What helps your anxious dog during thunderstorms?

March 4, 2024 7:57 AM

What can I do to help my dog? More details inside.

I don’t know how she survived living rough outside, because she turns into an absolute slobbering nervous wreck when there’s a thunderstorm outside.

We’ve tried Adaptil, those calming spray things, trying to give her treats as a distraction (she’s too stressed to eat), a thunder shirt, closing all the curtains, a white noise machine, and nothing works. Right now she’s panting and drooling and shaking while pacing around the house and it’s breaking my heart. When she does get on the bed and stay there with me she’s shaking so hard that I can feel the vibrations even on the other side of the bed! And I have a memory foam mattress!

I got some gaba from the vet, but I really don’t like using it as you need to give it ahead of the trigger and sometimes the storm ends up not coming like the forecast says and she’s high for no reason. It’s not like a planned grooming visit or something.

What am I missing? What’s worked for you?

posted by antihistameme to Pets & Animals (21 answers total)

Oh and the calming chews also don’t work as she refuses to eat anything once she’s in this state. We also can’t use any cannabis-derived products for reasons.
posted by antihistameme at 7:58 AM on March 4

Oh, this is a tough one. Some dogs benefit from Sileo (you need about an hour's lead time, but they don't tend to get dopey otherwise, so it's more about timing and cost).
posted by praemunire at 8:00 AM on March 4

Those YouTube videos that are called things like TEN HOURS RELAXING MUSIC FOR PETS PIANO FOR DOGS ANXIETY RELIEF are very popular in this house. Same with the streams of generic spa music. Played VERY loud to drown down other noises. Dim the lights. After about 10 minutes, this consistently puts my dogs into low power mode.
posted by phunniemee at 8:33 AM on March 4

Have you started dopamine box training? Over time it can help (we’re using ours for garbage trucks passing right now.) Here’s a link I haven’t vetted but the technique is helpful.
posted by warriorqueen at 8:43 AM on March 4

My dog is tiny so YMMV, but I have to build a pillow and blanket fort around her and then sit next to said fort and pet/cuddle her and compress her with the pillows and make soothing sounds. Something about being physically surrounded seems to help her.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 9:01 AM on March 4

Caves/forts are good over here too. When our dog was more mobile he liked the part of the basement that qualifies as tornado shelter; now we have a folding gym mat we use to create a boxed-in area around a dog bed and give it a blanket roof. That plus chill music/TV turned up pretty high helps significantly.
posted by teremala at 9:08 AM on March 4

My dog visibly calms down when I put her thundershirt on. We use it for other triggers (thunder is like the one thing she's not afraid of...), but I think it's worth a shot here. It puts pressure around the dog's body in a way that feels safe and calming. I'd combine it with one or two other things--like, put it on her as soon as she starts getting worked up, then get her into a little pillow fort in the basement (a safe den) with distracting music/TV (drown out the thunder) and a frozen peanut butter or baby food kong (licking is calming for dogs).
posted by theotherdurassister at 9:28 AM on March 4

On the theory that this is a built in behavior that was selected for because it helped wolves escape fires caused by lightning by running to a safer place (which may explain the strength of her fear in terms of being trapped in the house and unable to run) you could try putting her in the bathroom with the shower on because lightning accompanied by heavy rain would have been much less dangerous.
posted by jamjam at 9:51 AM on March 4

For our old, anxious beagle it was a combination of a thundershirt and 10 hours of changing colors on youtube. The changing colors ended up being soothing and kind of drowned out lightning flashes because it ended up looking similar in the room. Working really well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5_kLgSn_SE
posted by Sreiny at 9:52 AM on March 4

Trazodone is really the only thing that truly chills out our thunderstorm / fireworks-phobic dog. It does take about an hour to kick in, though.

This stuff also helps take the edge off:
- Crate training, and/or giving her an enclosed area to hide in. We have an airline crate that our dog sleeps in, so she associates it with resting and safety. My brother's dog preferred to hide in the closet — probably because the clothes help reduce noise, and things that smell like her human were comforting.
- Being with her while being visibly unruffled. If we act worried or try to soothe her too much, it can make her feel like there's truly something to worry about. If we're there with her in the room but we're reading or doing a craft project, she'll pick up on our mood.

We didn't have much luck with music or white noise by themselves because the noise trigger was still audible, but being in the more soundproof basement with music on top of that does help.

