Nine Steps to Calm Your Dog in Thunder
If your dog is fearful of thunder he or she is exhibiting one of the most common phobias that affect dogs.
1. Predict the problem
When you compare your dog’s fear of thunder with other noises that may worry it (such as fireworks), thunder is different.
Thunder is reasonably predictable because warnings are given via weather forecasts, the radio and you can look at weather or radar websites.
Thunderstorms
- Storms rarely occur in the mornings
- They commonly occur in the afternoons and but often enoough in the evenings or overnight
- Weather forecasters over-predict thunderstorms (which is better than under-prediction)
The major problem with thunderstorms is that they stimulate all four of a dog’s senses:-
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Your dog hears the thunder booms and lightning cracks
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Your dog will see the ominous darnkess before the storm
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Your dog will feel the storm if he or she is left outside during a storm
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And your dog will smell the approach of the storm which is why your dog is so able to predict the storm before you can.
So that means, predict the storm, take action BEFORE the storm arrives, and above all remove your dog from your garden and place in a safe sound-proof location.
2. Be home with your dog
The worst problem is when your dog experiences a thunder strom when you are away from him or her.
Your dog will be much more fearful if left alone during a thunderstorm.
So, if you have predicted that a storm will occur, be home with your dog at that time if at all possible or have someone care for your dog.
3. Remove your dog from your garden
Dogs left outside during a thunderstorm are much more seriously affected than dogs which are inside.
Dogs left outside will attempt to escape form your yard or to ‘inscape’ into your home. While the damage to your fences and your home can be extreme and costly it’s the damage your dog could do to itself that is dangerous – or deadly.
The best location for your dog is the most sound-proof area of your home.
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4. Place your dog in a sound-proof Den
You know thunder is noisy, looks scary, smells a lot and your dog will feel it if outside.
So an obvious strategy is to move your dog to a sound-proof room inside your home where he or she will not hear, see, smell and feel the storm.
Th,is room is called a Den and more infomation is available on this post – The Denning Principle.
Go from room to room to find the most sound-proof location but you are likely to find that:-
- Brick walls are much better at sound proofing than timber walls. Block walls (e.g. Besser block walls) are often the best
- Walk in wardrobes are often very sound proof because they are surrounded by many walls and the texture of your clothes (and the smell of your shoes) may help your dog to be comforted
- Stop firework noise entering through windows of your Den by covering the windows with heavy curtains.
- Foam rubber cut to fit the window cavity is ideal
- Cut an old mattress to fit or visit your local foam rubber shop with the dimensions of the window and they will cut the foam rubber to fit.
- If needed build a sound-proof Den. using sound proof wall cladding. You local hardware store will help with that.
The adjacent image indicates how one of my clients built a sound-proof Den under his double bed. Perfect!
5. Use masking noise
Another way of reducing the noise is to mask it by adding other noises to the Den your dog is in. This is the same principle as the music used in shopping centres to mask the noise of activity in the shop.
That can be done by:
- playing a radio or television in the den
- having an air conditioner running
- have a pedestal fan running (that also blows away the odour of the storm)
- or sometimes using a recording of a storm at low volume
6. Use Pheromones and non-medication calmatives
Dog pheromones (called theDog Appeasing Pheromone or Adaptil) can be very effective for calming noise-fearful dogs with up to 70% effectiveness. The diffuser, the collar and the spray can all be effective but there are different strategies for each.
In addition, the nutritional calmative, Zylkene can be beneficial.
7. Use medication where needed
If your dog is seriously affected by storms your vet will be able to prescribe medication that may help.
Generally speaking a ‘when you need it’ occasional -use medication can be helpful but ..
- Ask your vet to avoid heavy tranquilisers if possible – some tranquilisers can make dogs more sensitive to noises
- You MUST test the dose needed BEFORE the event to know:-
- what dose is effective
- how long it takes to work and
- how long it lasts for
- That will allow you to use the right dose long enough before the fireworks to help your dog.
Recently, a fast-acting gel has been produced which can be very useful. This is a prescrition-only medication but ask your vet for more details.
Combining Adaptil pheromones with prescription medications provides science-based solutions for dogs suffering fireworks phobia and gives a double-up benefit that can provide the most powerful non-medication approach to noise fear solutions.
8. Practice calming strategies
When your dog is panicking, you need to help it do be calm.
Thus, your job is to do whatever you need to do to create calmness.
Sometimes (even ‘often’) that DOES mean giving the dog comfort and attention when it’s panicking.
Many advise that ‘praising the fear’ by giving a panicking dog attention rewards the panic
That is nonsense.
A panicking dog is not able to learn. He or she is far too ‘emotional’ to consider you may be rewarding its fear
You may be able to calm your dog by:-
- Using calming massage concentrating on the major muscle groups such as the cheek, forehead, neck and shoulder muscles (refer to the video in this section)
- Using a novel device called a Calming Cap in combination with a Gentle Leader
- these two devices used together can have a significant calming effect on dogs but your dog needs to be trained to happily accept both before the thunderstorm event
9. Teach your dog to tolerate thunder noise
Desensitising your dog to the noise of thunder is often possible using quality recordings of thunder. These recordings are incorporated into the Frightful Noises Audio CD.
There are more details on this process on this facts sheet Noise Annoys but a summary is:-
- Determine if the recording, when played through your audio equipment, does alarm your dog but do this once only.
- If so, expose your dog to a level of the recording that causes NO fear and repeat that daily for a few days.
- Then incrementally increase the volume of the noise daily while ensuring your dog remains calm and content.
- Once successful, the same noise tracks can be used mask the noise of thunder as detailed in section 5 above.
- If the recording played through your audio equipment does NOT alarm your dog, then you can immediately move to using this as a masking (see section 5).
Solving fear of noises is very complex and difficult. If you want personal assistance with this problem please contact our consulting rooms on (07) 3341 9153 or complete an assessment form that you will find linked to the menu above.
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