In the last 6 months, my 9 year old Golden Retriever has developed a fear of thunder storms. Before now she has never had a problem and suddenly she's shaking, panting heavily, hiding under the table and refusing food during the storms. This dog has never refused food in her life. One theory is that it's nervous energy as she is a bit of a nervous dog but that was kept under control with competitive obedience until I went to Uni. My parents don't work with her like I do, but I've also been at Uni for 3 years and this is just starting now. Thunder wraps and Rescue Remedy calm her down enough that she'll come out from under the kitchen table and she will half-heartedly do obedience exercises, but she continues show the other symptoms. She recently had a full blood panel done that came back clean, is in excellent physical condition and is showing no outward signs of age other than a bit of grey on her face. If anyone could provide any insight on why this might have come on so suddenly and suggest any possible solutions, it would be much appreciated.

My little terrier was always too full of herself to be scared of thunder, that is until I began to crate her 4 weeks ago after a leg op. If there is a storm ( and there have been quite a few in my area recently ) I let her out of the crate and let her wander round on the flat or lift her onto the settee with me if she looks as though she is about to jump ( no no !!) But she has started in these few weeks to be absolutely terrified of storms and heavy noisy rain. She too shakes, pants and shows all the sign of stress. I did once leave her in her crate and put a blanket over it in the hope she would feel secure, but she cried so much I had to let her out. I have no idea where this fear came from as her companion cocker spaniel is oblivious to storms and carries on as normal, so she hasn't copied it from her.

No help to you I'm afraid re your Goldie, just commiserations

I cant offer you a huge amount of help but one thing NOT to do is reassure her (as cruel as it seems). She will not see that you are reassuring her that she will be ok but will interpret it as rewarding her that she should be afraid. Perhaps taking her somewhere where she feels safe?a darkened room perhaps? I know you can get CDs with noises like thunder storms/fireworks etc to use to get pupppies used to the noise. Perhaps you could get hold of one and 'go back to basics' with her?
x

Has her hearing been tested (the only way really is by BAER, whcih will need to travel to somewhere that can do it). 

A lot of dogs as their hearing deteriorates with age become afraid of noises like thunder, gunshot etc.

Also have you tried Zilkene or Adaptil?

The old idea of not reassuring a dog is untrue - this is not a conscious behaviour as such but a reaction to the emotional of fear, they need reassurance so they should have it.  It doesn't make them worse - if anything it will make them better and I'll vouch for that with Remy, he is always better if he can sit on me and have calming strokes.

Ok, don't go all 'goooooood boy!  Well done!' OTT but a soothing, reassuring presence is beneficial in these cases.  Reassuring a frightened child doesn't encourage them to be more frightened, and dogs are no different :-)

To the OP - I went through this with my oldie, never had a problem with storms until we got caught out in one a few months ago and she was scared from then on.  I gave her valerian tincture to calm her nerves and a kong to distract her and she was just fine, I think with her part of it was that her hearing wasn't so good so the storm sounded a little different and harder to make out, if that makes sense (she wasn't as sure what it was, so it became scary).

Just to add - if you feel she needs something stronger and ask the vet, do NOT give her ACP under any circumstances - this will sedate her body but not her mind, and can induce a state of fear by itself, so you'd end up with a dog that is still afraid, totally aware of what's going on but unable to move around and do anything about it.  Most vets won't suggest it now but some still do.

>Reassuring a frightened child doesn't encourage them to be more frightened, and dogs are no different :-)

Actually it can; so often I've seen parents making a big deal when their child falls over, for example, so the child thinks there's something to be really upset about (it must be bad because mum and dad are upset). An 'oh dear, never mind, rub it better' attitude is far better. Parents also actually teach children fear. In some cases this is good (mind the traffic) but it can be bad; children aren't naturally scared of spiders or dogs, but they learn to be from the reactions they see around them. And as you say, dogs are no different; picking up a little dog as soon as a big dog approaches teaches the little dog that it's a serious moment and they need to react aggressively.

Jeangenie,that reminded me of my sister-mum was a nervous type who was forever saying"dont do that,you ll slip!(fall,choke,etc!)I was a more rebel type but my sister says she became scared to run,till quite a lot older!
Eta - And I became scared of spiders because my mum freaked every time she saw one!

I agree both with Nikita and JG as I think both are correct but you need to put the two together. You shouldn't fuss your dog by saying 'ah, its okay, there, there' or worse, 'good dog'. I think, as JG suggests playing things down is better but I would not, as some suggest, advocate completely ignoring the dog. A calm, secure presence is what is necessary; if the dog wants to lie close to you and get a cuddle I think that is fine too- so long as you are not fussing.

