Preventing Thunder Phobia In Dogs

BANG!  For many years when I heard the crack of thunder I knew I was going to be in for a long night (or day).  My golden retriever, Theo had developed thunder phobia in 2001.  I dont mean he was a little nervous when he heard the rumbles of a storm, I mean Theo wanted to dig to China, crawl inside me, eat his way out of the house & at times I thought he was just going to explode!  It was awful.  Awful on him, me, the entire family.

Theo has since passed (2009), and to this day my fingers still start to tingle with a bit of anxiety when I hear that first boom.  But then I look down at Dexter snoozing away, oblivious to it all & I can go back to sleep.

In last months blog post-No Worries, I touched on preventing behavioral problems in your puppy.  This post will focus on preventing thunder phobia in your puppy, or newly adopted adult dog.  This is not to address issues for a dog who already has anxiety associated with storms.

Prevention, prevention, prevention!  I say it all the time to my dog training students.  When you are blessed with a dog or puppy who does not have an issue with a common behavior problem, reward that response & build on that.  Students often say, "but hes fine in a storm."  Im thrilled, I really am, but we need to keep that behavior strong.  We are building habits and emotional responses to things (storms in this lesson), so it takes a lot of repetition to get our famous Pavlov response working.

Thunder phobia in dogs....I personally think that is one of the hardest behavioral issues to treat in dogs.  Particularly if you live in a place where storms are frequent.  Unfortunately we cannot tell the storm, "ok, thats enough, not so loud" and control the intensity like we can when a dog is say reactive around other dogs.  We can control that situation.

Preventing thunder anxiety in dogs doesnt take a lot of work on your part.  It does take a bit of planning & good timing on your execution.  It is a multipronged approach.  I will outline just some of the things you can do to prevent this devastating anxiety in your dog.

Preventing Thunder Phobia In Dogs Exercise #1

1. Always work below your dogs anxiety levels.  Meaning if you see any signs of anxiety (darting eyes, panting, restlessness, clingingness etc), its too much.  You need to make it less stressful (usually quieter).
2. Get some high value treat rewards.  High value is something  your dog goes crazy over. I usually start with looking for meat products.  I tend to do cooked chicken, salmon, steak....we need to make a real impact here.  Not just, a regular dog biscuit.  
3. Find various recorded storm sounds.  You can purchase thunderstorm CDs or my favorite these days is Youtube.  One important aspect here is to make sure you use different tracks, so its different at each lesson.
4. Be normal.  Dont let your dog see you grab the high value dog treats, prepare your thunderstorm recording....try to not make it a big deal about your setup.  You want it to feel real.
5. Turn your recording on very low, very low.  I dont want you to scare your dog!  Be ready.  As soon as you hear a little rumble, toss your dog a tiny piece of treat (high value dont forget).  Repeat with the next rumble.  Dont worry if now your dog is at your feet.  You can smile at him, but just keep tossing the treats when you hear that rumble, or boom!  Even if he starts to offer other behaviors, barking, sitting, shaking, you are just going to ignore those.



Photo By M. Lewinski

6. Repeat this process as often as you can think about it.  Try changing locations/rooms & dont forget to change that track!  You dont always have to be sitting down either to do it.  Remember we want your dog to think this is normal.  

Preventing Thunder Phobia In Dogs Exercise #2-The Real Deal

Ok,  the real storm (or hopefully just a little rain & rumble) is here!  Just like in your previous exercises, we are conditioning your dog that the rumbles & booms of thunder predict good things.  Crazy good things!  Each rumble....toss of treat.  Just like before.  The difference is, you wont be able to predict how loud those booms are going to be.  So, if its pretty loud, I usually jackpot.  Treat, treat, treat.  Wow!

What if this storm is happening at 3am?  Yes, you guessed it, I grab the peanut butter jar, and give a lick after each rumble.  Sidebar-in puppyhood, or when you just adopt an adult dog, I highly recommend watching the weather stations to know when those storms are going to happen.  Again, you want to be prepared.  Believe me, doing this at 3am a few times is worth it.  If your dog develops thunder phobia, you WILL be up at 3am for storms.....

Alternative Rewarding System.  There have been dogs who respond well to a good game of play during a storm as a way of prevention.  However, I typically prefer to do more rewarding after a boom, and maybe some play pre & post storm.  But if you have a crazy play driven dog, this may be a good route.  The same goes for a continual reward during a storm like chewing on a high value stuffed Kong.  But again, we are not targeting the booms quite as much.  But I have been known to reward for booms for say 1/2 hour, then give a Kong for the remainder of the storm & toss meat for booms too!

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