Thunder - my hound is a nervous wreck!

Glowing

Hi all,

My poor greyhound - all of this thunder and rain has reduced him to a shivering wreck! What can I do to help him through this? At times like Halloween, we would give him a sedative but thats only a short term solution.

He seems to sense when there's a storm brewing, and even the slightest rumble will have him jump out of his bed and run into the front-room, drewling and panting. Its breaking my heart!

Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks.

peasant

Not a lot you can do really, other than acting as if nothing has happened and thunder is the most normal thing in the world.

When he's frightened, he'll look to you for guidance. The cooler you are the cooler he should become. Don't aknowledge his fear by trying to console him.
Continue your normal routine ...maybe try and do a few "sit/stay" excercises before he gets too worked up to "function" anymore.

Problem with thunder is that it happens more or less out of the blue, so it's hard to get used to.

Gillie

What he said.
Same goes for fireworks at halloween.

My small mongrel goes nutz!

Alfasudcrazy

My dogs seemed a bit concerned about it too but when they seen me act as if it was nothing much they just went back to sleep. Although I did give them a little cuddle and tell them it was all ok which they seemed to understand.:)

cotton

My mams retriever is terrified. He's a rescue that was left out in it & 5 years later he's still a quivering wreck.
Like others have said, act like there is nothing wrong. You can always give them some rescue remedy or Dr Elixirs emergency drops to calm them down.
There is a cd you can buy that is supposed to help.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Off topic I know.

But cat's being the curius things they are. Mine ran outside to see what was going on!.

It was hilarious, everytime there was a crack of thunder Sammy looked in the window like 'WOW, This is brilliant that one was even better than the last"...

Schlemm

You can get homeopathic stuff from the vet, we used it, didn't make a massive difference but it seemed to relax our dog a bit.
Our dog has grown out of her fear over the years now, although she still get scared sometimes. Once there's any guns/thunder/fireworks, etc. we just act as if nothing's wrong and she calms down a bit eventually.

houndsoflove

You could try playing music when the thunder is happening. You could also buy a CD with the thunder sounds and weather noises to get your dog used to the sounds.

fits

houndsoflove wrote:

You could also buy a CD with the thunder sounds and weather noises to get your dog used to the sounds.

good idea...
I live on a game estate with shooting twice a week over the winter months.. My dogs are no bother with thunder/fireworks/gunshots... In fact they comfort me in a thunderstorm.. I'm a thunder wimp:o

peasant

Real thunder has a bit more going for it than the canned version on CD.
The static electricity, the shaking, the deep rumble etc, etc ...

The CD might not work for desensitising

fits

peasant wrote:

The CD might not work for desensitising

Unless OP has massive bassbins maybe....;)

atgate

My two used to go crazy at thunder (and fireworks etc.). But they go even more crazy (in a good way) if I throw a ball for them. So now if there is any thunder or loud noises I just throw the ball and they quickly forget about the "distraction" of a loud noise. After a bit of that they now just associate the noise wth fun, and just sulk a bit if I don't play along or if I'm not there.

Alfasudcrazy

Living beside student apartments means my dogs are used to most strange noises by now. Fireworks are a frequent occurrence - and not just at Halloween. They know the students messing screams by now too and take no notice and quite like the thumping of rave music at 4am.

Late night back garden parties are also intriguing to them but they hate barbecues as they never seem to get invited. :rolleyes:

Glowing

Speaking of BBQ's, our old dog (RIP) used to bark at anything when it was too hot to eat, we found out one year when a sausage fell off the grill!

pd101

My dog is having a terrible time at the moment, she is terrified of all the thunder we've been having recently and on top of that the farmers around are out shooting so shes a nervous wreck.