As Brainless says, in a dog of 9 years old it is likely that hearing changes mean that the thunder is being heard as a completely new noise and the dog has not had the opportunity before to get used to that noise. Obviously the older a dog gets the harder it can be for them to adapt to new experiences, particularly if these seem threatening/scary. For seriously panicked dogs some kind of pharmaceutical intervention might help, but the problem there is you need to get the medicine in them considerably before the thunder starts. If the dog has always been a happy character before it could be that distraction in the form of a favourite game/activity can help convince them it is nothing to worry about. Turning up the volume of the radio/TV and putting on the washing machine can also help screen the noise.

>A calm, secure presence is what is necessary; if the dog wants to lie close to you and get a cuddle I think that is fine too- so long as you are not fussing.

Agreed; ignore the fear but not the dog.

In a nutshell JG:)

I'm laughing reading your comments Jean, re children and fear. I was afraid of spiders as a child, probably because I saw my sisters acting afraid of them, and my mam, god bless her, sat me down and told me they are nice little animals, and just want to be my friend. She went off into the kitchen then and when she came back I had filled a little toy train I had with LOADS of spiders from outdoors who were now my pets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!hahahahaha

It all goes to show that many fears are inadvertently taught. If it's a fear of tigers, then it's a rational fear and not one which will affect your quality of life, but if it's a fear of loud noises, or dogs, then it does affect the sufferer.

My GR has also developed a fear of thunder and I don't ignore him when he is visibly stressed. What I do now is give him a grooming session - he lies down and I gently brush and stroke him so he is reassured by my presence and the attention he is receiving is something he would normally get during a grooming session anyway. He loves being groomed  and finds it generally calming under normal circumstances and during a storm it stops him pacing and climbing - he will try to get away from the thunder by climbing onto tables, desks etc.

I was also, originally, under the impression that one was to ignore the stressed behaviour but he was so distressed it was impossible to ignore so abandoned that method and the new approach seems to settle him without reinforcing his fear.

You're doing the right thing by not 'comforting' him as such, but distracting him by doing something normal that he enjoys. You've taught him that thunder means a pleasurable activity, so that's good. :-)

I'm thankful that as Piggy's lost a lot of his hearing with age he's now not bothered by thunder or heavy rain (which to him heralded thunder) and fireworks. His life and ours is a lot less stressed.

I also don't necessarily think it is just the noise - I always know when a thunder storm is approaching long before it actually gets here as my dog starts to show signs of unease. I think it is also the change in air pressure that he can detect long before the storm arrives. He is also frightened of fireworks following a horrible incident when he was 8 months old and I am convinced it's not the bangs that frighten him but the percussive reverberations - he has no problem with gunshots nor bird scarers only thunder and fireworks :-(

We had a cat who used to retreat to the back of the airing cupboard about two hours before a thunderstorm; she was an excellent barometer..

Harley, no I don't think it's just the noise either, I think changes in air pressure, low rumbles and vibration all have an effect too in that they might make the dog uneasy (as low noises and vibration tend to make most species) and then the dog might learn that these changes signal the coming of thunder, so they develop fear of fear, which is the underpinning of all phobias.

However, the key thing is that loud thunderclaps initially startle the dog and then because the pattern of noise is unpredictable to them they become more and more sensitive to it- it becomes fear of being startled. If as pups they have been gradually desensitized to the noise, or they are just very laid-back, non-reactive types, they can be helped to learn that the noise is not threatening and be distracted from settling into the a red alert mindset where they are waiting for the next clap of thunder and which makes every noise seem much louder.

Older dogs can have significant changes in hearing and so old familiar sounds are suddenly changed and a fear reaction to what appears a new and threatening sound can emerge. The dog cannot understand that the new noise is simply a variation of the old noise.

With all of these we can help to teach the dog that the noise is non-threatening by our calm actions and lack of reaction to the noise and to their fear; by distracting them and making thunder signal the arrival of something they find highly rewarding, and by screening the noise of thunder by turning up household appliance noises they are used to.

There are some types of dogs that are hyper sensitive to noise and who have much greater fear reactions. There is even some evidence that unlike most dogs, these unlucky animals have brain components that can never learn to screen out the startling noise of thunder as non-threatening. In fact these dogs may start to generalise their fear of thunder to other loud noises, until they are almost walking bags of nerves, always on red alert for the next loud noise. It is felt that these dogs might be helpedbest by a mix of medical and behavioural intervention.

