What To Do If Your Dog Is Afraid Of Thunder, Lightning, and Storms

• Is your dog afraid of thunder?
• Is your dog afraid of lightning?
• Is your dog afraid of storms?

Does your dog bark or whine when it thunders? Run around like a wild dog or pace during storms? Hide during lightning storms? Salivate excessively? Cower, tremble, shake, or try to climb on your lap during any type of rain storm?

If so, then your dog is experiencing what is commonly referred to as thunderstorm anxiety, also known in general as noise anxiety. But the good news is you are not alone. It is estimated there are around 10 million pets who suffer from this problem and are seeking solutions to help their scared companions.

Your dog's anxiety comes from the sound and vibrations caused by the thunder, the light from the lightning, the sound of the rain hitting the roof, house, and ground, and/or the pressure changes that come with a storm.

For some dogs, it is so bad that they try to escape - by breaking through windows and clawing at walls. There is no rationality going on here in the dog's mind. The only thing they are thinking about is survival - be that from escaping or hiding. Now, this is the extreme - but it just goes to show that it is a very SERIOUS problem.

Hopefully, your dog is not at that extreme, but that doesn't mean they are not in pain. Think about how you feel when you are truly scared.

And a dog is not born with thunderstorm anxiety. As a matter of fact, it can develop at just about any time in a dog's life. So even if your dog has been fine for years, there may come a time, when out of the blue, your dog is now scared of thunderstorms!

And it's more than just your dog acting crazy - it is VERY STRESSFUL for your dog. And being under stress like that is unhealthy for your dog and can lead to other problems, both physical and psychological.

But don't try to reassure your dog by coddling them!! This only reinforces their thinking that something is wrong and they should be afraid. You really need some sort of dog anxiety treatment if you want to help your pet.

If your dog is afraid of thunder, it may not be only the noise but the vibrations that are felt when the thunder happens close to home. Remember, animals are much more sensitive to vibrations than humans are - which is why they tend to know when bad weather is coming much sooner than people.

With lightning, dogs are not alone. Many humans are also very scared of the sudden brightness of lightning. If your dog is afraid of lightning, then don't be surprised if they also show anxiety symptoms with flashes from cameras.

Storms, in general, have many subtle properties that humans don't pick up, but animals, like our pets, do. These include pressure changes (which tends to affect dogs with arthritis) and vibrations, which are clues to animals that they need to be aware of approaching danger.

Either your dog is responding to the vibrations or relating something bad or scary that happened to them when it thundered some time in the past. Either way, some sort of conditioning is going to be required to help your dog overcome his phobia.

A great way to help your pet deal with noise/thunderstorm/lightning anxiety is by using a pressure wrap.

These act almost like how swaddling helps calm a baby, except that a dog's legs are not contained. The pressure wrap provides gentle, reassuring pressure around your pet's chest, and this provides the calming feeling that an infant feels when swaddled.

This is a great method to try before trying any drugs, and will be less expensive as well. Behavior modification is another method to help dogs deal with noise anxiety, but these take time to see any difference. These pressure wraps have been known to work, in some cases, the first time, while others take a couple of times wearing them.

Overall, these pressure wraps boast around a 85% success rate with dog noise anxiety.