[brankulo]

here in colorado we are having t-storms very often these days, mostly afternoon. Lulu become fearfull of thunder lately and i am seeking some advices. when she hears thunder she would go hide inside her crate. the problem is if there is a loud and longer thunder she would take off and try to escape the house and yard.
we have doggie door installed so she can go in and out even if we are not home. already twice during the storm, when we were not home she took off, jumped over fence and run away. fortunatelly our neighbours got her both times, but it worries me because we are taking turns with my wife coming home from work every 4 hours. the weather here changes instantly so it is hard to predict the storm. any advices how to get her used to sounds of thunder?

 

[Mercutio]

Oddly enough, someone sent me a link today to a site about using classical music to calm dogs down. I doubt this will solve your problem on its own - sounds as though lulu is really sensitive but it might help to first calm her during storms when you are home.

http://www.throughadogsear.com/

There is also a CD called "sounds scary" which you can use to desensitive her to the noise of a thunderstorm. I think a book comes with that explains how - basically you start with the sound turned down very low and gradually build up her ability to tolerate it.

Also, you can get something called a "thundershirt" which was developed to help calm nervous dogs and dogs scared of thunder. It's basically a wrap and I don't understand the science behind it but the feeling of being snuggled into something apparently helps. Someone posted something recently about how if they catch their puppy and wrap her in a towel it calms her down immediately - would be the same principle. Look under the "normal or insane" thread.

Anyway I got sent all these things because Merc reacts to sudden movement, not to noise and he is fine with thunderstorms so I can't vouch for any of it. Just some ideas you might want to look into. But I reckon you're going to have to work on desensitising her somehow which will be a long process and i'm not sure what an immediate solution is. :-[

 

[Brodie]

We've also left the radio on with classical, country (which seemed to make him bark more lol!) or talk shows. Now we just leave the air purifier going during the day when we're not home which acts as a white noise in the bedroom. That along with the white noise coming from our window air conditioner ... our boy seems to do well. We still crate him with his Kong and nyla bones while we're at work and have our dog walker come but I think he got used to listening to the hum of everything and doesn't pay much attention to the storm.

 

[brankulo]

i downloaded whole bunch of thunder sounds and have her listen to it. i dont think this therapy works with lulu though. i actually found that it is not the loud sound she is scared of but it is the uncertainity of the source the sound comes from. if she can identify the sound source she is fine. she would walk curiously around the stereo while the storm sounds are played. maybe i should get surround system.

 

[Mercutio]

My other half would love such a great reason to get surround sound

Do you think maybe she is reacting to the electrical part of the storm and not just the noise? You know how you can sort of feel a big storm before it hits?

Not that that helps you any.....

 

[brankulo]

she definetly senses when the storm is close, even if you can not yet hear thunder, but she is fine, until the first thunder sounds. if we are home, she would either come to us or to her crate. it is when we are not there, she escapes.

and yes, i need to be very creative to convince my wife to find surround sound any useful. ;D