid l-theanine. I'm not 100% clear on this use for the hormone melatonin. I know it can be useful in maintaining the circadian rhythm, but what would it do for this anxiety reaction?

Where is he when you're gone during thunderstorms? Is he left crated or loose? (I wasn't clear from this: "Also, he does pace in his crate, not nearly as much as he did when he was on crate rest, but the other night after there was some distant thunder, he paced the kitchen incessantly and I could not seem to engage him at all, so I simply crated with some peanut butter stuffed toys.")

Do you have a bathroom (any room) with no window? That is, a room with no exposure to the outdoors?

I doubt this is his first experience with thunderstorms as he used to live in an outdoor kennel. This is his first storm season with us - they usually are most common between May and October here.

Normally, he and Duke are loose in the fenced yard when we are gone during the day. At night, they are inside with us, crated during sleeptime. He still crate paces a bit. Our routine consists of a walk around 8 pm at night

I have found reference to use of melatonin in dogs with anxiety - we use it frequently in the home for sleep issues so it occurred to me as an aid that is relatively safe (when giving the appropriate tablet and not a xylitol-formulated meltaway)

Unfortunately, the bathroom is flat out not able to contain a crate of any size and is the only window-free room in the house. He's not able to be free in the bathroom as he chews surfaces/corners.

The current solution to keep him safe is going to be crating when inclement weather is inbound, though it's not nearly as much fun as all day wrestling in the back yard, I'm sure. Weather.com today states "Occasional thunderstorms likely to begin at 4:30 pm." so lunchtime drive-by crating is happening in about 10 minutes.

Random idea: what do you think about the idea of playing an audio recording of thunderstorms as a way to work on desensitizing?

I've never done this (I've been lucky in the thunderstorm fear department)---but it seems to me that this could potentially be worked on like any desensitizing. Or even the kind of "bang the pots and pans" desensitizing that is done for young puppies.

If you could find/download a recording of a thunderstorm, you could either work on it with duration (i.e.. 1 minute thunderstorm, several times a day)--or volume (how low in volume can you play it that the dog doesn't react?...then gradually increase the volume over time.)

I realize there's probably more to the whole issue of thunderstorms than just sound (barometric pressure maybe? ozone smell? I dunno.) But maybe if you could approach it as a sound desensitizing challenge it would give you a new way to think about it.

If I can get to a place where we KNOW he's comfortable and then work backwards from there (working just under his threshold) I think that's something to try. I'm pretty sure it'll take us a while to start with that, however, he's pretty reactive and tense in general. He does not yet settle outside his crate, in the house, unless he has a toy to work on.

The change in pressure on a body during storms down here is pretty intense even for humans, not like what I grew up with at all.

delete duplicate

"Unfortunately, the bathroom is flat out not able to contain a crate of any size and is the only window-free room in the house. He's not able to be free in the bathroom as he chews surfaces/corners. "

Ah, gotcha.

What I was thinking of, more than a crate in the bathroom, was the dog in the tub (with plenty of padding, of course, and only if he is able to get in and out at will).

I've read a couple of times about the solid walls of a tub (added to the fact of a windowless room) helping extremely thunder-reactive dogs.

But if he's a chewer, that may be only a "when we are at home with him" thing to try.


Can the yard be secured now that you know he can escape?

I am not sure how we can secure against him breaking boards in half (former life as a kung-fu master) We could protect against him going under or over, but through? Potentially we could try putting chain link up as well to make it harder for him to reach the boards. There's always the e-fence but I think that would be potentially catastrophic and might make any storm anxiety worse - he freaks out, hits the stim and associates pain with the storm. Yikes.

We will be vigilant in checking the weather and I will simply plan for a summer with a lot of driving on my lunch break If this management along with the plan to work on eliminating/reducing anxiety does not work, I'll need to look at a 3rd party having him for part of the day and/or daily boarding. Too bad the boss will never let me bring him to work!

ETA: I just had an idea. Some sort of galvanized hardware cloth stapled to the crossboards above and below... We'll see how that works

 Quote: Tracy Collins

I realize there's probably more to the whole issue of thunderstorms than just sound (barometric pressure maybe? ozone smell? I dunno.)

Sorry I don't have any suggestions or ideas to offer, but I just wanted to mention that, in the case of my one dog who is moderately fearful of thunderstorms, I have observed that he flinches if there is a flash of lightning that can be seen from inside the house. Then the thunder hits and he's looking for a hiding place. So in his case, and I'm sure many other dogs, it's both the thunder and the lightning, and probably other things such as Tracy mentioned that we humans are unaware or only vaguely aware of.

You might try playing music during the times when there are thunderstorms. That way the sound of the thunderstorm won't be the only sound that the dog hears. Some dogs respond well to this.