The Terrible Thunderstorms

[CarCarDawn]

Hi! We had a horrendous thunderstorm roll through here just a few hours ago. Riley just turned 1 year old and really never showed any signs of fear or agitation. Today - - however - - was different.

He started to shake and run throughout the house - - upstairs - - downstairs - - in the cellar - - through the kitchen - - out onto the porch - - down the hallway - - etc. etc. etc.

The only thing I could do was hold him and try to calm him as the storm passed - - what has been your experience with dogs and thunderstorms????????!!!!

[hallswel]

Rebel is 18 months now and had never had a problem but we had a bad storm and the lighting seemed to agitate him the most. We have a "Florida" room where his crate and favorite chair is and I sat out there with him for a while and finally I realized that the lighting was the problem so I decided he could sleep under the bed and he did just that.

He does bark and growl at flashlight beams and car lights at night. I think maybe it was the bright flashes of light and once he was under the bed he was happy.

[CathyAnn]

Ohhhh! My oldest cairn, 12 years, goes bonkers (and that's putting it mildly)! Barks and barks and barks! Paces, pants, charges the door to get outside. You name it, she does it. The ONLY thing that will shut her up is holding her. But, you have to be standing up and walking...just like rocking a baby.

Unfortunately, we have even resorted to tranquilizers at our vets recommendation. And, those don't work some of the time, either. Have to give her one 2 hours BEFORE and we just hate doing that to her. There have been times when we have drugged her and then the storms miss our area.

Plus, she is getting old, so it scares me to give her meds like that. But, our vet feels that it is harder on her NOT having sedatives-the stress of it all.

We have had countless sleepless nights here.....sigh.

Cathy

[wags]

I thought we were the only wackos that rocked our dog. My husband rocks him to sleep when he's agitated and overtired.

But, so far, bad weather doesn't bother Wes. Nothing really bothers him- except strangers. That makes for a great watchdog. But try taking a watchdog on excursions where there are lots of people.

Can you spell e-m-b-a-r-r-a-s-s-m-e-n-t?

[Rob D.]

We just had a thunderstom roll through our city 3 hours ago.

Lots of lightning and thunder that scared the heck out of my wife, you know those real close ones. Murphy just looked at me, rolled over, took a big breath and went back to sleep.

My wife just came out of the bedroom and Murphy was all over her like a bee to

honey, he's in his kennel at night so he just barks a lot. The thing is, I'm upstairs and I guess he was letting me know she was up. He's sleeping again.

Good night!!

[Mama Kim]

Piper pays absolutely no attention to storms but our previous cairn, Lucy, was terrified of them. Lucy had never been afraid of them until we had a tornado pass nearby when we lived in Atlanta. She got out in the middle of the storm and ever since then was terrified of storms. Poor thing, she would shake and tremble and pant. It was really pitiful. We had to put her in our walk-in closet where there were no windows in order to get her to calm down at all. It was really sad to see. So now when it storms and Piper is oblivious to it all, I'm thankful. I remain calm myself, and just act as if nothing's amiss. She seems to take her cue from me. Once in a while she'll look up if a loud crack of thunder occurs but I just tell her to go to sleep (why is it always night time?) and she does. I hope she continues this way.