Thundershirt didn't do much for us either, but what I've heard since is that you do have to condition the dog to associate the thundershirt with safety and good times first for it to be really effective.
posted by fifthpocket at 10:37 AM on March 4

Exposure training can help. It's a slow process and I wasn't able to make it work, but some folks can do so
posted by suelac at 10:40 AM on March 4

THere is a theory that the static in the air is one of the triggers, which is why dogs like to hide in bathrooms/behind toilets/in bathtubs/showers etc. So: static guard sprayed on the thundershirt and access to the bathroom or other tile/ceramic-heavy space.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:46 AM on March 4

I know you said treats don't work. Have you tried peanut butter? Spread it thin on something that she has to lick off. The act of licking itself, is soothing to dogs, and it may be distracting a bit. Licking is easier than trying to chew.
posted by hydra77 at 10:48 AM on March 4

Seconding Trazodone. It does take a little bit to kick in, but for our doggo it starts taking effect in less than an hour. It just totally zonks her out so she has a great peaceful nap and is totally unbothered by the thunder, fireworks, or whatever other scary thing is happening. Gabapentin takes the edge off for her, but Trazodone allows her to essentially just bypass the scary experience entirely. Heartily recommend.
posted by peperomia at 10:50 AM on March 4

My dog runs under our bed whenever there's thunder or fireworks. It's a cold wood floor so I'm planning to put a cozy pad under there for her. I've tried to comfort her with petting and words and snuggles but I think those only make ME feel less bad than actually help her. So if you can create a safe cave for your girl, maybe that's enough to help her weather the storm so you can go on with your day.

On preview, I'll second trazedone for anxiety, we give that to our dog before road trips because without it she always throws up in the car :-/ So it definitely can help. But it takes a good hour to kick in, and then she'll typically be lethargic for some time afterward.
posted by rouftop at 10:53 AM on March 4

Eileen Anderson's blog has a lot of useful posts about helping sound-phobic dogs. Some links I found useful (sorry for the absence of formatting, I'm on my phone):

Suggestions for sound masking: https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/2013/12/30/sound-sensitive-reactive-dogs/

"What Happened to Summer's Thunderstorm Fear?" https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/2014/04/03/dog-thunderstorm-phobia-fear/

"6 Ways to Prepare Your Dog for Fireworks Starting NOW" (she reposts this shortly before July 4th every year) https://eileenanddogs.com/6-ways-to-prepare-your-dog-for-fireworks/

Trainer John Visconti came up with this for his thunder-phobic dog: https://risingstardogtraining.com/reppep213/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Bunker.pdf
posted by henuani at 11:06 AM on March 4

fifthpocket's advice to remain chill and kind of ignore your dog echoes exactly what we were told. We hired an animal behaviourist because our dog became frantic to the point he sometimes became a danger to himself and to us. Turns out, some of that was on me for constantly petting and cooing, IOW proving that that "there must be something wrong if Mum's so worried about me."

The other thing they suggested was a cd (yes, this was decades ago, why do you ask?) of thunderstorms. We were instructed to put it on at an imperceptible (to us) volume, and ignore Spike the Wonder Dog except for tossing treats periodically. Time (starting at 10 minutes, i think?) and volume were to increase incrementally, and the "storm" was to stop at the first sign of distress. Go back a step if necessary. I can't vouch for how well it would've worked, as Spike crossed the Rainbow Bridge months later, but I'm happy to share this in his memory and hope it provides comfort for you and your pup.
posted by kate4914 at 11:53 AM on March 4

Your dog will, over time, see that you are not worried about thunder. Calmly read a book, play music, watch calm tv (not so much shooting or squealing tires). Make a special place, maybe under the bed, in a closet, where the dog can be in a den, in an enclosed comfy space. Use pillows and quilts to make it your-dog-sized. Dogs ordinarily live in dens. Sitting close to the dog is reassuring. The desensitizing process is a good idea,

My dog who had been a stray hid under the bed during fireworks and thunder. My recent dog would just sit really close to me on the couch, maybe put his head on my leg. Current dog is blase, unless fireworks take her food, she doesn't fear them.
posted by theora55 at 12:34 PM on March 4

We hired an animal behaviourist because our dog became frantic to the point he sometimes became a danger to himself and to us. Turns out, some of that was on me for constantly petting and cooing,

This advice is now somewhat deprecated, as I understand it. You aren't reinforcing extreme fear responses by providing comfort, because the dog isn't in control of them and can't choose or not choose to engage in them. The dog's refusing to take treats is a good sign that they're "over threshold," basically in the state where they aren't learning anything from you because their nervous system is on tilt.

However, I think the related/adjacent idea of minimizing arousal remains sound. I.e., comfort, but do it calmly. Stay as relaxed as possible. Avoid stacking any more triggers (my dog doesn't really care for being touched, so petting as a form of soothing, especially in stressful times, is right out). Try not to mirror anxiety back at him, because that does increase his sense that Bad Things May Be Going On.
posted by praemunire at 12:53 PM on March 4

Thirding trazadone…it’s a game changer but does need some lead time. What helped for us was what we call the pillow squish. We noticed that pup was trying to burrow under the pillows so we would let her and then gently lean on the pillow. Kind of like a human thundershirt. Tv on, be sure they can breathe and just chill till the rumbles quit. This worked for our girl. Good luck!
posted by pearlybob at 3:23 AM on March 5

Thank you all, so many great suggestions. We’ll be trying them all and hopefully something sticks.
posted by antihistameme at 8:57 AM on March 5