Harley, meant to say also that with your dog it might be the mixture of light, noise and as you say, reverberation. Lots of dogs dislike the fizzing and high intensity noise of some fireworks, as well as the screaming sounds some can make. We have to remember that unless carefully socialised and desensitized to these unnatural sounds many dogs will understandably react as thought the end of the world is nigh.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Harley, meant to say also that with your dog it might be the mixture of light, noise and as you say, reverberation. Lots of dogs dislike the fizzing and high intensity noise of some fireworks, as well as the screaming sounds some can make. We have to remember that unless carefully socialised and desensitized to these unnatural sounds many dogs will understandably react as thought the end of the world is nigh.

As a pup born in August he was brilliant with fireworks - we would sit outside and watch them and he never turned a hair. That all went horribly wrong one summer evening in June - just as my daughter came home and opened the front door at 10:00pm a near neighbour let off a 50 bang repeater firework totally unexpectedly which not only frightened all the animals but caused people to come out of their houses wondering what the noise was - I have honestly never, ever heard such a loud firework. Our young dog just bolted - my daughter managed to grab his collar but just couldn't hold him and fell over breaking her fingers and H just ran. He ran down the middle of the road and disappeared around a corner out of sight. We spent the whole night looking for him and putting up over 100 posters and then the next morning I received a phone call to say someone two roads over had found him in the river at the bottom of their garden unable to get out due to the concrete embankments. They had spotted him when they drew back their bedroom curtains and managed to get him out. He was a quivering wreck for days and I was unable to get him out of the house at all for a week but gradually he became his normal laid back self and is fine now except with fireworks and thunder :-(

Thanks everyone!

I don't make a fuss over her, but do attempt to distract her by asking her to do little "jobs" then rewarding. Unfortunately, the fact that she's now refusing food is making this increasingly difficult, as she'll listen to me no matter what but now seems to shake and pant heavily the entire time she's doing what I ask her to.

Will certainly look into having her hearing tested. She hasn't shown any signs of hearing issues otherwise but definitely something to look into. The other interesting thing is that while the clap of thunder is actually happening, she stops shaking and panting heavily then starts up again as soon as it's finished. I don't know if it's her waiting for the thunder again, feeling the electricity in the air, or what but she doesn't actually seem to be more bothered by the thunder so much as the whole storm.

Trying to go the natural route for remedies... with two cancer-prone breeds we don't use any chemicals with them unless absolutely necessary. Any recommendations for herbal calming things that actually work are always appreciated. Rescue Remedy is supposed to be great, but didn't seem to do much this time. Then again I gave it to her a little while after the storm started and found it in the back of the medicine cabinet so it might have been a bit past it's prime.

As I understood it Zylkene is a natural type remedy, and Adaptil a pheremone.

Harley, this is a perfect illustration of how dogs can become terrified after being badly startled added to the cumulative association of more trauma. That one repeat bang was obviously far louder, as you say, than he was used to and so to him was a new noise and a highly scary one. He did what animals do and ran for his life to escape it. Unfortunately his experience of being trapped in water etc.. will all have added to the terror of the experience, so no wonder he is terrified of anything that sounds remotely similar. Actually it is a testimony to the dog's temperament that he has not become terrified of all loud noises.

GldensNScotties,

Yes, she now associates all those other changes with the terrifying noise that she also knows will startle her. So the effect is fear of fear. Once the thunder clap has happened she temporarily relaxes until the next one. We can have a similar response with something like static. Of itself it is not agonising but it startles us and we begin to dread the next static shock and the dread makes it worse. Another example is balloons banging. Many of us will cover our ears to try to avoid the sound. We know it won't kill us but the noise makes us 'jump' nonetheless and anticipation of the noise can be worse than the noise itself. Obviously the difference is that a dog is not so clearly able to know that a scary sound is non-threatening, so the effect can be worse for the dog.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Actually it is a testimony to the dog's temperament that he has not become terrified of all loud noises.

He has an amazing temperament and is also an all round amazing  dog :-) :-)

Have you tried simply drowning the noise out? With the radio perhaps?

Having owned 12 Goldens, it is something I have experienced with many of them as they got older. Their hearing definitely changes and possibly distorts with age and you can do nothing but calmly reassure her until the fear passes. It sounds awful, but often they develop deafness when really old and the problem is much less then.

Will certainly give playing music a try! Haven't done that one yet.
Has anyone had success with providing the dog with some kind of "safe place" such as a vari-kennel before? She did seem to relax a little bit when I brought her up to my room and put her on my bed with a thunder wrap on. Though I also went and took a shower so I'm wondering if it was more that the shower was drowning out the sound. She has woken me up at night because we've had a storm and just being with me on the bed did not calm her down then.

As of right now, her hearing does not appear to be affected in any way but I suppose with a sensitive dog like her it would only take a slight change in hearing to produce a problem. I generally act very calm/confident around her, but she doesn't respond to it in the same way that she does with me when we've been working through other issues related to her being a bit of a nervous dog.